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 [...]

I just want to say hello to Andrew Hemmings who moved from lurker to blogger after last night’s mini Birmingham Bloggers meet in the Spotted Dog. (Don’t panic, it was an impromptu meeting for Joanna Geary who will miss the next one this Monday 7pm at Rooty Frooty in the Custard Factory) Andrew talked to [...]

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If you have a stinking brook in your front yard what do you do? Margaret Bannon of the Bordesley Green North Neighbourhood Forum took advantage of the Neighbourhood Programme Reward Grant (NPRG) – a £10,000 pilot programme – to allow [...]

 

 Bordesley Green and the Birmingham NPRG Pilot - Margaret Bannon [10:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

13,587 programmes were downloaded from the Grassroots Channel Podcast in December 2007, 30% up on both November 2007 and the month just finished, January 2008. Would I be right to speculate that this mini spike is caused by Christmas playtime for people with the new iPhones and iPods?

No help [...]

Is there a solution to street racing in Birmingham? Masood Ajaib of the Washwood Heath based community enterprise Commpact thinks there is. He has signed up for an experiment to find a communal way of turning a dangerous [...]

 

 The Track: Landor Street, Birmingham [10:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

There’s an established link between grime and crime, which is why Kingstanding Neighbourhood Forum is using public money to crack crime one fridge at a time. This podcast and the youtube video you can see here or here explain how the forum has been using £10,000 from an experiment called the [...]

 

 Kingstanding Bimringham and the NPRG experiment on crime and grime [10:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

PC Bernie Flynn has been working with young people in Quinton in Birmingham consistently since 2001, merging policing with youth work. For him finding the right people for the job and giving them time to show respect and earn respect is at the heart of good community policing. Anti social behaviour in and around [...]

 

 Quinzone podcast on the Grassroots Channel [8:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download