Take a good look at this picture. It is full of what I would call ordinary folk. None of them appear to be super heroes, to fit the heroic mould we have created for our social entrepreneurs and active citizens.

They are David Barrie’s fellow “bloody minded obsessives” who have collaborated on [...]

Good community leaders need to be connected, competent and of good character. That is one of the blindingly obvious conclusions of a survey in the West Midlands for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The researcher explains what they set out to do
This study examined the realities of citizen governance from the perspective of participants living [...]

Architect and blogger Joe Holyoak has pulled together a conference to consider the future of the city centre 20 years after the Highbury Conference took a whole range of radical decisions for Birmingham. The flyer is here and a booking form (£40 for the day including lunch) for April 14th is here.
Joe and I [...]

That’s the question being asked (and answered?) at the Birmingham Residents University on the morning of Thursday 28th February.  Amongst the panel will be a couple of Birmingham’s blogging councillors – Martin Mullaney and Zoe Hopkins (intermitent poster)  alongside Salma Yaqoob and Robert Alden.

Anyway what do you think – do you trust your local councillor [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

“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 [...]

 

 Perry Common Policing - the smell of trouble [11:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Imagine being able to check instantly whether or not statements made by politicians were correct. That is the sort of service Google Inc. boss Eric Schmidt believes the Internet will offer within five years.