“You hired someone from the local area? That’s nice”
International Women’s Day event organised by Faith, Beckton Parks
In all our projects when we’re working in a neighbourhood or with a community we don’t know or have established links in, we start by hiring a local producer to join our engagement team. This means the creation of a flexible job role which allows someone to shape where they live and help connect our engagement to established local networks they may be a part of. This makes total sense to us - we’re new to an area. We want to build trust and understanding of an area quickly. Supporting local people to help us do this in flexible, creative, paid ways to suit them makes total sense.
For this blog post I interviewed Faith Osazuwa about her role as Local Producer in our recent large scale engagement to shape the brief for the Beckton Parks masterplan for the London Borough of Newham.
Faith! Tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
I recently graduated from UCL with a degree in human geography. During my studies I volunteered for various charities, motivated by my passion for social justice and international development. I particularly enjoyed volunteering for Oxfam as a constituency campaigner and fundraising for NGOs supporting street children in Asia, Africa and South America. At the moment, In my spare time, I enjoy exploring London’s most toddler friendly spots with my son.
How did you hear about Young Producer role?
I was actually at a toddler group at Central Park and I got chatting to another mum who was a Geography teacher locally, she told me about the Beckton Parks consultation work and about you guys looking for a Local Producer and encouraged me to apply! I wasn’t really looking for a job because it’s difficult finding things that I can juggle alongside motherhood but I really liked the sound of it!
How would you describe the job in your own words?
I think it’s about connecting the team with my local knowledge and to people I know in the area. I can help the team better understand locals opinions and why they might feel that way. I can help them understand and bridge the pathways between local groups and Street Space. I’ve been constantly talking about Street Space when I’m out and about! It’s good to be able to give my perspective from having grown up here and sharing my lived experience. People like that I’ve lived here all my life and that you hired me - it shows that you’re working in an intentional way, being honest about the approach you’re taking - that’s nice.
What have been the main challenges?
There have been a few challenges - I was a bit taken aback, and a bit sad when at our first engagement pop up a woman came up who was really frustrated and angry at the council. She felt she’d been let down so many times - it’s scary to feel the weight of expectation - how can we make sure our listening and work isn’t ignored in the long term? That would add to the neglect already felt by people locally and feels like a big challenge. Another challenge is around speaking to people, and energising them around the potential to re-shape a park - here many people have their own issues and lots of people are difficult to engage as a result - it’s complicated!
What are you proud of?
I feel really proud of the meaningful conversations I’ve been able to have with such a huge range of people - I’ve really enjoyed these conversations. I’ve led interviews with parents of SEN children, older people, members of the Muslim community, with people working on other community projects. I’ve had to write up the conversations for the playbook to document them and that feels important. I was also really proud to have had the opportunity to run an event for International Women’s Day - I was so stressed about it but I learned so much having that responsibility! It was amazing to have an opportunity to talk to other women about how green spaces can help us to thrive - a subject I’m really passionate about.
How has this experience shaped what you’ll do next?
It’s honestly been the best first (real) job after graduating! An amazing opportunity to learn about how to deal with conflict, I’ve learnt so much from Sophie and her confidence in bringing people together to have difficult conversations. I’ve developed a lot of confidence in my skillset as well as practical skills like using google workspace etc. I’ve been able to fit this role alongside being a mum and I’d like to find things that help me to continue to do this, maybe in communications or campaigns - this role has really given me a lot of transferable skills and it was amazing I was asked at the start - what would I like to get out of this experience, that was really important.
Faith!