Community News

The countdown is on for keen runner 33-year-old Manish Patel from West Bromwich after he signed up to take part in this year's London Marathon. Manish is currently hard at work training for the annual 26.2-mile race around the capital to raise money for local mental health charity, the Kaleidoscope Plus Group after the team supported him back in 2020 when he was struggling with his own mental health.

Three leading international journalists will discuss how to transform European media to ensure equality, especially for women of colour, during an online discussion organised by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity at Birmingham City University.

Sabika Shah Povia (Reuters, La Reppublica), and Riem Higazi (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) and Djarah Kan (L’Espresso) will join K Biswas (New Statesman, New York Times, Resonance FM) - critic and editor of Representology for the hour-long exchange.

Five people including two girls aged 10 and 11 have been arrested for attacked a black schoolgirl outside a Surrey school on Monday.

The video footage which has gone viral on social media and across WhatsApp shows the girl repeatedly kicked and punched in the head, while her hair is being pulled and an adult is heard shouting to 'kick her in the face'.

An aristocratic British family is to make history by travelling to the Caribbean and publicly apologising for its ownership of more than 1,000 enslaved Africans.

Members of the Trevelyan family have signed a letter of apology for its enslavement of captive Africans. They are also set to pay reparations to the people of Grenada, where they owned six sugar plantations.

A new series of self-authored short films by Londoners affected by female genital mutilation (FGM) are to be promoted by the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, as part of his grassroots ‘FGM Stops Here’ community outreach campaign to end this illegal and barbaric practice.

The new ‘FGM Stops Here’ videos by FGM survivors, family members, medical professionals and campaigners from across the capital’s diverse communities, highlights the determination of Londoners to end the practice and demonstrate the devastating impact FGM has on the lives and wellbeing of survivors and their families.

Work has begun on a major overhaul of playing fields in Bilston following a community consultation. City of Wolverhampton Council and developers Haystoun Construction Limited have started work on transforming Prouds Lane Playing Fields.

Improvements will include a new children’s play area with inclusive equipment to enable children of all ages and abilities to play together. Existing football pitches will be renovated and outdoor gym equipment will be installed to help local people boost their fitness levels.

Leading developer Barratt and David Wilson Homes North Midlands has made a donation of £1,000 to cancer charity, Lauren’s Legacy.

Heage-based Lauren’s Legacy was formed in August 2019 in memory of Lauren Elliott, who sadly passed away at the age of 22 after a five-year battle with Sarcoma, a rare type of cancer. The charity is run by Lauren’s parents and friends.

The restoration of a two kilometre stretch of the River Stour in the Black Country is set to get underway thanks to £100,000 from the West Midlands Combined Authority’s (WMCA) Community Green Grants scheme. Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust (BBCWT) will use the money to extend its successful Love Your River Stour project along a stretch running through Cradley Heath and Lye.

A female activist known as the "founding spirit" of the Notting Hill Carnival is being honoured with a blue plaque.

Equality campaigner Claudia Jones pioneered the Caribbean festival in London. Her former home in Vauxhall, Lambeth, will be bestowed with the plaque.

Ms Jones is one of six people being recognised by English Heritage for their impact on art, music and social reform.

A former Birmingham Poet Laureate has used her skills to host a grief writing workshop for staff at the Marie Curie Hospice, West Midlands.

Charlie Jordan hosted the History of Birmingham quiz round at the West Midlands Brain Game in October 2022. And having been hugely impressed by the work of the charity, offered to visit the hospice, and run the workshop for its team of specialist bereavement counsellors and volunteers.

Moseley has become the latest area to be added to the growing West Midlands Cycle Hire network following the introduction of new docking locations around the suburb. The region-wide bike share scheme has seen more than 100,000 users sign up and almost half-a-million rides taken since launching in spring 2021.

Three statues thought to be the first sculptures depicting Black British people on display in England are set to return to Brixton station later. The life-size bronze figures, called Platforms Piece, were first installed on the platform in 1986 before being removed in 2016 for refurbishment.

Created by Kevin Atherton, it depicts three Brixton residents of the time and is Grade II listed. The original statues will be joined by a new one named Joy II.

Birmingham’s annual civic commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day will be hosted at the Council House this week.

The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Maureen Cornish, will lead the event on Sunday (29 January 2023) which this year has the theme of ‘Ordinary People’. The event is free, open to all and starts at 2pm.

In the run up to Valentine’s Day next month, shoppers in the UK’s town and cities are being urged to vote for their most loved local businesses to celebrate Love Local Day.

Now in its fifth year, #LoveLocalDay, an initiative led by local shopping platform, ShopAppy.com, comes at a time when many small independent high street businesses are under immense pressure due to soaring inflation and energy bills, and reduced consumer spend.

A resident at a care home in Solihull celebrated her 100th birthday with a surprise party with family and friends. A very special birthday celebration took place at Care UK’s Blossomfield Grange, on Worcester Way, when resident Esme Turner, turned 100 years ‘young’.

To celebrate, the care home team decorated the lounge with balloons and banners, and the home’s talented head chef baked a special birthday cake for everyone to enjoy at a surprise afternoon tea party.

Unclaimed benefits and grants worth £500,000 have been identified in less than three months by council staff during special sessions for citizens at two Neighbourhood Advice and Information Centres.

Since November, the sessions – specifically for cost of living issues – have been held in Erdington and Northfield, with 283 people assisted to maximise their income during these tough times through benefits and grants worth a combined, estimated, total of £509,919.