Refurbishing allotments used as a fly tipping ground and making the plots available for schools is one of the best uses I’ve come across for the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. Of course NRF was never about things the council should do (like maintain allotments), but at least this £39,000 spend has the potential to [...]

 

 Neville Lilley on Allotments [7:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Watch this – no seriously watch this video.  Thanks and thanks.

“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

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

Laura Whitehead and John Buckley first alerted me to this free, international, podcasting, “unconference” being held in Birmingham at the beginning of September.  Here’s the blurb – and please let me know if you’re coming:
In case you haven’t yet heard PodCamp UK is a FREE two-day event bringing all the excitement and ideas and energy [...]

A few weeks late with this but I just want to share with you the work of a group of year Nine Students at Frankley High in Birmingham.

I’ve been working for Stan’s Cafe and Birmingham Creative Partnerships, with musician Mathew Beckett, to develop podcasting skills in infant and senior school students and staff [...]

 

 Frankley Talk Tenth Pink Slip: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mikko Kapanen and Shauna Magunda are two students at UCE in Birmingham who used their final year project to experiment with podcasting to tell the stories of refugees in the city. This programme talks to them about how and why they did it and also hears excerpts from some of [...]

 

 Refucast on the Grassroots Channel [18:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download