Our external impact

Cambridge 2030

Cambridge is known to be Britain’s most unequal city.

Conscious Communications (CC) founded community interest company, Cambridge 2030, to bring public and private sectors together with charity and community interest organisations, in collaborative action to bridge gaps in provision and resources, increase local progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and deliver a more equal and inclusive city.

The work of Cambridge 2030 aligns with CC’s values, provides a platform for positive thought leadership including the podcast, Cambridge – in Pursuit of Equality, and enables the whole team to engage with projects that deliver positive impact for those, particularly children and young people, living in underprivileged communities.

Below are examples of projects we have been involved with.

Digital Drive

At the start of the global pandemic, around 8,000 children and young people across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough did not have a laptop or PC and over 3,000 did not have access to the internet at home to enable them to access lessons.

So, Cambridge 2030, in partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council, Peterborough City Council, the Cambs Youth Panel and Cambridge Digital Partnership, launched the Digital Drive Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, to find laptops and provide internet access so that children could access their schoolwork at home. The second-hand laptops donated and refurbished through the campaign became the child/young person’s own to keep. Cash donations were used to purchase more laptops and internet access, which were then donated to schools for onward distribution to children who needed them.

In the first few months of the Digital Drive:

over £567,000 was raised
3,000 laptops were donated
460 routers were distributed.

The Digital Drive continues with a focus on encouraging organisations to embed the recycling of their technology within standard business operations.

Industry and education partnership

North Cambridge Academy (NCA) is the secondary school at the heart of the King’s Hedges and Arbury community, which is among the most deprived in Cambridge.

Approximately half of all students at NCA are eligible for free school meals (the national average is 24%). The global pandemic exacerbated the challenges and further limited the life chances, as well as the mental and physical health and wellbeing, of many young people.

To help address the issues and increase the opportunities for young people, Cambridge 2030 brokered a long-term partnership between NCA, Stephen Perse Foundation (SPF) and Costello Medical.

The partnership has evolved to include specific subject tuition and support, work experience and career mentoring, and 100% bursaries for students from disadvantaged backgrounds to study at SPF’s sixth form.

iGlü

Members of the Cambs Youth Panel have developed a concept for a community youth facility, designed by young people for young people, called the iGlü. The aim is for iGlü to provide young people with a weatherproof, warm, safe space, with free Wi-Fi, for year-round healthy social engagement, as well as mentoring and counselling.

In 2023, Cambridge 2030 introduced Cambs Youth Panel to Railpen, manager for the railways pension scheme and significant land-owner/developer in Cambridge, responsible for the planned redevelopment of the Beehive Centre.

A workshop was held with the developer’s architects and members of Cambs Youth Panel to co-design Cambridge’s first iGlü, which will be located at the Beehive Centre when the site is redeveloped, with a temporary unit in-situ during construction.

This is the first of several iGlü’s that Cambridge 2030 and Cambs Youth Panel plan to establish across the city, helping to keep young people occupied, off the streets and out of trouble.

North Cambridge Health and Wellbeing Partnership

The North Cambridge Health and Wellbeing Partnership is a partnership between North Cambridge Academy (NCA), CoFarm, Cambs Youth Panel (iGlü) and Cambridge Sustainable Food (CSF), managed and overseen by Cambridge 2030. The partnership will manage the co-creation and co-location of a CoFarm and an iGlü on NCA’s grounds, and the provision of outdoor and indoor farming and cookery skills development, counselling and mentoring, providing the multiple benefits of:

a healthy outdoor growing/farming space for engagement with positive, practical activities and skills development;
a dedicated space that embraces technology, for year-round social engagement, mentoring and counselling;
hands-on education and food/nutrition skills development to promote improved physical and mental health and wellbeing;
wider community involvement and engagement for mental health and wellbeing.

Primary School Transition

In 2023, Cambridge 2030 worked with The King’s Men, the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, in a pilot project designed to inspire a love of singing in children and help ease the stress of transitioning to secondary school. The project involved students from four primary schools – Shirley Community Primary School, Kings Hedges School, The Grove Primary School, and Chesterton Primary School, as well as students from local secondary school, North Cambridge Academy, in a series of interactive musical workshops.

The pilot used acapella and choral singing to help students combat anxiety, break down barriers, and build confidence and resilience, all while having fun.

Students of all abilities used singing techniques including posture, breathing and head vs chest voice; developed a sense of pitch and rhythm; performed music individually and as a group from memory; learned about choirs, musical terms and the role of the conductor.

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