Community News

The atmosphere was full of comradery and optimism as The Queen shook hands with athletes, young people, High Commissioners and staff at the launch of a Commonwealth Hub. The ceremony took place at Marlborough House, the Commonwealth’s headquarters in London. The new Commonwealth Hub will be located directly across from Marlborough House in a building to be renamed Commonwealth House. It will become the home of a network of Commonwealth accredited organisations.

Throughout her time on the throne, our beloved Queen has borne witness to more technological advancements in the way she communicates with her subjects than any of her predecessors. To celebrate her official 90th birthday this week, and as an appreciation of her ongoing commitment to embrace the changing tech landscape, new research commissioned by Three has detailed in full the extent to which this is the case in timeline form, beginning with her Coronation in 1953 – the first to ever be televised – through to the sending of an inter-galactic good luck tweet to astronaut Tim Peake earlier this year.

An intrepid cyclist from Redditch is planning on cycling 2000km around France for charity whilst following the Euros to be held in the summer. Tom Sweeney, 22, from Redditch is embarking on this journey on the 25th of June with minimal gear, little money and his trust-worthy fixed-gear bicycle. Tom has been studying in Southampton for the past three years and is donating the money raised to Alzheimer’s Society. He plans on stopping off at the designated fan zones for the football matches and tracking England’s progress.

Jamaicans in the UK will gather in Birmingham on 25th June to discuss and explore issues of concern worthy of consideration, representation and further partnership working with the government of Jamaica. The Conference will be attended by Member(s) of Parliament, the Acting Jamaican High Commissioner and other representatives from the Jamaican High Commission.

Birmingham law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Young Professional Women’s Group sponsored a black tie ball to help raise funds for local charity, Ladies Fighting Breast Cancer. The event also showcased the support group Cysters, which is a new initiative that has been set up in Birmingham. The event, which was held at the McDonald Burlington Hotel, raised more than £3,000 for the charity, which helps women who suffer with Breast Cancer.

A voluntary group from Birmingham that manages the Sports Hub for the community by the community has been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK. The groundbreaking sports hub has enhanced the community by developing individuals using sport as the medium and regular attracts 600/800 young people a week.

Grace Kennedy in partnership with Western Union International are hosting the first of two Town Hall meetings tonight, at Badshah Palace in Birmingham under the theme “Caribbean Diaspora – Borderless Possibilities”. With keynote speaker, The Most Honourable P. J. Patterson ON PC QC OE, former Prime Minister of Jamaica, the event looks to be one not to miss.The Phoenix Newspaper caught up with The Most Honourable P. J. Patterson, as well as Sean Mason – Vice President Western Union in the Caribbean and Michelle Allen, CEO Grace Kennedy Money Services on the day before the event to find out a little more about the Town Hall meetings.

The search for a long-term partner to build a new neighbourhood for Tottenham was launched by Haringey -more than 1,400 new homes will be built as part of the development, along with business space and a major new public square. The new homes are part of the groundbreaking ‘High Road West’ scheme which will deliver a major new public space linking a revamped White Hart Lane Station to the new stadium with a park, restaurants, bars, cafés, library and learning centre and a public amphitheatre to host screenings and community events. High Road West provides one of London’s best opportunities to build modern, high-quality homes.

Elf-Hats, wintery walks and yuletide fun are all part of When You Wish Upon a Star’s (WYWUAS) Christmas fundraising campaign, Laps for Lapland, which will be taking place this winter. The national charity, which grants the wishes of children living with life threatening illnesses, is appealing for local schools, nurseries, businesses and communities to take part in a Lap for Lapland this winter- helping to raise funds for a magical trip of a lifetime for seriously ill children.

Surprising new findings from pet insurance provider PDSA Petsurance show that while 76% of households* take out contents insurance for their possessions, only 42% of pet owners insure their four-legged friends. This leaves the owners of around twelve million pets at risk financially should anything happen to their four-legged friends, warns leading vet charity, PDSA.

Do you know somebody in Haringey doing something amazing or someone who deserves a pat on the back for the brilliant work they do? Someone like Lynn Stevens, a carer from Hornsey who supports vulnerable residents so they can live independently. Or a Haringey resident who volunteers to run a sports or music club. Or someone involved in an organisation like the Good Gym a running group set up to help the community.

The reimagining of Shakespeare’s New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon reached a significant milestone this week as the new lawn was laid in the Great Garden, restoring it to its former glory. This heralds the final stages of the ground breaking project undertaken by The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust as part of Shakespeare’s 400^th anniversary celebrations.

Bells from over 80 church towers will ring out simultaneously at 7pm on BBC Music Day, Friday 3 June. This unifying moment of celebration will happen throughout towns, cities and villages across the UK, with over 650 bell ringers aged from 11 to 90 years old taking part. Cathedrals involved include Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol, Blackburn, Birmingham and Worcester, and there are many parish churches from Saint Francis Xaviers in Liverpool, and St Mary's at Turville in Buckinghamshire, to St John’s Dumfries in Scotland, and St Teilo's Church, Llantilio Crossenny in Wales.

A new innovative experiment commissioned by Direct Line Home Insurance reveals that men are proving “it’s good to talk,” spending more time chatting on the phone than women.  Men spend 66 per cent longer talking on their phone than women – equivalent to 10 minutes more each day. When it comes to overall phone usage, men spend an hour longer each day using their phones than women. 

A new strategy has been unveiled by the Safer Wolverhampton Partnership designed to continue the good work being done to protect vulnerable people in the city. The Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy seeks to tackle domestic and sexual violence, female genital mutilation, honour-based violence and forced marriage.

Refugees, Tim Peake, Star Wars, Shakespeare, and social media are just some of the events, people, and subjects that influence British children’s creativity and use of language, says a report published by Oxford University Press (OUP).
Following OUP’s analysis of the 123,436 entries for the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Chris Evans Breakfast Show’s 500 WORDS short story competition, a wealth of fascinating insights into the lives of British children and their imaginative use of English have emerged.