Written on July 29th, 2006 by Nick Booth
This podnosh blog is not just about communities, neighbourhoods or podcasting. I’m also interested in links between media and the internet, and a friend of mine has just come up with downright cheeky one:
Written on July 27th, 2006 by Nick Booth
I’ve just spent a wonderful morning with two women who are both directors of Witton Lodge Community Association. Linda Hines has been involved for 15 years while Michelle Ashmore got stuck in just two or three years ago.
The Association has been working really closely with Birmingham City Council and other partners to drive through a huge regeneration project for Perry Common in the north of the city. It began with the bombshell that hundreds of homes were so structurally unsound they would have to be demolished.
The association is really central to its success for two reasons. First the 14 unpaid (and mostly resident) directors have a common sense idea of how to help the community thrive. Secondly the council was unable to raise the money for rebuilding on its own. The finance was only possible because of the association. Their hard won expertise is now being shared through the governments Guide Neighbourhoods programme (along with Balsall Heath and Castle Vale)
If you scroll down you can listen to their lively (and sometimes tearful) conversation and find out why both directors are convinced that much of their power derives from them being unpaid. So much so that wouldn’t want it any other way. Oh and please leave any comments here on the blog.
Grassroots Channel on iTunes
Erdington Community Network
Birmingham Community Empowerment Network
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Written on July 23rd, 2006 by Nick Booth
Birmingham City Council has pulled off a bit of a coup.
They have enticed Professor Michael Parkinson to lead a new team pulling together a 10 year vision for the future of the city centre. His credentials are impeccable, from the Government’s recent State of the English Cities report to leading the Economic and Social Research Council’s CITIES
The council’s website tells us: “The team’s task is to draw up a 10 year strategy for development within the ring road which will enable Birmingham to take its rightful place as a globally competitive city”.
Whoa, wait a second…. Read the rest of this entry »
Written on July 18th, 2006 by Nick Booth
In this episode Ruairi goes out with his microphone and interviews a few of the performers from the concert.
Firstly, James Hereper the clown, followed by Humza Chaudhry who was in the barbershop quartet and finally Mo who was taking part in the freestyle basketball demonstration.
As always, the podcast was recorded and produced by the boys at KNBS and supported by Podnosh & b:cen
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Written on July 15th, 2006 by Nick Booth
A while ago the new headmaster of a large state run secondary school told me about his plan to stop excluding children – no more problem solving by binning the apparent source of the problem. He thought that of all the children who most needed the values and discipline a good school offers, it was the kids most likely to be kicked out.
So he wanted to understand why his school had excluded pupils in the past.
He looked through the figures, read reports, spoke to colleagues and then started contacting parents of excluded pupils.
He spoke to dozens of people. “At first there was no pattern, every case was unique, some surprising”, he said. “But after I thought about it for a while I reluctantly concluded one thing stood out: each child who had been excluded lacked a single adult who they knew had faith in them, who they could be sure loved them”
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Written on July 14th, 2006 by Nick Booth
David Cameron was in Birmingham again today – to give a Chamberlain Lecture on how he sees the relationship between government and communities.
In fact the leader of the opposition was in my own neighbourhood Balsall Heath, an area he admires for the extent to which citizens and volunteers have taken control of their own streets. The Grassroots Channel programme “I am the grass now” reported on how people here would prefer to volunteer to keep their police stations open rather than leave a vacuum in their streets.
The truth is that Balsall Heath’s revival has been despite government, rather than because of it, and Mr Cameron belives there is much to learn from the people and the streets of this vibrant (yes it is fab) multi-culturural community. So where does that leave someone who wants to lead a Conservative government? Confused or clear about how government can get out of the way and let people make good choices?
You can find out here. Listen to his speech by clicking on this link, read the speech by clicking here and find out what the good people of Balsall Heath had to ask David Cameron by clicking here.
Go on, click away. You’ll be surprised.
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Written on July 13th, 2006 by Nick Booth
I’ve just come to the end of a series of days working with children at Reaside School in Frankley in Birmingham. Four of us were briefed through Stan’s Cafe (I love Stan’s proper use of the apostrophe) and creative partnerships to use podcasting to tap into the children’s imaginations and their skills at evolving and structuring stories.
You can listen to and see all the work the children created at a website we have established for this and future work: www.frankleytalk.com
Early work was focussed on where the children live – the streets and neighbourhoods of Frankley and what this means to them. One piece that popped out of this was a podcast on renaming an imaginary street. Most of Frankley’s streets are named for either monarchs or British islands. The year 5 group plumped to name their new street after someone they know, one of their nan’s. So Wendy Scattergood (’tis truly her name) has became a symbol of the things that grown ups do which children appreciate:
Written on July 11th, 2006 by Nick Booth
Programme 20 hears from Gill Taylor, who runs the government’s new Academy for Sustainable Communities. She tells us why she wants residents to unleash their expertise on re-educating professionals. Read the rest of this entry »
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Written on July 11th, 2006 by Nick Booth
Programme 19 on The Grassroots Channel meets another of Birmingham’s social entrepreneurs. Roger Telphia is Chief Executive of Future Health and Social Care.
The charity is a multi award winning organisation which already has a substantial turnover. But now Roger wants to see a step change, shifting the way the organisation is run, growing it and creating a company which will be able to invest millions directly into communities in Birmingham.
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Written on July 11th, 2006 by Nick Booth
Programme 18 talks to Duncan Ross and John Bodycote from Kings Norton Farmers Market about why they chose to become a community interest company, the value of the farmers market and a few provocative thoughts on the link between local politics and social enterprise.
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