April has been a month for me to focus on community engagement and development, not only within the green network, which is extensive and supportive here in Birmingham, but also within the wider community. It has really given me the opportunity to think about what TCV and Health for Life can do for communities, how we can help people develop healthier lifestyles, and where I fit in with it all. I started the month by attending a Birmingham Open Spaces Forum coffee morning, which was attended by members of various Friends groups and also those working for the council, such as tree officers and park rangers. Birmingham Open Spaces Forum (BOSF) is an organisation set up be members of the community who had the aim to bring together everyone in Birmingham with an interest in open spaces. It allows people to share information, knowledge, problems, ideas, and skills, and provides a supportive platform for groups to develop their open spaces. The coffee morning was an opportunity for me to catch up with various Friends groups, chat to the chair of a Friends group who I will be working with to develop my project, touch base with one of my mentors, discuss projects with other charitable organisations and meet people working within green spaces who I had not yet had the chance to meet.
At the coffee morning I arranged with Sarah Royal, chair of BOSF, to attend a Friends group meeting with her to learn about how Friends groups are set up and how BOSF supports them, and see whether TCV can offer them anything. The Friends of Gilbertstone Recreation Ground are newly formed and were in the process of agreeing their constitution when I attended their meeting, and it was interesting for me to be able to understand where they might need extra help from organisations such as ourselves. To generate interest in their Friends group they plan on setting up a community fun day, which will require them to write a funding bid and so I hope to to get some experience of how these bids are written.
A couple of weeks ago I was invited to attend a meeting of the Birmingham Community Network, which was the first of its kind. The network was set up to join together anyone working within communities – that was our only defining quality. This meant that a huge range of people were there, such as members of resident’s associations, council workers, people from charities such as St. Mary’s Hospice, Friends groups, people from art’s societies, people working in heritage conservation, people working to bring sport to disadvantaged kids, and many, many more. We discussed what we thought a community network should be and what we would want to gain from being part of it. The consensus was that the network would not be prescriptive and would not have stated objectives; it would simply be there to provide support and to connect people who do good within their communities so that they did not feel isolated, so they could pick up the phone and talk to someone doing similar things to them without feeling embarrassed. I had no expectations going into it, but enjoyed meeting people doing similar things to TCV and also people doing things that are completely different but still facing the same hurdles and pitfalls. I am intrigued to see what future meetings bring.
Party On The Green!
Happy people planting up mini edible gardens
Finally, our most recent day of community fun was the Ley Hill ‘Party on the Green’, a community event similar to a village fair, with a number of stalls, competitions, opportunities to showcase local talent such as dance and tai chi, rides and music. We gave away free mini edible gardens which were planted up by members of the public, to promote healthy eating and food-growing at home as part of the Health for Life programme. As we have a growing space next to the village green, with raised beds, a foraging hedge and fruit trees, we wanted to inform local people about this space to generate interest and hopefully gain some new volunteers. We sent lots of happy people home with pots full of strawberries, edible flowers and interesting herbs such as lemon balm and chocolate mint, and answered lots of questions about gardening and growing your own food at home. Hopefully people will feel encouraged to learn more and come and volunteer with us.
Sharing skills – volunteers helping each other build raised beds
In other news, our site at the QE hospital is continuing to come along in leaps and bounds thanks to our enthusiastic volunteer group there, and as the site looks better and better it is attracting more people to come over and ask us what it is that we’re doing. Over half of the 12 raised beds have been built, most of the slabbing around the already built raised beds is nearly complete and some vegetables and herbs are starting to come through. By the time that I blog next we will have a water harvesting system in place, which will be carried out over the next week during three employee action days. Unfortunately I will be missing these days as I have the very exciting task of being in London to help the council construct its entry to the Chelsea Flower Show, which I am looking forward to immensely! Hopefully my next post will include some fantastic pictures from this, and maybe even a cheeky photo of Alan Titchmarsh.
Until next time!
Holly