Organisations invited to apply to become part of Stronger Communities scheme

A search has been launched for organisations that can help support a range of activities being developed by Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC) that are designed bring people together as a result of the city hosting the Commonwealth Games next year.

The Stronger Communities project will utilise an allocation of £500,000 from the council’s £6million Commonwealth Games Community Fund.

Organisations are now being asked to submit applications to support three of the five workstreams that will make up the Stronger Communities scheme.

The three areas in which expressions of interest are being welcomed are:

• A city connected by inclusive heritage trails – Applicants are being asked to provide ideas/photos/videos for potential trails, in addition to supplying volunteers to act as navigators around the trail.
• We made Birmingham – A search for organisations that will work with local communities to gather narratives about living and working in Birmingham, as well as identifying people from their localities who have interesting stories to tell.
• Getting Communities Talking – A search for organisations that can demonstrate their ability to recruit and work with women from diverse backgrounds who have been marginalised and have difficulty engaging with others.

Cllr John Cotton, Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion, Community Safety and Equalities, said: “The Commonwealth Games will be a moment to celebrate our city’s identity and personality with the world.

“Birmingham is a diverse, welcoming, and inclusive place. We want to enable local people and communities to participate in the Games in a way that builds civic pride, cohesion and inclusion.

“We can use our Proud Host City status as a turning point in uniting our population and tackling inequalities.

“We’ve engaged with the people of Birmingham to shape the Stronger Communities programme and will be working with BVSC and others to deliver it – now we need organisations to come forward to help do this and I hope we receive a wide range of submissions to help us achieve a key legacy aims from the Games.”

The deadline for submissions is 5pm on 7 January 2022.

The following is a brief summary of all five Stronger Communities workstreams:

A city connected by inclusive heritage trails

Development of an interconnected network of heritage trails that navigate through Birmingham’s history, shaped through honest and diverse stories of settlement. This will include steps to properly champion the telling of “unheard histories” with communities defining their own narratives of place.

The trails will be co-designed with communities and local historians. There will be printed and downloadable Heritage Trail maps for Games visitors and the network of Heritage Trails will be promoted on a web-page as part of the Commonwealth Games. Beyond the Games, the Heritage Trails will have an enduring digital presence and will be promoted through heritage and visitor organisations, community venues, social media and online.

We Made Birmingham

Small grants projects to record and share stories of heritage, community activism and migration from as many of Birmingham’s diverse communities as possible. The aim being to promote wider public understanding of how different patterns of migration and settlement have shaped Birmingham, its localities and communities and the connections which exist between its places and people.

Getting Communities Talking

Delivering small community grants to enable women from particularly marginalised communities to forge long-term connections with others in their communities. A key objective is to create spaces for migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women and British women together in Birmingham to develop English language skills and confidence by creating spaces, opportunities and connections for dialogue and interaction across perceived divides of language, culture, ethnicity, race, age.

Birmingham Peace Garden proposal

The council has already commenced regeneration of the Peace Garden attached to the remains of St Thomas’ Church in Birmingham City Centre. This project will deliver 2 strands of work:

1. The development of a programme of commemoration and celebration events to coincide with the Games and involving audiences from all communities, ages and organisations across the city
2. Bringing together a community partnership to be part of consultation, involvement and options-appraisal for the longer-development of the Peace Garden and producing a plan which the council and its partners and stakeholders can use to guide longer-term development activity and approaches

Inspiring future leaders

Growing and inspiring our future educators and leaders from under-represented groups across the range of leadership positions in Birmingham. The leadership development programme will be designed for those from under-represented backgrounds to help kickstart and accelerate career progression and development.