At 5am on July 1st Sparkhill Park was unusually busy as a team of volunteers assisted by staff from the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre were busy getting ready for the Sunrise in Sparkhill event. This was due to start at 6am and was a community event to mark the Olympic Torch relay.
The event, partly funded through Near Neighbours, brought together members of the local faith communities including, Christians (Catholic and Protestant), Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims as well as local schools, businesses, the council and police.
The groups provided free breakfast for everyone, games and activities as well as performances on the bandstand that reflected all the faiths represented and which was compered by Nikki Tapper from BBC Radio WM.
In all over 1000 people came to the event of all ages and backgrounds. There was great excitement at seeing the torch and real enthusiasm for all the acts who performed. We also had a visit from Anne Barnes who had carried the torch the day before and she showed the torch and allowed people to be photographed with her and the torch.
The event featured much more that will come in future posts
There was dancing in the aisles, swaying in the pews and a standing ovation as Culture Shock brought their 90 minute set to a close with a Samba-ho-down bringing together the beats of Brazil with the twang of Country and Western. It was a fantastic performance which combined a blend of musical traditions from across communities and countries into a coherent and innovative sound that got the people of Moseley on to their feet.
Culture Shock was a one-off performance by eight of Birmingham’s top musicians who had spent the previous five days sharing their talents, skill and influences to create a unique musical narrative performed on the evening of their sixth day together. Musicians in the ensemble ranged from a trumpeter and a violinist to an Emcee, via percussionists, keyboards, guitarists and vocalists.
Each performer introduced their own piece of music and talked about the influences that shaped their music but each performance was shared and blended, giving the evening its unique flavour.
Before the main musical event the audience were welcomed to the free concert with a flavoursome fusion of delicous snacks provided by Indian and Lebanese caterers. The sun shone outside the beautiful St Anne’s church in Moseley as people mingled over meze and, as happens so often at Near Neighbours events, new relationships were made, new opportunities explored and new events planned.
There are plans for the ensemble to get together again and perform for the community at schools and local events. If you get the chance to hear them – don’t miss it. This was a group well-worth bringing together – so huge thanks from Near Neighbours to all the performers, organisers and to St Anne’s church for hosting the event.
Big thanks to Matt Kendall for sending us this report of a Near Neighbours project in Aston. If you have a story of a Near Neighbours activity or project we would love to feature it here
Aston Sports and Community Club’s (ASC) Near Neighbours Project is all about reclaiming Aston Park as a resource for the whole community, and while the majority of their activity is around sport and young people, this project is focused on work with the over 50s, a group often neglected in cohesion work locally. ASC’s project includes a series of 6 events where local older people from different faiths are brought together around shared interests and activities in spaces in and around Aston Park in order to build lasting relationships and friendships. Matt Kendall, a Director of ASC, and the project lead explains, “Older people are often the hub of their families, and we believe by building relationships here, when often there hasn’t previously been any work on building cross community understanding, we can make a real difference to both those directly involved, but also their families.”
The first event in the series was a tour of recently revitalised and restored Aston Hall, a beautiful Jacobean stately home in the heart of Aston, which has struggled to attract local visitors, drawing instead from the suburbs of the city. With the cooperation and support of the Hall’s excellent staff, the group of 38 older people from Aston, enjoyed tea and cake together, followed by some directed work in groups around active listening and sharing of each other’s stories of their own memories of Aston, and how they arrived there. Once the hard work was done, the group left on 2 guided tours of the hall, one of which was bi-lingual in Urdu, for the next 30 minutes.
From the signing in records, it was estimated that 21 churchgoers attended, 15 from mosques and 2 further of no affiliation. Feedback from the participants was first class, the organisers being thanked profusely, and ASC’s belief that working with this group was sowing on fertile soil was upheld. ASC believes that this is just the start of positive relationships, and we are looking forward to our next event, which is a partnership with local churches and groups for a Jubilee Big Lunch in Aston Park on Sunday 3rd June – watch this space for more detail.
If you want to know more about ASC’s work with older people do contact Matt by e-mail at info@astonsportsclub.com or visit the website.
Across the country people are gathering to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the congregation at St. Christopher’s Church in Springfield are no exception. They worked with friends from the Woodlands Road Mosque to organise a big lunch for the whole community. Springfield is a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham, but the church has built good links with people from all walks of life over the yeras. They benefitted from a small Near Neighbours grant to help them fund the games, decorations and activities that were all pert of the celebrations.
Several hundred people attended the event which was helped by the glorious sunshine throughout the day. Whilst the adults sat and eat and chatted children enjoyed playing on the bouncy castle, making crowns, face painting and tucking into an enormous amount of tasty food.
The sun might not have been shining but the welcome was as warm as toast as friends and neighbours gathered in George Park for the Lozells Food and Faith festival, funded by Near Neighbours. Organiser, Pall Singh, was one of the first people I spoke to about Near Neighbours when I began this job in July and I was not surprised to receive a bid from him, on behalf of the Lozells Project, quite soon after the fund opened in the autumn. He was pipped to the post, however, by the Buddhists who have a temple just by the Hockey Flyover and were the first organisation to apply for Near Neighbours funding.
So on Saturday, not only did we see the fruit of Pall’s application, as local residents had the chance to meet representatives from their local faith communities and sample a wonderful range of tasty foods but also two of the strands of the Buddhist-based application were represented. Inspire, the music project, provided some of the entertainment on the stage while representatives of the Flour Project were selling the most delicious looking cupcakes.
By 1 pm the park was full of the sounds of fun and music as children enjoyed the fairground rides and bouncy castles and all enjoyed the food, on-stage entertainment and the chance to see the exhibitions on display by community groups and faith organisations. As Near Neighbours we were made really welcome by other exhbitors and appreciated the chance to speak about Near Neighbours on stage with the local faith leaders. So huge thanks to all involved with this fantastic day and huge thanks too to the two local residents who popped back to their house by the park to make us stallholders a cup of tea – much appreciated.
Jubilee Debt Campaigner, Audrey Miller, was given a Near Neighbours grant to run workshops for women in Sparkhill on the theme of global poverty. The workshops were run at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre in March and Audrey was kind enough to share photos and her evaluation with us.
She said that all four creative workshops received positive feedback from the participants who really enjoyed their interactive nature. Activities ranged from banner-making to debate, from crafts to role-play.
The numbers of women attending varied from eleven to eight for the four sessions and participants were drawn from the Sikh, Muslim and Christian faith traditions.
Amogst the Christians were people from the Seventh Day Baptist Church, Church of God of Prophecy and the Orthodox Polish Russian church – all were new to Jubilee Debt Camppaign Multi-Faith meetings.
Different perspectives were given by women of African- Caribbean, Moroccan, Philippine and Asian heritage, who shared their experiences of poverty and culture.
A Jubilee Debt Campaign information resource pack was given to those attending the session and a fairtrade rainbow scarf was given to each participant and used to “create” a new item. This resulted in turbans, a cotta, bags, a necklace and various styles of scarves.
You can seem more photos from the workshops on the Near Neighbours Birmingham facebook page
Last night was the official opening of the fantastic Art4Action exhibition at MAC in Birmingham.
Art4Action is the brainchild of Faiths Act Fellows, Immandeep Kaur and Steve Hirst who have been based at the Springfield Centre working both with the centre and with The Feast since last September.
Faiths Act Fellows are part of the Tony Blair Foundation and as part of their work they are asked to raise awareness of and raise funds for the fight against malaria. Steve and Immy’s response has been Art4Action – a competition to engage children and young people in the issues and to develop creative and imaginative responses.
Steve and Immy have worked tirelessly delivering workshops about malaria is schools, nurseries and colleges across Birmingham. Through the workshops they have interacted with around 2,500 children and young people and ended up with 400 entries into the competition.
Yesterday we were privileged to see a selection – they were really fantastic. I am afraid the photos from my phone really don’t do them justice. The exhibition runs at the MAC til April 28th and there is a special family fun day this Saturday. You can find out more at www.facebook.com/Art4Action.
The special photobook is a real gem and my congratulations goes to the inter-faith judging panel that managed to make some really hard decisions.
We are really pleased that Near Neighbours could fund this project – fantastic work, Immy and Steve.
Near Neighbours Development worker Jessica Foster writes: The small grants part of the Near Neighbours programme has been running for just over seven months now and we have funded well over 40 projects, distributing nearly £170,000 to projects and activities that will create and strengthen friendships between people of different faiths who live close to one another.
For some projects the planning is over and it has been an absolute privilege to have been invited to the launch of a job club in Handsworth and the evening celebration of Hodge Hill’s Unsung Heroes recently.
While both events were very different, responding to the different needs in different parts of the city what delighted me was that at both occasions I saw that very real friendships were being built and nourished between people of different faiths and ethnicities who discovered huge amounts in common – shared values, shared concerns and shared neighbourhoods.
On my table of heroes in Hodge Hill, people from different faiths and ethnicities chatted away, building and deepening friendships. Throughout the evening we saw people appreciating the contribution their neighbour was making and that appreciation was enthusiastic, heartfelt and warm as people saw in one another the shared willingness to work together for the good of Hodge Hill.
In Handsworth the commitment to give the most disadvantaged people a second-chance had brought a steering group together to support Alvin Henry and the Dorcas Club to set up a job club. Here people wanted to see young people skilled and equipped to achieve in a competitive employment market. There was a particular concern for people who had left prison and were struggling to quit the offending cycle without any hope of a job.
Amongst this steering group of people was Ajit from the local gurdwara. Alvin told us that the Near Neighbours grant meant he needed a steering group made up of people from different faiths and he had approached Ajit from the Nishkam centre expecting a formal half-an-hour meeting. Three hours later Alvin and Ajit had become firm friends and Ajit is now an integral part of the group overseeing the job club.
At a lecture I attended as part of the Muslim-Christian forum residential for women we heard that friendship is not only personal and intimate but also civil and political. Friendships have the power to bring about real and lasting change in communities. We sometimes think they are something that happen to us but in reality we choose and nurture our friends. We hope Near Neighbours helps to build hundreds of new friendships across this city – we do hope you can be part of it
The route for the Olypmic Torch Relay has been announced and will be in Birmingham on the evening of 30th June and early morning on the 1st July. Much of the route passes through areas earmarked for Near Neighbours funding, so it’s a great chance to get together with people in your area to see the flame pass and have fun.
Details of the route are available on the London 2012 site along and a detailed list of the roads being used and timings can be found on the BBC website.
Jessica Foster, the Near Neighbours Coordinator, said ‘This is a great opportunity to be part of the Olympics by getting together with neighbours to see the Olympic Torch. The fact that it passes through Near Neighbours areas is an added bonus, as grants could be available for groups who organise a joint celebration or event on the day’
Following the successful ‘Faithful Conversations’ training day in February we are running it again on 21st April, this time starting at 7:30 so that those who work during the day can attend.
The programme will follow the same pattern as last time with an opportunity to think about our own faith story and how we can share that with others in a constructive and positive way.
The training also includes listening exercises and the opportunity to hear the experiences and beliefs of others.
