McLaren Construction and British Land join forces to support Aldgate Place local community and help to ease social isolation

Aldgate Place community outreach programme donate laptops to Stitches in Time

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McLaren Construction and developer British Land have come together, through the Aldgate Place community outreach programme, to support Stitches in Time, a local community group, with its digital outreach activity.

The Aldgate Place community outreach programme contributed vital laptops to support Stitches in Time with their continued community engagement work. The group based at Limehouse Town Hall, Tower Hamlets, E1 supports local people through a variety of projects and activities such as community development, education and arts.

The focus of Stitches in Time’s work prior to the pandemic was face-to-face outreach. The resulting lockdowns created significant issues of social isolation amongst the community, exacerbated mental and physical health effects and seriously impacted home-schooling for children, at that time. Stitches in Time recognised that there was a crucial need to introduce and develop alternative forms of outreach, such as digital and virtual engagement, and raise the levels of technological abilities amongst those facing isolation.

McLaren Construction and British Land wished to engage with Stitches in Time to offer support and contribute to their continued excellent work in the community. The donated laptops, support the digital outreach, aiding remote working in the community, enabling better teaching methods for the unique pre-ESOL ‘English for Sewing’ classes and the support of 100 marginalised women with access to online services as well as other beneficiaries wishing to improve their computer skills.

Stitches in Time is a great organisation, who has already committed over twenty-five years to working with and supporting the local community.”

“It is really fantastic that McLaren Construction and British Land is able to support Stitches in Time with their digital outreach, so they’re able to continue their hugely important work with local people and enabling us to contribute to the local community during the construction of the project.”

Zak Carroll, Project Director, Aldgate Place

“Stitches in Time is doing fantastic work to support the diverse community around Aldgate Place. We’re really pleased that this donation with McLaren will give local people even better access to education and skills-based training, both in-person and remotely.”

Hilary Boyle, Residential Development Manager

“These laptops will make a huge difference to our work. We’ll be able to support the community and many more local women in learning the basic I.T skills needed to support their ambitions, progression and independence.”

Paul Garayo, Stitches in Time

Aldgate Place phase 2, is a 136,000 sq ft residential led mixed-use development, located on the city fringe. It is bringing forward a mix of high-quality commercial office space (19,000 sq ft), retail and leisure space (8,000 sq ft) and 159 premium rental apartments. The design includes a comprehensive upgrade to the public realm with increased biodiversity and a focus on health and wellbeing.

Aligned to British Land’s 2030 commitments, Aldgate Place will be a net zero carbon development with embodied carbon of around 620kg CO2e per sqm. The development will target BREEAM Excellent on the office space, Code for Sustainable Homes level 4 on the residential, as well as WiredScore Gold digital connectivity.