Click here for more video and audio from the Grassroots Channel.
If you have a stinking brook in your front yard what do you do? Margaret Bannon of the Bordesley Green North Neighbourhood Forum took advantage of the Neighbourhood Performance Reward Grant (NPRG) – a £10,000 pilot programme – to allow residents groups more control over money. This youtube video shows you briefly what happened in Margaret’s neighbourhood and the audio podcast expands on what was done and what was learnt.
The NPRG was created by the Birmingham Community Safety Partnership and is currently being evaluated by the Digbeth Trust.
Click below to listen to the podcast
March 14th, 2008 at 5:37 pm (#)
Hello,
I live in the U.S. in the state of Michigan. I think you have done a very good job of walking us (the viewers) through the improvements you have accomplished. Your choice of using video over the internet as the medium in which to convey your message, is a good choice-what a quick and absolutely wonderful way to get your message out quick, and take us right to the source of the problems, and their solutions. I expect to see more of these kinds of videoes streaming over the net, in the areas of how grants are being spent, goverment issues, public awareness, and private sector issues, and education.
Good job,
M. Vandercook
March 14th, 2008 at 8:10 pm (#)
Thank you Mark for those kind words. These are not my achievements, it’s Margaret and her neighbours who’ve done the work! All we do is tell the story. This is part of a series of audio and now video pieces/podcasts we benn making since 2005 about active citizens in Birmingham. The Grassroots Channel now has more than 50 stories like this.
You can find more at this link
http://podnosh.com/blog/category/grassroots-channel/
you can subscribe to the audio podcast and pdfs (i’ll sort out video soon) in iTunes through this link:
itpc://www.podnosh.com/channels/channel_grassroots_feed.php
Or through any other rss feedreader with this link:
http://podnosh.com/channels/channel_grassroots_feed.php
Am I trying hard enough to keep you listening?
Thanks again.
March 30th, 2008 at 2:31 pm (#)
[...] In addition to technical competences, softer ‘people and communication skills’, particularly the art of listening, were considered most important. These skills were needed to motivate others, resolve conflict and bring together disparate groups. Recently I’ve been reporting for the Grassroots Channel on the Neighbourhood Performance Reward Grant (the following links are to related video and podcast audio from Sparkbrook, Kingstanding, Washwood Heath and Bordesley Green). The NPRG is an experiment which provides resident groups with £10,000 to solve (or make reasonable agreed progress on) a local problem which has not responded consistently or well to government (local,national etc) efforts. Meet agreed targets and a further £15,000 is available to achieve more. Now clearly I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in principal, but what interests me is what effect it might have on leadership and residnets getting involved in local governance. [...]
March 31st, 2008 at 4:41 pm (#)
[...] Good community leaders need to be connected, competent and of good character. That is one of the blindingly obvious conclusions of a survey in the West Midlands for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The researcher explains what they set out to do This study examined the realities of citizen governance from the perspective of participants living and working within six Birmingham wards, and 50 women from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in Birmingham and Wolverhampton. BME women refers to Asian women from Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds and black women, including black Caribbean and black African. The findings (summarised here) are a bit of a statement of the obvious. This is possibly the most interesting and obvious: The defining components of strong, effective leadership were seen as character, connectedness and competence. Leaders were expected to be of ‘good’ character with high standards of personal conduct, particularly trustworthiness, integrity and honesty. Conduct most likely to cause concern was the appearance of questionable ethics, hidden personal agendas and duplicity. Being connected to the communities they served was also considered an important aspect of community leadership, whether through residency in the area or having an emotional or spiritual association. Leadership perceived to be driven by officialdom and bureaucrats through impersonal institutional structures inspired less confidence than that by known individuals such as councillors and community leaders. In addition to technical competences, softer ‘people and communication skills’, particularly the art of listening, were considered most important. These skills were needed to motivate others, resolve conflict and bring together disparate groups. Recently I’ve been reporting for the Grassroots Channel on the Neighbourhood Performance Reward Grant (the following links are to related video and podcast audio from Sparkbrook, Kingstanding, Washwood Heath and Bordesley Green). The NPRG is an experiment which provides resident groups with £10,000 to solve (or make reasonable agreed progress on) a local problem which has not responded consistently or well to government (local,national etc) efforts. Meet agreed targets and a further £15,000 is available to achieve more. Now clearly I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in principal, but what interests me is what effect it might have on leadership and residents getting involved in local governance.You see money focuses the mind. Power over resources is a great way to test the leadership qualities outlined above. It allows individuals to flex the integrity and competence muscle groups. Control over resources is also a more direct way to forge relationships – it is where compromise needs to happen. Sure things can go wrong – but they also go right faster when real resources are to hand. So I would like to add another element to the following conclusions to this report. [...]
October 13th, 2008 at 6:18 pm (#)
[...] So far I’ve had about 15 people say they’re hoping to come from various groups, some with url, some without names! Among them are Gerry Moynihan of the Bordesley Green Neighbourhood Forum. I’ve worked with Gerry before to make this film and podcast for a European wide group of active citizens called R4R. [...]
November 13th, 2008 at 12:13 am (#)
[...] This short introductory film was made for a conference in The Hague in January 2008. Click here for a more detailed audio podcast. [...]