Work will be a sharing and work will be a pleasure, When the things we make are born of beauty and of need. In a world made whole, we all can be creators, Not winners and losers in a game of grab and greed.

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Visit your local Guide Neighbourhood this July

25th June 2010 by claire under Site News     

The Birmingham Guide Neighbourhoods of Stockfield and Perry Common invite you to experience how their active citizens, community groups and networks, worked together to change their respective neighbourhoods for the better. You are invited to visit Stockfield on the 6th and 20th of July, and Perry Common on the 8th and 29th of July.

Stockfield Community Association

Stockfield Community Association invites you to hear the inspiring story of the rebuilding of the Stockfield neighbourhood in Birmingham.

In the late 1980s, residents received the devastating news that their homes were no longer safe and were to be demolished. Determined to stand up for their community, they began to explore with Birmingham City Council and others what could be done. Through much hard work, and the innovative Community Association developed to serve and represent residents, the Stockfield neighbourhood has been rebuilt.

With residents actively involved throughout, the regeneration of Stockfield began with the building of new houses to provide a mixture of social housing and homes for sale, alongside a redesign of the estate layout to help tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

The physical rebuilding of the estate was completed successfully, and the Association has continued to oversee the provision of housing and services for residents. With careful planning and management, the Association has become a sustainable charity and company, able to invest in the ongoing wellbeing of the local community.

The regeneration of Stockfield has not just been about bricks and mortar – the wellbeing of local residents is central to the Association’s aims. In partnership with a range of local organisations, residents, and service providers, the Association has been proactive in developing activities and initiatives to continue to ensure that the best interests of the community are served.

Stockfield has been a groundbreaking approach to rebuilding a neighbourhood, with more being developed – contact them to learn more.

Perry Common Guide Neighbourhood

Perry Common is a peripheral estate in Birmingham. It is a predominantly white area with housing stock consisting of new-build terraced, semi and detached properties as well as semi-detached former council housing.  Witton Lodge Community Association (WLCA) and Perry Common Regeneration Partnership together constitute Perry Common Guide Neighbourhood.  WLCA was formed in 1994 as a direct response to Birmingham City Council earmarking approximately two-thirds of the estate for demolition. The original purpose of WLCA was to manage the redevelopment and regeneration of Perry Common.  Its core work is the physical rebuilding of the estate, housing management, management of Sycamore Court Extra Care Scheme and 127 of its own properties. The Association’s work has recently evolved to address issues of community safety, environmental services and play facilities.  The Partnership also supports Perry Common’s Community Shop and Parish Nurse Project.

If you would like to attend, please contact Ian Bingham on 0121 7488114, or by e-mail, ianb@cvcha.org.uk.

July

Stockfield

2a Alexander Road, Acocks Green

Birmingham

B27 6HE

6th July

11.30 – 14.30

20th July

11.00 – 14.30

Perry Common

Centre, 87 Witton Lodge Rd, Perry Common, Birmingham, B23 5JD

8th July

10.00 – 13.30

29th July

10.00 – 13.30

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Communication using social media – workshop

14th June 2010 by claire under Site News     

Would you like to communicate with the groups and communities you support in different ways?

Do you want to better engage your volunteers?

Have you heard of social media tools like Facebook or Twitter, but want to find out how they relate to the development of your organisation?

If you have asked yourself these questions, then this workshop may be of use to you! Using social media effectively can strengthen how you can work with local groups, as well as how you reach volunteers and campaign. Furthermore, a good overall social media strategy will help to ensure that organisations and volunteer centres do not miss out on valuable support.

In addition, they can:

  • Help you place social media in the context of your organisation development work role,
  • Consider guidelines for responsible use of social media websites,
  • Give you knowledge about a wide range of current social media tools available,
  • Feature a practical social media surgery to help build confidence in use of social media websites and show how you can help local groups benefit from them too.

These workshops are directed at development workers in local support and development organisations, or those in support/advisory roles in volunteer organisations, and are being delivered by the NAVCA ICT Champions and Red Foundation as part of the Capacitybuilders’ Modernising Volunteering & Regional ICT Champions work.

Places for the workshop are subsidised at £35 per person; this includes lunch, workshop materials and social media resource guides.  The following locations are available:

  • 23rd June – The Circle, Voluntary Action Sheffield, Rockingham Street, Sheffield
  • 7th July – (Venue TBC), North East
  • 8th July – The Bolton Hub, Bolton CVS, Bold Street, Bolton
  • 15th July – BVSC, 138 Digbeth, Birmingham

For more information and details of how to book visit the SkiLD or Red Foundation websites.

Please contact 0114 289 3952 or email skild@navca.org.uk if you have any questions

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Young Live UnLtd offers £2000 grants for community enhancement

7th June 2010 by claire under Uncategorized     

Live UnLtdYoung active citizens can now apply for a £2000 grant to help enhance their communities from Live UnLtd. LiveUnLtd are looking for ideas from individual applicants, rather than ideas from established organisations.

They are open to your suggestions for how to spend the money – the only criteria are that the idea should benefit your community, and that you personally should learn from the experience

However, if you are under 18, it is advised that you team up with someone over 18 who is willing to take responsibility for the project alongside you.

To apply online, visit the Live UnLtd website.

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Collaborate for community with a £2500 grant

4th June 2010 by claire under Site News     

IdeasTap are offering 12 cash awards of £2500 to fund group projects designed to enhance the community they are based in. These can be taken from across the creative disciplines, but the website suggests productions, exhibitions, workshops, events, short films, or even live performances.

The rules of the award state that the projects must be based around an IdeasTap group of at least 10 members (aged between 16 and 30), and should involve the wider IdeasTap community, either by involving them in the production, or simply as an audience. One group member will be the main applicant, and the application will include details of the group they’re applying on behalf of and name at least ten members of that group, including the capacity in which they will each be involved.

Furthermore, the project should be promoted (at least partly) through the IdeasTap website, using their blogs, events, forums, and portfolios.

The Ideas Tap Groups Fund has been set up to encourage collaboration across the IdeasTap network, which you can join here.

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Make Justice Local – Resident University Chamberlain Lecture – June 16th

24th May 2010 by claire under Event, Lecture, Site News     

Frances Crook

4.30-6.00pm at BVSC

What’s wrong with our Criminal Justice system?  Overcrowded  prisons and rising rates of re-offending, Communities alienated,  and what about the voices of victims?  What’s the alternative?

In trying to debate and answer some of those questions, Chamberlain Forum has invited Frances Crook of the Howard League and a panel of ‘Resident Experts’ for what promises to be an informative and inspiring discussion – particularly in light of recent government proposals concerning directly elected local boards to oversee policing; a ‘rehab revolution’; and a full review of sentencing of  mentally ill and drug offenders.

Frances Crook OBE is the Director of Howard League for Penal Reform, and is responsible for research and campaigns to raise public concern about suicides in prison, the over-use of custody and poor conditions in prison, young people in trouble, and mothers in prison.

If you are interested, we would love for you to join us to share ideas and practical actions. The event will take place on June 16th, and is being held at BVSC, 138 Digbeth High Street, Birmingham.

Book your place at  info@residentuniversity.net,  by telephone: 07795 448462, or by completing a booking form below

Booking Form
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Birmingham Women Take Part!

26th April 2010 by claire under Site News     

Birmingham Women Take Part

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Learning from the Guide Neighbourhoods

23rd April 2010 by claire under Uncategorized     

Community Safety7Do you want to find out how neighbourhoods have been transformed from places where people wanted to move away from into places where people want to move to?

Platform Project Guide Neighbourhood:

  • Balsall Heath Forum: 30th April – 10.30am to 1.30pm or 25th May to 10.30am – 1.30pm
  • Bloomsbury: 11th May – 11.00 to 2.00pm or 21st June – 11.00am to 2.00pm
  • Castle Vale: 21st May – 10.00am – 1.30pm or 18th June – 10.00am – 1.30pm
  • Perry Common: 8th July – 10.00am to 1.30pm or 29th July – 10.00am – 1.30pm
  • Stockfield: 6th July – 11.30am to 2.30pm or 20th July – 11.00am – 2.30pm

For more information, see the Programme Flyer.

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The Citizen Power Series: why should we bank time?

24th March 2010 by claire under Event, Workshop     

In all forms of volunteering and community activism, one of the most valuable assets is time. However, it is persistently under-valued, and often only considered valuable at all when it can be directly cited in pounds and pence. But attitudes are changing, and time-banking schemes such as that which is being established in Ward End and Pelham indicate that community networks are tapping into a fairer, and arguably more efficient way of releasing their potential.

The father of the time-banking movement was Edgar Cahn, who proposed that the currency of our ‘core economy’ was, quite simply, time – the precious, finite resource that we invest into our families, friends and communities – a concept which he dubbed the ‘Time Dollar’. He set up the Time Dollar Institute in the 1980s, which pioneered the use of time dollars in the areas of youth justice and legal aid, wherein recipients of legal advice paid in time dollars, accumulated by spending time on projects that were of benefit to the neighbourhoods surrounding the law school. Thus, relationships which had been considered purely economic now involved the currency of social ethics, but importantly, this new arrangement was complementary with the conventional economy.

In practical terms, time is deposited into the bank by giving practical help and support to others; and can be withdrawn when they need that help and assistance for an initiative of their own. The help and skills that people can offer will vary, but everyone’s time is valued equally, i.e. one hour = one ‘time credit’. Timebanking UK explains that there are three basic models, but that these can be used interchangeably if needs be.

Firstly, the Person-to-Person model, involving a ‘broker’, who facilitates and records exchanges between individuals, and generally expands the membership of the Timebank. Person-to Person timebanks can be set up in a number of ways, notes Timebanking UK, but include:

  • An independent, stand-alone local organisation run as a self help group, co-operative, not-for-profit organisation or charity
  • A two-way service run by statutory agencies utilising existing staff time and resources in collaboration with local residents in a defined community
  • A two-way service run by a third sector organisation or social enterprise as one of many services they provide for the local community.
  • A service commissioned by local statutory and voluntary agencies in response to identified needs – communities of interest
  • Small local neighbourhood time banks run and shaped by neighbours

The other model is Person-to-Agency, wherein an organisation enlists people to help to achieve its goals, and rewards them in time credits, which can also be traded between individuals. This can engender a positive change within the agency, with paid staff facilitating co-produced services. The third, more nascent model is Agency-to-Agency, wherein organisations use time credits so as to exchange skills and resources with one another.

It has been more than a decade since timebanking made its way to the UK, and now, there are 94 active time banks, 74 developing time banks, two neighbourhood time banks, 11,739 participants actively involved in time banking and an impressive 665,765 hours traded between participants to date.

If you’d like to find out more, come to Saturday’s Resident University Timebanking workshop and join the discussion. Fill in this form to attend, or call us on 07795448462.

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