Northern Spire Community Engagement

Our work included strategic planning, stakeholder mapping, proactive outreach engagement with near neighbours – both businesses and residents, and school and community site visits throughout the three-and-a-half-year project.

Our approach was to:

• Be proactive to build trust and credibility – we reached out to local community groups and invested in infrastructure to allow visits to take place
• Keep people informed – we made sure key stakeholders such as councillors, MPs and business influencers heard important news direct from the project – minimising any surprises and giving an opportunity for questions to come to us
• Be accessible – our team responded to enquiries for visits
• Focus on benefits – our key messages focused on the project’s outcomes at all times
• Use digital and traditional channels, ranging from drop-ins to retailers and businesses to social media, enewsletters and web based ‘self-service’ information.
• Speak in plain English at all times.

This was developed through extensive, open and transparent media and public engagement throughout the lifetime of the project. National media relations to showcase the project and the city was combined with on the ground direct engagement.

Local people shortlisted and chose the ‘Northern Spire’ name in conjunction with the Sunderland Echo, we gave special site access to local artists and photographers, enabling them to capture and spread the project as it developed, and thousands of schoolchildren from throughout the city were inspired by trips to the site to see the construction and engineering work.