Former refugee and The Apprentice star, Mergim Butaja, is taking on a charity challenge to support families fleeing ongoing conflict. The 23-year-old whose emotional farewell speech highlighted the importance of remaining strong and determined in the face of adversity has joined with 50 other volunteer fundraisers from international humanitarian charity Penny Appeal to run Coventry’s Half Marathon at the end of February.

Young people across a number of schools from Sandwell took part in the council's child’s voice conference held at the Bethel Convention Centre in West Bromwich on 30 November. They were there to shape the services they want to get from the council over the next year. The conference formed part of a series of events that have taken place over the past year as part of the council's SHAPE programme.

City of Wolverhampton Council will once again be collecting people’s real Christmas trees for recycling once the festive season is over. The council, through its waste and recycling partner Amey Plc, will take real trees only – not fake ones – during January. The service will be free and all people need to do is put their tree out on their normal recycling day next to their bin on the kerbside. Real tree collections will take place from Monday January 11 to Friday January 22.

The arbiters of social etiquette from Debretts may choke on their turkey with the news that millions of Brits planned to use their mobiles at the Christmas dinner table.  New research from Direct Line Home Insurance reveals 9.9 million people planned to use their mobile at the Christmas dinner table, swapping face time with family for games and screen time with faraway friends.

The spirit of Christmas was in plentiful supply when staff and customers at building society the West Brom staged festive cake and coffee days in aid of charity. The Society’s 37 branches across Birmingham and the Black Country collectively raised nearly £4,000 from the Care for a Cake events, with all proceeds going to the Edgbaston charity Edward’s Trust, which provides bereavement support for parents, children and carers from across the West Midlands.

Christmas has come early for children in Sandwell thanks to a new £100,000 play area with lots of new equipment in historic Lightwoods Park. The play area features a giant two-tower climbing wall guaranteed to give youngsters fun during the school holidays. Schoolchildren from Abbey Junior School, local councillors, council parks officers and representatives from Heritage Building and Conservation Ltd attended the launch.