Community News

The winners for the third round of the You Matter Communities Community Fund have been announced. McLaughlin & Harvey, the lead contractor for Birmingham City Council at the Alexander Stadium Redevelopment, has finalised ten community projects that will each receive a grant of up to £1,000 to support their work within local communities.

Launched last year, McLaughlin & Harvey’s You Matter Communities initiative provides support to local communities through volunteer time, small grants, and the use of excess materials from the construction process.

Our Creative Lockdown brings together five exhibitions showcasing the people of Wolverhampton’s artistic responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Library Service, Wolverhampton Society of Artists, Changing Lives Charity, Still Lively and the City Council’s Music Service have all come together to share the artwork that was created during lockdown.

A long-standing Midlands housebuilder has delivered a £28,750 donation to eight charities as part of its commitment to its Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) strategy. Kendrick Homes, which currently operates seven sites across the Midlands and Oxfordshire, has donated £1750 to Paralympics GB and £2500 to Midlands Air Ambulance, Mind, Primrose Hospice, The Prince’s Trust and Voluntary Action Stratford-on-Avon.

Employees at the Birmingham branch of business accountants and tax specialists Haines Watts have taken up the challenge to raise funds for West Midlands-based charity St Basil’s, one of the UK’s leading charities working to prevent young people becoming homeless.

After voting for St Basil’s as their chosen charity, the team based at their Edgbaston headquarters have pledged to raise £5,000.

The Leader of City of Wolverhampton Council has spoken of the city’s ongoing commitment to celebrating diversity as demonstrated by activities organised for Black History Month.

Councillor Ian Brookfield said that as the leader of one of the most diverse cities in the UK, he was proud that the council had organised events and was raising the profile of Black History Month throughout October.

The installation of a new canal bridge has marked a major milestone in the £56 million redevelopment of University railway station in Birmingham.

Spanning the Worcester & Birmingham Canal, the bridge links the new station to the University of Birmingham campus and will be crossed by thousands of passengers a day when it opens next summer.

Keep Britain Tidy has begun work with Birmingham City Council to tackle fly-tipping and reduce recycling contamination. Elements of the new work programme to be delivered over 2021–2022 include:

Footage has been release showing the moment a lorry REVERSES over a railway level crossing ripping off one of its barriers in the process.

Network Rail released the CCTV after the incident at Wedgwood Station level crossing in Stoke-on-Trent at 12.30pm on Thursday October 7.

Councillor John Cotton talks about why service men and women need support and the help that is available ahead of a Veterans Community Day in Birmingham.

“Next month we remember the fallen soldiers who sacrificed their today for our tomorrow, but when servicemen and women return to ‘civvy street’ they often need support.

A Nechells man who dumped six sacks of asbestos on a street in Hockley has been given a ten-month suspended prison sentence for his offences after a prosecution brought by Birmingham City Council.

Everton Clarke, aged 55, of Cromwell Street was caught offloading the waste from a van on All Saints Road on September 3 last year by a council CCTV camera – placed on the street due to it being fly-tipping hotspot.

Dozens of people joined a Hope Walk in Wolverhampton city centre to mark the end of Suicide Prevention Month.

The event, last Thursday, was organised by the Wolverhampton Suicide Prevention Stakeholder Forum as an opportunity to spread the word that there is help and support available to people in the city who are feeling overwhelmed by life, are worried about someone else in that position, or who have been bereaved by suicide. During the 90-minute walk, participants spoke to members of the public and visited organisations based around the city centre that offer help and support for people experiencing feelings of distress or despair.

Forum trustee Clare Dickens said: "We need everyone in Wolverhampton to know that suicidal thoughts are a sign to change something in their life, not to end their life, that it is possible to recover with the right support, and that their lives matter.

"Our annual Hope Walk welcomed people together in order to share resources, stories and messages of hope across the city, and we enjoyed some fantastic engagement with members of public, university students and shoppers while handing out literature and support cards. The amount of engagement with local barbers and hairdressers was particularly rewarding – recognising the vital role they play in people's lives that extends beyond tending to their hair.

"For many people, attending their local hairdresser offers them a moment of relaxation and often they trust them with some of their struggles. When barbers and hairdressers ask if they are okay, they really do mean it and want to know the honest response.

"By working with them, we can ensure they are supported and so, in the event they get a disclosure that someone is considering their life is not worth living, they know how to give them safe, proportionate support and intervention." People who are having a difficult time or who are worried about someone else are encouraged to contact:

·         The Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.

·         Papyrus (for the prevention of suicide in the under 35s) on 0800 0684141, text 07786 209697 from 9am-midnight or visit www.papyrus-uk.org.

·         Kaleidoscope Plus Group Suicide Bereavement Support Group, visit http://bit.ly/KPG-suicide-bereavement-support.

The Black Country Partnership NHS Trust's mental health support line is available to residents of all ages who are experiencing mental distress and require urgent support, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by calling 0800 008 6516. Wolverhampton Suicide Prevention Stakeholder Forum represents a range of key organisations and charities within the city, supported by the City of Wolverhampton Council's Public Health team, which all work closely together in order to prevent suicide.

Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market is once again looking to recruit more than 200 people to support its stalls when it returns to the city centre next month.

Previously the event’s organisers – Frankfurt Christmas Market Ltd – have taken on temporary local workers, but for the first-time people will be able to apply online.

A married couple who escaped slavery in the US and fled to England to campaign for abolition have been honoured with a Blue Plaque.

Ellen and William Craft travelled 1,000 miles from Georgia to freedom in the north, with Ellen disguised as a white man and William as her servant.

Birmingham’s first ESB Energy multi-charging hub for electric vehicle (EV) users has been officially opened at a flagship site located on Navigation Street.

The hub includes four rapid (50kW) multi connector chargers and two fast chargers (22kW), allowing eight EVs to charge at any one time.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and RSA Insurance Group have launched the ground-breaking Fall Fighter initiative with the aim of tackling the UK’s biggest forgotten killer – falls in the home.

Falls are the single biggest cause of accidental injuries in the home and the largest cause of death among over-65s in the UK.

As the Metropolitan Police announces guidance on challenging plain-clothes officers following shocking revelations about Sarah Everard’s tragic murder, a former Met employee is calling for misogyny to be properly defined in law and treated as a hate crime.

Ronald Winch is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Policing at Birmingham City University and served for over thirty years with the Metropolitan Police Service and West Midlands Police.