Thames Futures – a partnership between BRL, The Young Foundation and community members – began in 2019. Over the course of a year, a team of local Community Researchers spoke to over 400 residents about the hopes and dreams that people have for the area. The research created a Community Vision. This will be used to ensure that decisions made about the development at Barking Riverside have a positive social impact for everyone living, working and growing up in Thames Ward.

So far Barking Riverside has made over 50 project proposals that will help the Community Vision become a reality. In February 2022 a team of researchers will head out into Thames Ward to find out how things are shaping up against the Community Vision and to ask what more can be done. This will be repeated every year so that we can measure progress and ensure that we achieve our targets.

We believe that Thames Futures is a pioneering project, creating an important benchmark for how you can increase transparency and collaboration in areas experiencing growth and transformation.

'Winner of the Community-led Placemaking category at the Planning Awards 2021.'

Laila, Fatuma and Lizzie - community researchers, Thames Futures