The Good Neighbour Project was an explorative initiative in partnership with 2U/EdEx to explore the role corporate South Africa can play in improving the quality of life in urban communities that have been defined by the spatial legacy of the country’s past. At its core, the project was designed to strengthen the relationship between 2U and its local community and contribute towards improving the collective wellbeing of the company’s staff and the community of Salt River in which the company’s office campus is located. The first phase of the project included extensive mapping of perceptions of the Salt River neighbourhood and residents’ experiences of life in it as well as an extensive survey of the 1,000-strong 2U workforce. A programme of action consisting of several small experiments aimed at utilising 2U’s extensive infrastructure to strengthen some of the civic muscle of the neighbourhood was designed based on findings from these activities.
But, it was never implemented. A three-episode podcast on what went wrong, and what could be learned from the process will be released in late 2023. Nabeel Petersen of Pivot Collective, Danyal Loofer of ACC,
Laura Malan and Telltale Media were collaborators on this project.
