Tag: Balsall Heath

Looking back at the first Balsall Heath Social Media Surgery

It’s been manic recently, so I’ve not had the time I really need to talk about our first social media surgery at Balsall Heath. But, now I’ve confirmed that the next surgery – again at the Balsall Heath Forum – will be on June 2 , I thought it was a good time to look at what was a fascinating and quite exciting first outing for the newest Podnosh-run event.

Quite a few Balsall Heathers (or should that be Balsall Heathans?) have been down in one capacity or another to the Central Birmingham Social Media Surgeries in the past, so it was good to see a few familiar faces coming to the Balsall Heath surgery.

Simon Whitehouse was in attendance, helping Nisha Virdi. And John Newson was also down, getting some assistance with his blog for Balsall Heath Is Our Planet from Dan Davies (who, as it happens, also lives very nearby – even if he thinks he’s in Moseley!)

But there were also many new faces who managed to make it down, including – of course – those working at the forum themselves. I spent some time helping Abdullah Rehman and Nowrah Abdul to set up a blog for the forum, which it’s nice to see they’ve been using in the week or so since the event.

Nick Booth was able to help Zainab and Dalal from the Yemeni Women and Children’s Society – and even set up this quick blog post with them on the day. And it was particularly exciting to see Zulfiqar Ali, of the Pakistani Youth Council. Zulfiqar is really good at using online tools already, but he got some help with using RSS feeds and Yahoo Pipes, which hopefully will be very helpful with some of the interesting things he’s doing.

So, all in all, lots of interesting things happened and I’m really looking forward to the next event. Hope you can make it!

To sign up to the next event, on June 2, please visit the Social Media Surgery Plus site.

From paint balling to leadership – a new podcast on the Grassroots Channel

TYGA is a youth group in Balsall Heath in Birmingham which began with fun and conversation and yet in just over a year has raised thousands for charity through a 500 mile bike ride, travelled to Pakistan to help with earthquake relief and started a regular street clean-up in their own neighbourhood.

Sue Beardsmore talks to Kamran Fazil about the next steps for TYGA – a structured leadership programme for young people.

We also want to wish 120 students from Queensbridge School good luck this week with their day on the streets of Balsall Heath in Birmingham, meeting different neighbours and helping clean up the neighbourhood. It’s all part of an extension of their citizenship teaching in collaboration with the Balsall Heath Forum.

Links

TYGA The Young Generation’s Association (dead link)

Birmingham Community Empowerment Network (supports the podcast) (dead link)

Written pdf giving more information and contact details for TYGA (dead link)