Dr Geoffrey Ocen – Director of The Bridge New Deal for Communities
Background
Geoffrey is an experienced regeneration professional. He is an academic-turned-practitioner and possesses several post-graduate degrees including a PhD degree from Middlesex University, MSC degrees from South Bank University and Imperial College, London.
Geoffrey first joined the Bridge New Deal for Communities as Head of Strategy in October 2006. As Head of Strategy at The Bridge, Geoffrey supported The Bridge NDC Partnership Board in developing and implementing their strategic vision for regenerating the Seven Sisters area, he also took the lead on the succession and legacy strategy for the NDC.
Before joining The Bridge, he worked at O-Regen located in Waltham Forest, which has one of the most diverse communities in the UK. Geoffrey worked as Director of Economic Development; He managed a number of programmes and projects tackling worklessness, enterprise growth, health inequalities and capacity building.
Prior to working in Waltham Forest, Geoffrey worked as a Training Manager within the Voluntary Sector in London and as a Lecturer.
A personal message from the Director
As many of you already know, we have begun an exciting journey that will take us beyond The Bridge NDC years. The Bridge New Deal for Communities is part of the Government’s 10 year regeneration programme. All New Deal for Communities are due to come to an end in 2011 and are now considering their future by developing and implementing local succession plans, to ensure that the benefits gained through the investment in the community and infrastructure are sustained after the end of Government funding.
With this in mind, we will build on the feedback from the recent conference where we engaged with local residents and key partners to explore challenges; learn more about what is being developed to support the work of the NDC; and consider practical ways of informing and taking forward our succession and legacy strategy. This consists of mainstreaming and joining up of local services, development of a neighbourhood plan and the establishment of an asset-based and community-based successor organisation.
When The Bridge started we were challenged to turn Seven Sisters from being one of the most deprived areas, to an area where our local communities who live, work and study here felt safe and are proud of. We not only had challenges in the shape of crime, social and economical deprivation but training, employment and education was also high on the agenda.
We addressed these challenges by having an exciting programme of work, which included innovative projects that delivered positive outputs and outcomes, not just in the here and now but which are sustained into the future.
We have worked well with our local residents and partners, indeed our very Board which provides vision and leadership is resident-led. We want to build on our good relationship with our local communities and partners and continue to have meaningful dialogue with positive outcomes for the Seven Sisters area because it is our residents, our partners and the local services that will inherit the legacy of The Bridge New Deal for Communities after 2011. I am happy to report that we are a strategically driven with a focused succession and legacy programme. We have a first class sustainable strategy which seeks to leave behind an asset in the shape of a Community Interest Company which will seek continue the good work of The Bridge in Seven Sisters beyond 2011.
I invite you all to look around our website and find out how you can work with us to deliver sustainable improvements for the Seven Sisters area.
