This is our second podcast from Change in Progress, a gathering of UK based neighbourhood activists in Birmingham. This time Adam Askew from Oxfam UK tells us about the ten steps which can help you improve your public speaking, get your message across and manage those nerves.
If you’re looking for other tips which may help you campaign in your neighbourhood then you might like to listen to this earlier podcast on the mysterious art of lobbying politicians and the powerful.
This is a picture of Chris Bongard who talks to the Grassroots Channel about his neighbours’ campaign to convert their wooden shacks in one of Barcelona’s old shanty towns into purpose built apartment blocks. You can see the homes they campaigned for on the right of the picture, just over Chris’s shoulder. He is standing in Parc Guell with the Carmelo neighbourhood behind him.
Chris tells a story that dates back to the 1970s as fledgling street level democracy was emerging in Spain from under the shadow of Franco’s fascist dictatorship.
Closer to home we also have residents of Kings Heath and Edgbaston in Birmingham tell us why they love their neighbourhoods.
Just a quick note to thank Terry Holland at the Mere Green Neighbourhood Forum for adding the Grassroots Channel podcast to their clear and comprehensive website.
Mere Green is in the north Birmingham constituency of Sutton Coldfield and the regular news updates on the forum site show the current public interest in plans to redevelop the main shopping area. The site includes a poll on the proposals.
On Remembrance Sunday we meet two people who’ve put 18 months of effort into building a community group around their local cemetery in Birmingham. The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery have found an unlikely way to build a community in their neighbourhood and Anne Courbet and Barrie Simpson tell us about the link between history, heritage and our sense of togetherness. We also hear about a film which is taking one of Birmingham’s active citizens to Holland and you can see in December at a b:cen event called Activists & Authorities – Collision or Cohesion.
Birmingham Community Empowerment Network (dead link)