Tag: Birmingham

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)

Until My Dying Day – Nocks’ Brickworks in Erdington – a new podcast on the Grassroots Channel

Mike Overton has fought for years to prevent developers building homes on an old waste tip and clap pit in Erdington in Birmingham, UK. He talks to Emma Lewis of b:cen about the site and why protecting it matters so much to him. Also in the programme a thanks to listeners in Belgrade and Birmingham who mentioned our programmes on their blogs and more information of the Podminions, a podcast channel run by pupils at Kings Norton Boys School.

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Podminions Solo Stretch

A few months ago Podnosh and b:cen were able to offer some support to the pupils at King’s Norton Boys’ School in Birmingham. We helped them set up their own podcast channel which they christened Podminions and hosted here on the Podnosh site.

Having opened the door the first group of podminions are now rushing through it. They are finding their voice in the programmes, passing knowledge and skills onto other boys in the school and have also established a website specifically for this project at www.podminions.co.uk.

It looks great, works well and has the capacity to expand into a perfect place for a school to converse with itself and the ‘outside’ world.

If you visit and have a rootle around please fire off an e-mail to let them know what you think. A little encouragement etc….

$5 Million Community News Competition: "who will build community through new media?"

The Knight Foundation is inviting entries to a $5 million competition to find innovative new ways to use online journalism to strengthen community life.
The 21st Century News Challenge is subtitled “who will build community through new media?”.
That’s exactly what we aim to do here, with the Grassroots Channel connecting active citizens, and Podminions providing a platform to help school pupils find their voice.
The challenge is open to everyone: individuals, companies and organisations from any country.

They don’t want the obvious:

We love citizen bloggers, but to qualify for one of these awards, you’ll have to show how what you’re doing will transform the field. Blogging about a school board meeting is valuable, but not unique.

and go on to explain why they hope to spend $5 million a year for 5 years on the intitiative:

The future of our communities, towns, suburbs, cities and states depends on the future of citizens’ ability to get the news they need to run their governments and their lives.

The goal here is to keep the values of good journalism — the fair, accurate, contextual search for the truth — as we construct the information vehicles of the future. It is news in the public interest that really makes our social worlds go round.

But when readers move from the printed newspaper to seek information online, who in cyberspace performs this function? Who is going to do in new media what Jack Knight and Jim Knight did with ink on paper in the 20th century?

We want to explore whether and how the digital world can be used to connect people in the real world. When we say community, we mean the real-life places where people live and work.  Truth is, online communities don’t need us.  Virtual communities spring up every day. But the idea of turning the web on its head to help people connect in real life does need our help.

We seek to bring technology to the arena of journalism values, just as we will also seek to bring journalism values into the arena of technology.

All I know about the Knight Foundation is what I’ve read on their website – a huge endowment left by the founders of what was once America’s largest local newspaper group. So if you can tell me more please do so.

In the meantime I’ve got my thinking cap on. If any one – especially in my own community in Birmingham – would like to collaborate then please get in touch.