Cambridge 2030 vision aims to tackle inequality across city
A new initiative has been launched that aims to unite the Cambridge community to fight inequality and create a healthy and prosperous city.
Cambridge 2030 aims to bring together the public, private, voluntary and community sectors to plug gaps in provision and resources in the city.
Speaking on behalf of Cambridge 2030, Simon Humphrey, senior manager of sustainability at Arm, said: “The city’s world standing as an academic and innovation hub, and its continued economic growth, have resulted in a massive gulf between the wealth and prosperity of those people enjoying success and those who are living in poverty.
“This is not a situation we are proud of and it is time to take decisive action to affect positive change. The opportunities that exist in a great city like Cambridge for some are not being realised for others.”
The initiative also aims to increase Cambridge’s progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals), which will drive change towards a more equal and inclusive city.
Cambridge 2030 will encourage collaboration between existing organisations working in the city’s communities and larger organisations that have the resources to offer support. The initiative will work to identify where there are gaps in provision and where the capacity could be built to have greater impact, and then direct additional resources into those areas.
Simon explained that the concept was born from conversations between himself, Conscious Communications managing director, Alison Taylor, and Robert Marshall, of the Marshall Group.
Alison said: “Working with schools across Cambridge I have seen the transformative impact that well-conceived collaborations between the maintained and private schools can have on the opportunities and aspirations of young people in our most disadvantaged communities. It is this collaborative effort, directed by a collective mission, that we need to escalate to deliver real and lasting change in Cambridge.
“Nowhere else in the UK are public, private, voluntary and community sectors working together to address the Global Goals. Yet it is only through this combined approach that we will be able to reach the targets we and 192 other countries have signed up to.
“I’d like to see Cambridge leading the way, developing a model that works, that can be measured, and that can be replicated in the context of other parts of the country and the world.”
Founding and supporting partners of Cambridge 2030, which will be involved in steering the direction and delivery of the programme, include Abbey People, Allia, Arm, Cambridge Ahead, Cambridge Commons, Cambridge Network, Cambridge Past, Present & Future, Cambridge Sustainable Food, Cambridge United Community Trust, CHS, CoFarm, Conscious Communications, Groundwork East, Howard Group, It Takes a City, Marshall Group, Mills & Reeve and YMCA.
In 2018, Cambridge was declared the most unequal city in the UK, for the second year running, by Centre for Cities.
Cambridge 2030 will officially launch in January 2020, and its first phase of action will be around promoting wellbeing for all, beginning before birth.
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