Tag: Leadership

Pavement to Parliament – Marcia Lewinson of WAIT’s podcast.

Programme 9 on the Grassroots Channel tells the story of the Birmingham based group who use techniques developed in 1930’s Chicago to revitalise individuals, families and communities. We talk to Marcia Lewinson, the Chief Executive of Women Acting in Today’s Society, a South Birmingham based charity.  Waits was established in 1992 to: “support women to address issues such as welfare benefits, employment and education, domestic violence, isolation, health, crime and the fear of crime and many more.”

Links:
Women Acting in Today’s Society
Digital Birmingham
Saul Alinsky of Community Organising – Wikipedia

Update:  June 2009.  Waits now also keeps this useful Database of women’s groups in Birmingham:

The W.A.I.T.S. City-Wide Directory contains details of group meetings on various women’s issues throughout the Birmingham area. To use the directory simply select the group issue you are interested in along with the area.

Cuckoos in a white middle class nest

This is the first podcast for the Grassroots Channel – a series of programmes sponsored by the Birmingham Community Empowerment Network.

We’re starting with stories of active citizens in Britain’s second largest city: Birmingham.
Barbara Willis Brown tells us how she worked to rebuild communities by confronting prejudice. A tennis project in the city brought young black children into the leafy middle-class environment of the tennis club, overcoming misconceptions from both sides.

Her philosophy on revitalising communities is: “If it hasn’t got a challenge in it let everyone else do it.”

Background music is copyright of a small local band called score. The Grassroots Channel is produced by Nick Booth of Podnosh. First available in October 2005