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Our social mission is to provide a ‘change of scenery’ for those who need one in our Brandwood neighbourhoods by providing activities which help connect people to people with shared interests to reduce social isolation. We create opportunities to increase social cohesion through fun and collaborative community ‘build’, active citizenship and environmental improvement projects and by bringing people together through community events.
Get to know new people on one of our creative ‘build’ projects. A chance to use your skills, learn new ones, drink tea and chat.
Be part of something fun and beneficial for our local communities.
Get in touch, share your ideas and bring together your own interest group.
Our business is everyone’s business.
We are working with residents to transform an unused piece of fenced-in wasteland at the heart of our housing estate into a place where our community can grow together in more ways than one! Expect a hub for nature and for people. We have secured a grant to run woodworking and gardening sessions to create raised beds for growing, a landscaped area, wildflower meadows, mud kitchens for outdoor play, a place to meet and social activities to reduce isolation.
Progress so far…
A Neighbourhood Action Coordination grant enabled us to pay a contractor to clear over 20 tonnes of contaminated soil and remove tree routes, levelling off the land. We also used this grant to remove 20 years of fly tipping along the alley which runs adjacent to the ‘garden’. Exciting times!!
Between January and mid March 2024 a team of local residents with lived experience of disability and with access needs are going to be carrying out a fact-finding mission to gather public accessibility information for every business along the High Street to help people plan their visits.
This resident-led project will also offer recommendations, training, and motivation to business owners to help them improve access for more people.
This project is funded through the Shared Prosperity Fund and is being delivered in partnership with Kings Heath Business Improvement District.
Thanks to funding from Sport England and support from the Active Communities programme, we have created a series of walking and fitness trails with a smiling-making twist, to help people get active, be social, have a laugh and enjoy our wonderful Brandwood green spaces and neighbourhoods together. Plus, we have commissioned three Treasure Hunts around Brandwood working with Trove!
Pick up a free Activity trail booklet from Brandwood venues to get started.
You may have seen a few yarn bombs around Brandwood and Kings Heath. It was quite possibly someone from our friendly craft group! Find out about all the projects we have done together to brighten up Brandwood neighbourhoods.
This group is currently on pause until Spring 2024!
With thanks to a Local Giving grant we will be organising more family autism-friendly ‘relaxed’ film screenings during 2024.
These film event ‘pop ups’ are in collaboration with Screen B14.
During 2023 and until March 2024 we will be working with residents, community groups, stakeholders and partners, local councillors, the police and council services within Brandwood & Kings Heath and Billesley wards to shape, coordinate and deliver environmental improvement and community safety projects and run activities which seek ways to improve the quality of life for people through increased access to and activities in our wonderful green spaces.
This is a 18 month commission from the Neighbourhood Development Support Unit, Birmingham City Council.
We decided to design a Social Calendar to help residents aged 50+ living in the local area stay connected and fill their days with community warmth, food, company, activities, new hobbies and possibilities during the Winter of 23-24. We promoted 27 different activities or social places to go – most happening weekly!
The resident-led ‘Beautifying Billesley’ environmental improvement campaign is about working together to brighten up the Billesley ward with displays of flowers and artwork. To support this initiative, Our Scene CIC and the art departments of Wheelers Lane Technology College and Swanshurst School teamed up to create 40 pieces of art for 4 park trails for people to enjoy over the Easter school holidays 2024.
A commission from the Beautifying Billesley group, funded by Selly Oak NNS, led us to running a six week project with a fabulous team of local citizens aged 50+ to build 21 fantastic wooden planters of various sizes, now dotted around locations in Billesley ward, with seasonal planting, bringing a splash of colour and joy to many residents for years to come. We love these woodworking projects. It’s about the process about empower-tool-ing people with skills as much as the outcome.
Over the summer 2023 we ran our first inclusive play holiday club, partnering with the Childrens Quarter and Parks For Play. We had an epic time! Outcomes for local families with children with SEND have been amazing and we are looking at building this into our overall programme of activities.
With thanks to a Celebrating Communities grant from Birmingham City Council and funding from Sports England through the Active Communities programme, we hosted a programme of events and activities to mark the end of our year-long Beaming Brandwood-themed project.
Our Good Yarners group created festive art all over Brandwood during the Christmas holidays 2022-23. We also made a STEP AND SMILE CHALLENGE around the area featuring 16 yarn-bombed post boxes topped with crackers and jokes!
This project was part of our Laughter Lines programme funded by Sports England and the National Lottery through the Active Communities programme. More to come!
We wanted to do something practical to help people during the energy crisis and also reuse the wonderful crochet and knitted flowers made by the lovely crafters for the Brighten Up Brandwood yarn bomb.
We made ‘door huggers!’ AKA draft excluders. A really effective way of blocking off drafts under doors and keeping the heat in your room.
At the beginning of 2022 we teamed up with the local Neighbourhood Network Scheme to do some community engagement and activity planning work which included a resident survey, face to face meetings and some focus group discussions. We wanted to understand what matters to people living in Brandwood’s neighbourhoods, what social connections people enjoy and need, and how many people identified as experiencing loneliness. Most importantly we tried to understand what projects and activities residents were interested in and how we could help reduce social isolation. This work is helping to shape our plans moving forward.
Between May and August 2022 we are ran a project to shine a spotlight on all the brilliant places and people who live in the Brandwood area, brighten up our streets with creativity and wildflower meadows and bring people together at events, workshops and community litter picks.
Together we wanted to put our little corner of South Birmingham on the map, encourage people to get talking and give the rest of the city something to talk about!
For twelve weeks we ran a community DIY build & environmental improvement project for the over 50s. Our Pallet to Planter project started in late February. We reclaimed wood and repurposed it to build 44 planters which we then gave away!
We then delivered planters all over the area for residents to adopt and grow small wildflower meadows in their front gardens and driveways (‘pit stops’ for pollinators) – so everyone gets to enjoy the blooms – especially the bees.
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