Tag: Chamberlain Forum

Kingstanding Neighbourhood Forum on Youtube

A short film introducing the work being done in Kingstanding by residents trying to tackle the connection between crime and grime. It was shot for a residents conference in The Hague at the end of this week. No intended to be comprehensive, more a way of allowing groups from The Hague, Birmingham and Glasgow to get a sense of each other’s neighbourhood, aims and problems. Obviously short films can raise far more questions that they answer, which is good because that encourages conversation.
Kingstanding Neighbourhood Forum has been taking part in Bimringham’s Community Safety Partnerships Neighbourhood Performance Reward Grant. The pilot, with four residents groups, has been run by the Digbeth Trust. Each group gets a £10,000 grant to meet some agreed targets – often to do with rubbish and grafiti. If they hit their targets the group is arewarded with a £15,000 bonus.
More films coming, plus 4 podcasts from Birmingham which give much more detail of the reward grant.

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Highbury 2.0

In the 1989’s Birmingham’s leaders gathered at Highbury Hall in Moseley for a summit meeting. It was the second time such a gathering had happened and Highbury 2 spawned the idea to break the concrete collar which was stranggling the growth of the city centre.

With the ring road down it is 2007 and Stef Lewandowski is now proposing a crowdsourced future for the city centre, using us and a wiki to shape where next. Highbury 2.0 has my support, how about you?

The smell of trouble – neighbourhood policing in Birmingham – a new podcast on the Grassroots Channel

“We’re not aiming high enough” is what the Chief Constable of the West Midlands tells the Grassroots Channel this time. We hear from Sir Paul Scott Lee as we return to the theme of communities and policing and look in detail at the community watch programme in Perry Common in Birmingham.

Sue Beardsmore talks to Mary Harvey and Sheila Barker of the Witton Lodge Community Association. Also of interest will be this PDF Briefing on neighbourhood policing plus earlier programmes on the volunteers running their local police station and how demolition in Perry Common planted the power in the hands of the people.