From a seed to a centre of the community: Campus for Future Living

By Claire Woodward, Director of Community Investment, Acis Group

It’s hard to imagine now, standing in a building full of energy and purpose, that the Campus for Future Living in Mablethorpe began life as little more than a line on a page. 

“How did it all start? It started from a piece of paper that someone passed in 2022, is the honest answer,” Claire Woodward, Acis Group’s Director of Community Investment recalls. 

Back then, the idea barely had shape. Clip, Acis’s education and wellbeing service, had just joined the Group, and conversations about its future growth were in full flow.

Among a list of possibilities was this vague, half-understood “campus” on the Lincolnshire coast - intriguing, but distant. Something to keep an eye on, perhaps.  

But life moved on, priorities shifted, and the idea quietly slipped into the background. 

It took a visit to bring it back into focus. 

Walking through the newly-built centre for the first time, and hearing the emerging vision from East Lindsey District Council, Claire and her team began to see the potential – even though the building was an empty shell at that time. 

What had once been abstract suddenly felt tangible and full of promise. 

“It wasn’t about being an operator, it was about actually asking ‘what can we do to help Mablethorpe thrive’,” Claire said. 

That shared sense of purpose became the foundation for everything that followed.  

Acis and East Lindsey District Council – who funded the construction and developed the original vision - weren’t just looking to fill a building.  

They wanted to create something meaningful, impactful and a new heartbeat for a community struggling with the challenges faced by so many rural towns. 

They shared a vision for supporting local people, strengthening connections and opening up new possibilities for the future. 

Out of that ambition, a partnership took shape. Not always smoothly, and certainly not quickly, but with a growing sense of trust and direction. 

“What emerged was a really strong partnership that came from a place of equality,” Claire explains. 

Together, they began to define what the campus could be - a place for research and innovation, rooted in community. A place where education, health and opportunity could sit side-by-side. Crucially, they had to find a way to make it work.

When the doors opened, expectations were deliberately modest. In the first year, the initial hope was simply that people would come in, start conversations, maybe grab a coffee and begin to make the space their own.

A year on, the reality has far surpassed those early ambitions. 

Claire explained: “What I’m really proud of is the number of people from the local community that comes through that door every day… they come for a real purpose and they get a sense of belonging, a sense of security there.” 

That sense of belonging is now woven into the fabric of the building.

It’s heard in the conversations happening over coffee in the Wayfinder Cafe, it’s seen in the projects and activities evolving in the various community spaces, and its felt in the growing number of local people who see the campus as a place for them. 

From IDEA labs to community-led discussions, residents are helping to define what comes next - even driving plans for the land surrounding the campus. 

It’s an approach that feels as ambitious as it does grounded. Because ambition, for Claire, has always been part of the story. 

When she talks about what’s still to come, she paints a vivid picture: a rooftop veranda, a canopy overhead, people gathered together with a sense of pride with maybe even a glass of champagne in hand. 

It’s a small detail, but a powerful one. A reminder that this is about more than bricks and mortar; it’s about creating something worth celebrating. 

“What started as a nugget of a seed is now growing, and actually we’ll have a whole forest eventually.” 

And in Mablethorpe, that forest of hope and opportunity is already beginning to take root.