Description

Historic Coventry Trust are leading work on a complex holistic regeneration project ‘The Charterhouse Heritage Park project and Digital Creative Quarter’ that sets out to change Coventry’s image. The project is multi-faceted with many elements, based around the natural environment, sustainable travel and exercise/wellbeing combined with significant heritage assets boosting local pride and the visitor economy as part of City of Culture as well as the expansion of the Creative Quarter with the attraction of high quality jobs in digital industries. 28 hectares of deprived inner urban community planned to expand to 50 hectares linking Jaguar Land Rover World HQ with the Coventry city centre and University with a green sustainable corridor.

The issues we face are common to inner urban areas, with a very high number of parties and stakeholders involved and decision makers to influence – from community to major funders, from institutions such as the two Universities to the Environment Agency and Historic England, from the Wildlife Trust to local schools and the HE College, from landowners to digital SMEs.

Our main challenge is communication – namely the constraint of too many stakeholders to keep informed in an age of information overload with limited staff. The industry replicates past patterns and hasn’t changed the way it communicates in 30 years, it has just adapted to e-mail and digital pdf/dwg files. If anything the digital era has made the overload of material more accurate and it needs to adapt.

We are looking for possible range of innovative solutions that would provide means for easily explaining the project to the key stakeholders to get initial buy-in and continued support and sharing information that works for all of the stakeholders to keep them informed and involved with sufficient but not too much information. Set up and managed as a new way of involvement not just publicity.

Target

1) Coventry – St Michaels Ward. The Trust’s core project is the Heritage Park in the heart of the Charterhouse community. In order to sustain the revenue costs of the park and the Trust’s core costs, the Trust is now involved in a portfolio of heritage buildings in the city centre. Recent approval by The Council of the transfer of 22 heritage buildings and 5 development sites is the largest heritage asset transfer in the UK to date. This is a major part of the drive to boost tourism in the city and increase pride and well-being.
2) Coventry inner urban community – particularly young people with a major education and training programme from primary through to further education.
3) Primary partners are the local community groups and the Council – all of the Trustees are local as well.

Competencies

Historic Coventry Trust is an energetic charity and company that was launched in 2015 formed to acquire, restore and reuse Coventry’s heritage buildings, preserving them for future generations and contributing to Coventry’s economic, social and cultural enhancement. The Trust aims is to become the guardian of the city’s heritage in perpetuity – a local ‘National Trust’ and a strategic partner to enable regeneration of all of Coventry’s heritage.

The project is at the core of the trust whose activities are limited to Coventry.

The Trust, although only 5 years old, draws on the 30+ years experience of its chairman and key staff in the delivery of large urban regeneration projects.

Innovation

The industry hasn’t changed the way it communicates, it has just adapted to e-mail and digital files. The digital era has made the overload of material more accurate and it needs to adapt. The challenge is to find a new way to communicate bigger than a sound bite and smaller than a file dump.

We are looking for possible range of solutions that would enable:
• easy explaining the project to the key stakeholders to get initial buy-in and continued support. There are many and varied media that this could use e.g.computer gaming/virtual reality, animation, drone footage, artist design that could form a possible creative digital framework.
• information sharing that works for all of the stakeholders to keep them informed with sufficient but not too much information. 

Commitment

● Information, data and expertise on the issue
● Pro-bono consultancy / coaching of the selected SPs
● Connections to potential partners / investors
● Funding for increased support of the SPs or directly to the SPs
● Access to its own distribution channels or supply chain
● Endorsement and promotion

We are well connected to all of the local agencies, universities, council etc and have access to pro-bono from business and range of institutions across the city and nationally.

We are a social enterprise and aim to become self-sufficient within 5 years, generating revenue from restored historic buildings and innovative development. A successful solution trialed and tested with us as challenge owner during and beyond the social challenges platform grant, would enable to solution to be adapted by the wider industry and offer a huge potential for replication.

Compliance

Full compliance.