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

NESTA was in Birmingham today to entice us into innovating. The Big Green Challenge is a two year climate change project with a £1 million pound prize at the end. Any community group (or similar) can win if they find a communal and repeatable way to cut CO2 emissions by 60%. [...]

 

 Nesta Big Green Challenge in Birmingham [7:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

“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

The Guardian’s newly declared 3 year commitment to the village of Katine in Northern Uganda is an ambitious project using the principles of nptech. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger sets out the three ways he think their long term online work for the community should work:

Get the STORY out there. To quote Rusbridger the newspaper [...]

Three films which set out how diversity networks are supporting active citizens in Birmingham are the launch videos for the Youtube Channel for the Birmingham Community Empowerment Network. The diversity networks were the subject of quite a strong appeal from the Bishop of Birmingham – who argued on the Grassroots Channel that they [...]

Not to a group in Small Heath in Birmingham. Clean Medina says that Muslim neighbourhoods in the city are far too messy and they want to change that. So they’ve launched a “struggle’ against rubbish and waste, and whilst they’re [...]

 

 Jihad on Litter [6:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is the story of Chris Hoare: a grandfather who’s worked for years to clear prostitution from the Waterworks Estate on the borders of Edgbaston and Ladywood in inner-city Birmingham. His neighbours were so fearful of the pimps that they asked Chris to step up and take action. To find out why [...]

 

 Pimps, Prostitues and Grandads army [10:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Naseem Akhtar is angry – quietly, productively, but all the same angry. She believes the families of Birmingham deserve better schools, schools which have greater aspirations for their pupils, schools which aim to do more than achieve an average outcome for children.

Last month she launched a city wide campaign on the [...]

 

 Standard Podcast [14:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download