Cre8 signals arrival of new Olympic Legacy

Sebright pupils with Jonathan Edwards

Pupils at Sebright Primary School and Cardinal Pole were quids in when they attended the opening of the Cre8 centre in Hackney on 20th March. The Speaker of Hackney Councillor Jessica Webb looked on as the pupils were invited to “Have to Have a Go” with National B-Boy champions the Soul Mavericks in a high octane urban street dance session.

Also present at the grand opening was Jonathan Edwards CBE: a former triple jump champion at Olympic, Commonwealth, European and World level. Jonathan, who is now an Ambassador for the London 2012 legacy project, declared the Cre8 centre open.

The Cre8 project is a social enterprise which is to be managed by the London Coaching Foundation (LCF) – and it has high hopes for what it can achieve in the area. It hopes to help local people – 20,000 “disadvantaged and marginalised young people in the next five years” – into employment and into playing sport and, apparently, changing their lives.  It’s going to do this at the former Hackney Community Centre in Eastway, E9, which has been transformed into a new “multi-disciplinary incubator” (wow! that’s a new one) providing “media, arts and sports learning and training programmes”. LCF has a team of around 200 supporters and volunteers to help deliver this programme “enrich and improve the economic, well-being and life prospects of the local community by offering accessible training, coaching and personal development opportunities for all, regardless of age or background.”

LCF is also building the Cre8 Arc, London’s very first Earthship, made from recycled materials from the nearby Olympic Park.

LCF CEO John Herbert says, “Cre8 is East London’s single most important post Olympics regeneration project and represents a rare opportunity to create a flagship destination in East London.

“Strategically supported by Hackney Council, we are working to develop a viable and sustainable legacy for the Olympic and Paralympic Games which delivers fundamental economic, social and environmental change within East London and closes the deprivation gap that exists between the Olympic host Boroughs and the rest of the Capital.”

There’s a host of activities going on in and around the Centre. How much public money will be supporting this work has not been released.  We can only wonder whether it is more or less than has been cut from the budget of Hackney Council since 2012.  It would be deeply ironic if the “most important post-Olympic regeneration project” did not even make up for the cuts in funding to the local Council.

Given the challenges that we face in East London in “austerity Britain”, we can only wish the centre well.