This year Birchfield Big Local celebrated the end of the year with a Christmas event that took place at the St Mary’s Church Hall in Handsworth. The event was open to all staff, volunteers, partnership group members and friends of BBL.

We were grateful for the voluntary input of Adlin Shorter, Nasreen Reshma and Dean Richards on the day, which helped the whole event to go smoothly.

Catering was provided by Lynda McFarlane and entertainment by Winston Harris.

All those in attendance had a great time, enjoying good food, good company, entertainment and a raffle.

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Andrew Simons (BBL community development worker) said;

“Thanks to all for the Birchfield Big Local Christmas meal at St Mary’s Church Hall, Handsworth. This is the first time we have held it at St Mary’s and were well impressed with the facilities – especially the kitchen!

“Thanks to Lynda (Vegan Vybes) for providing a fabulous Christmas meal and to Winston Harris for the music and entertainment.

“The meal was attended by the Elders group and English Class participants and was an opportunity to celebrate the students achievements in attending 14 weeks of conversational English classes planned and led by volunteer tutors – Mehnaz, Salema and Cherrelle.

“Well done to all. Many thanks to Tippa for organising the event and to all the volunteers who helped on the day.”

Thanks to everyone who attended the BRAG Autumn Fete at the Pavilion building, Livingstone Road Allotments. For once the weather was perfect and the attendance better than ever. Phil Bowers entertained everyone with live music and Claudette Holmes ran a children’s arts workshop which was very popular.

There was a display of historical photographs of the area provided by Tom Clements and an opportunity for people to plant up pots with winter flowering plants and spring bulbs with Barbara and volunteers. Thanks to Mehnaz for providing us with some great food and to Albert for arranging access to the Allotment Pavilion for the day.

The event was organised by BRAG – Barbara, Lurlyn and volunteers, with support from Birchfield Big Local. There were some great pumpkins and gourds on display all grown on the Livingstone Road Community Allotment which were sold at the end of the day – proceeds to support the future work of BRAG and the allotment project.

Ashebo CIC were funded through the Birchfield Big Local small grants scheme to provide a play training course for local people interested in children’s outdoor play.

The training, led by Kemi Folarin, was one day per week over four weeks and 14 people attended in total. One participant said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the course and gained a new outlook on children’s play. It has inspired me to advocate for play opportunities for local children.”

The course was so popular that there was a waiting list. Birchfield Big Local will be looking for further opportunities to provide play training and promote children’s play outdoors.

We are currently looking for volunteers to help at the Secret Garden, a community garden and play space hidden away behind Grosvenor Avenue, Westminster Road and Hutton Road.

If you are interested, please contact us.