Ep.56 Building Bridges Between Reading University and the Community
With Molli Cleaver
Episode Description:
In this episode, Molli Cleaver, Community Engagement Manager at Reading University discusses how Reading University adds value to the local area by building partnerships with various stakeholders, including residents, the council, and local businesses.
We discuss the community engagement team’s three-year action plan, and core objectives. We also explore the challenges that Molli has faced and opportunities that have arisen from collaboration with local organisations and residents. Finally, Molli also shares how they measure their success with engagement, and how it is a university-wide commitment, with many colleagues dedicated to connecting students with the local community.
University of Reading Website: Local Community Landing Page
View upcoming events at Reading University
Listen to the episode
Episode Time Codes
00:00 Greeting
00:32 Introduction to Molli
01:49 About Molli’s role as community engagement manager
04:45 Goal with integrating university and community
06:42 What challenges have Molli, and the engagement team faced?
10:15 What opportunities have Molli, and the engagement team uncovered?
14:52 Engagement across Reading University
18:30 How measure the value of the relationships
21:51 Final thoughts
Videos
Community Engagement Across Reading Uni
Measuring the Value of Relationships
Key takeaways
The Value of Community Partnerships: Collaborating with local organisations and residents, leads to more successful and meaningful outcomes than working in isolation. This demonstrates how businesses can achieve greater impact and reach by leveraging trusted community networks.
Building Trust is Essential for Long-Term Success: Molli emphasises that building trusting relationships takes significant time and effort but eventually leads to opportunities where people actively seek to work with you. For businesses, this underscores the importance of investing in genuine community engagement rather than solely focusing on immediate transactional gains.
Understanding and Responding to Local Needs: The university’s strategy involves actively responding to local needs and interests, then aligning their resources to help. Businesses can apply this by genuinely understanding their community’s pain points and offering solutions or collaborations that provide real value, fostering goodwill and potentially new markets.
Episode references
Community engagement brings local heritage to life in Oxford Road, Reading with Alice Mpofu-Coles:
Louisa mentions a local independent book shop ‘Book-ish’ in Abergavenny where she did a book signing: