Tag: Birmingham UK

Podnosh is based in Birmingham in the UK, so often we write about exciting things that are going on near us.

Highgate Apprentices challenge the government – a new podcast on the Grassroots Channel

This programme is presented by two teenagers from Highgate in Birmingham. Earlier this month Stephen Hughes and Gareth Deeming spent a day in London talking to ministers and senior civil servants about young people and the communities where they live.

They had a few minutes with Baroness Andrews and recorded their conversation on a mobile phone (they had left for London with a digital recorder – which failed on them!). This forms the core of the podcast, but in it they also explain how they want support to work with a group called SCAWDI to develop a new apprenticeship for young people.

The community apprenticeship is being designed to get young people learning through working in their community, and also expose them to a much wider range of experiences and aspirations. The plan is to lift their lives to the point where they can once again fulfill their full potential.

Some other Grassroots programmes connected with this are:

Cuckoos in a White Middle Class Nest – our first ever programme featuring Barbara Willis Brown on the work of Scawdi.
Junior Street Champions – young people working in Lozells.
The Northfield Young People’s Forum – on controlling public money.
SCAWDI – link to a b:cen briefing on the organisation. (dead link)

Winning the Shanty Town Shuffle in Barcelona – a new podcast from the Grassroots Channel

chrisbongardbarcelona

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.

Lower Eastside Dialogues – Digital Cities.

Pete Ashton has reminded me of something I thoroughly enjoyed last month and would encourage you to get along too. This years first Lower Eastside Dialogue was on architecture. I learnt a lot, met some good people and enjoyed myself.

The next two are absolutely up my street, with next week about digital endeavours and the modern city and the following month about heritage and regeneration, which squarely fits my hat as a trustee of the Birmingham Conservation Trust. You can find details at this post, from Pete who I met in the flesh for the first time at the last dialogue. Next week’s is in quite small venue so book if you want to go.
There – any old excuse to use a picture of one of Birmingham’s architectural treaures: Curzon Street Station.
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