World Café Report by Dan – Champions 4 Skills Volunteer at Birmingham Settlement’s East Birmingham Hub

This was an event that was held on 9^th September in St. Peters College, Saltley, for people from surrounding communities to go and share their worries and ideas about their community.

The event was held at St Peters, which is a housing association for families in the newer part of the site, the hall we were in is actually a listed building so getting access to that was an achievement in its self , and it did have a café feel to it with tea, coffee, juice, and cakes all on display for the people who attended. There were people from all different ethnicities all sitting mingling with one another and working together as teams to raise issues regarding their community and how we as members of the community could do our part to help others.

The event was organised by West Midlands Police and was a free event open to all. It was a place for ordinary community people to go and have some say on where they think that their community needs the most help in keeping it a safe and enjoyable place to live. Although it was open to all ages the event unfortunately wasn’t attended by any youths so any issues raised regarding youths didn’t have any objective voices and also we had no input from any of the younger generation as to what they think needs done in the community that they live in.

There were 3 main questions asked of the groups and they were as follows.

1. If you fell asleep for 10 years then woke up, what sort of changes would you like to see in your area?
2. What problems need our attention going forward?
3. What would it take to create these changes?

What would your answers be to these questions?

You would probably be surprised at some of the answers given by people and when you hear the points being made it does make you sit up and take notice. The younger generations get blamed for a lot of the wrong that happens in life but at the event mothers, fathers, and other relatives actually were putting a lot of the blame on education, not the schooling side of education but the parenting side of it as a lot of people believe education starts at home.

The event was also organised to try and find out what groups or organisations could do with a cash injection to help them combat some of the issues discussed. The police have a sum of money in what is called the Active Citizen Fund that is available to these groups and the money is actually raised from proceeds of crime. So in a way there is money from crime being used to try and prevent further crime!

As the event wasn’t attended by any youths the Police have decided that they will do another Café for the younger people and get their views on what they have to say about the community as after all they are the future of the community so their input could be vital. It was also suggested that some communities may try and get some volunteers to go into schools and speak to the kids about their community and try and get them involved in some volunteer work.

The event was really good and well organised and if I was every given the opportunity to attend another one then I would definitely go. My community matters to me and I know that there are probably others out there who don’t know how to get involved or are scared to approach anyone so these events are your chance.

Do you feel that your opinion doesn’t matter? Do you want to get involved in matters in your community?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions then we are here to help you get involved through Birmingham Settlement’s East Birmingham Hub (for contact details please check our our East Birmingham Hub Page at http://bit.ly/BSEBHP) or  through B33Life on Facebook and Twitter which has been set up for the community by members of the community.

We had wonderful food from around the world on offer from Mushtaq’s, Electric Café and Esmee Eats, all local providers, including mutton curry, vegetable Balti, chilli, samosas and much more along with an ice cream van and some lovely cakes.

People got the chance to try out activities on offer locally, with everyone and anyone giving them a go, from Firemen playing badminton to the whole community getting involved in a mass fitness session!

We also had local providers including Buckingham Pharmacy, Better Pathways, Sport Birmingham, West Midlands Police, West Midlands Fire Service, Grace Nursery, Bloomsbury & 6 Ways Children Centre, Anokhi Mehndi, Birmingham Mail, Women’s Help Centre, Broutal Impact, Home Start Aston, Josephine’s Tai Chi, local residents’ associations and Tesco attending on the day giving people the chance to learn more about the services they offer, give activities a go and even get health checks.

There were fabulous performances and interactive s essions from Broutal Impact, Lily’s Dance Company, Broadway Dance Centre, Bhangracise, Millie Langton and Britain’s Got Talent’s Hoop Guy showing off the fantastic talent and opportunities locally.

In addition, we had a raffle with prizes donated from Aston Tesco, Birmingham Mail, Dudley Zoo, Zurich and staff – congratulations to the winners!!

Fabulous photos taken by local photographer, Peter Medlicott, captured the spirit of the day and here is just a small sample of these wonderful pictures.

A big thank you to everyone that came along on the day, all those that helped organise the event and made donations or gave up their time to help make the day a huge success and of course to the Big Lottery Fund who funded the day as part of their Celebrate England funding programme.

If you are interested in taking part or just want to find out more, please contact Sarah Christie on 07710 855 111, sarah.christie@bsettlement.org.uk or at the East Birmingham Hub number 0121 603 8943.

For more information, please contact Sarah Christie on 07710 855 111, sarah.christie@bsettlement.org.uk or at the East Birmingham Hub number 0121 603 8943.

Are you or have you experienced racism or been affected by hate crime? Did you feel supported? Do you believe you were listened to?

For more information or just to talk about your experiences, please contact Sarah Christie on 07710 855 111, sarah.christie@bsettlement.org.uk or at the East Birmingham Hub number 0121 603 8943.

Come and join us every Friday morning at crafting around group, you can choose to take part or make suggestions of things we can do!!

If you are interested in taking part or just want to find out more, please contact Sarah Christie on 07710 855 111, sarah.christie@bsettlement.org.uk or at the East Birmingham Hub number 0121 603 8943.

If you are interested in taking part or just want to find out more, please contact Sarah Christie on 07710 855 111, sarah.christie@bsettlement.org.uk or at the East Birmingham Hub number 0121 603 8943.

Would you like to take a part in planning for our Christmas events? We are looking for enthusiastic and active residents of Kitts Green to help us plan for our Christmas events!

If you are interested in helping or just want to know more, please contact Sarah Christie on 07710 855 111, sarah.christie@bsettlement.org.uk or at the East Birmingham Hub number 0121 603 8943.

 
After organising transport for the Champions and ensuring everyone has their ‘reinstate the 59 bus campaign t-shirts’, and petitions and flyers for upcoming Hub events the B33 Life! the Champions start to arrive. The group don’t all know each other yet, so it’s a great opportunity to talk about the project and to bond as a group whilst travelling to the workshop.

 
The workshop was excellent. We all learnt so much. The Champions brains were ticking away and they asked so many pertinent questions and took notes. B33 Life! is a blog and social media platforms which will resource and support the communities living around B33. The Champions learnt about the West Midlands Police ‘portal’ where people can report non-urgent crime (instead of calling 101), ask questions and check their postcode for crime statistics. They also learnt how to report cybercrime and how to keep themselves and their homes safe. We all left feeling that a similar event would be beneficial to the Kitts Green community, and resolved to plan, promote and blog about it on B33 Life!

 
Whilst there, our t-shirts (kindly donated by one of the Champions) attracted the attention of a Community Priest who works in the Shard End and Kingshurst areas – areas the 59 bus used to serve! He took copies of the petition to various places and communities we haven’t yet reached – the power of a t-shirt. We also gained a page of petition signatures at the workshop.

 
All of a buzz, the Champions next went to The Pump. More serendipity ensued when the Chair of the Neighbourhood Forum met with another community activist who she needed to meet on a business matter. They connected, resolved their business and made further plans to meet. We all learnt more about what each organisation is doing to make the community a better place to live. The B33 Life! Champions were able to introduce the project, build connections, and to even plan more journalism around the bus campaign and how the airport has been affected. I made a plan to meet the activist further around supporting their group to develop a mailing database and to explore whether a peer-support-network for community groups might be beneficial.

 
My day ended with a debrief session with the Champions, planning arrangements for the next week and setting some tasks in preparation. A couple of follow-up emails concluded the day – planning more exciting work for next week – including meetings with local police officers, community activists and – of course – the Champions4Skills.

•  If you would like to find out more about our Champions4Skills project and how you can get involved, check out our dedicated East Birmingham page on our website (http://bit.ly/BSEBHP) which is full of useful information about activities taking place at our East Birmingham Hub and contact details for the team. Our Champions4Skills project is funded by the Big Lottery Fund.