Castle Bromwich Community Website

Castle Bromwich Youth & Community Partnership has launched a CHARM initiative. The scheme will show how easy it is to make cheap, healthy meals from scratch.

Weekly cook and eat sessions will show how to reproduce cheaper, healthier alternatives to favourite take-away meals at home and help to develop basic cooking skills and confidence. The sessions will take place in the Castle Bromwich Youth & Community Centre from February to May. Sessions are free, but registration is required.

You can register your interest or find out more details on the CBYCP Website.

The efforts of the Castle Bromwich Community Project to restore the closed graveyard have paid off with an excellent first time result in the Royal Horticultural Society Britain in Bloom Competition. Members are celebrating after receiving a Thriving Award in this year’s Heart of England in Bloom – It’s Your Neighbourhood Awards category.

Representatives of the group were given the Red Carpet treatment when they attended the awards ceremony in Solihull to be told of the result. RHS Assessors Robin Russell and Ken Whittaker highlighted the group’s achievements in what they described as a massive challenge which had been community lead from day one. The graveyard has now been cleared of decades of overgrowth, graves uncovered, water restored and newly planted flower beds make a colourful addition to the site.

Terrie Knibb, Chairman of the Castle Bromwich Community Project said: “We could not have achieved this fantastic result without the many community groups and residents who have got involved. The judges were particularly impressed by the large number of local young people who joined in to help often giving up their school holidays. This shows how much local residents care about our community and want to help improve the area. There’s still much to be done, but this is a great start.”

The awards are supported by Marches Housing Association and Managing Director Phil Green said: “We continue to be delighted and surprised by the quality and quantity of entries. So much hardwork and determination goes into creating gardens and projects that not only look beautiful but have also been about communities coming together and caring for their local area.” 

If you're involved in a community group in North Solihull the launch of the Confident Communities  programme could help you. Learn the skills, find the resources and build the network you need to be really effective.

Confident Communities will be led by a team from Fircroft College of Adult Education. Introductory sessions will be held at a North Solihull venue in No0vember covering:

Community leadershipEffective meetingsFundraising EssentialsAttracting & keeping new membersTo find out more or to book phone Sustain on: 0121 711 3148

Castle Bromwich Community Project joined with local residents, Solihull Police, Solihull Youth Service and other community groups to stage a “Dimbleby” style Question Time which united young and old in North Solihull.

A cross generational audience  with ages ranging from 16 to 82, gathered to gain a better understanding of each other and to help break down barriers and correct misunderstandings.

Best selling author and motivational speaker, Andy Cope, introduced the event and chaired the question session. There was also a myth busting quiz where the audience voted interactively on questions around statistics concerning the fear of crime and issues around alcohol.

Audience members were able to put their questions of concern about various problems in their community to a panel. The panel consisted of three young people, a Manager from Solihull Youth Service, a Director from Solihull Council and a Chief Inspector from the Police.

The event closed with a video of work being undertaken by the Castle Bromwich Community Project to restore the graveyard in Castle Bromwich which showed how barriers between the generations are being broken down and just what can be achieved when the community unites and works together.

Terrie Knibb, Chairman of the Castle Bromwich Community Project and a resident from Castle Bromwich said, “This event was put on for the Community in order that different generations could unite to understand and respect each other. The feedback from the event was very encouraging and both young people and older residents will now feel more reassured. I know of many young people who give their time to work along side adults and help with community projects and I would encourage more people to do this.”

A cross-generational community group from North Solihull is inviting residents to help them build bridges between young and older people.

Communities for You – a group made up of young and older people – is hosting a Question Time session, for residents to put their questions to a diverse panel of experts.

The panel will feature Solihull Council’s Director for Places Anne Brereton, Nicola Holmes from Solihull Council’s Youth Service, young resident Beth Mears, a senior Police manager and a representative from Solihull Youth Council.

The event will be an opportunity to talk about a range of subjects, from, parks and open space, anti-social behaviour and fear of crime through to finding activities for people of all ages and looking at how relationships between young and old can be built and how different generations can understand each other’s concerns.

The event takes place on Friday 25 March at the Loft Space in Chelmsley Wood library and 10 spaces have been reserved for any residents who want to attend.

Councillor Norman Davies, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “This event shows young people taking the initiative and working with adults to improve relationships between people from different generations, which has to be applauded. I look forward to hearing about what gets discussed at the session.”

For more information and to register an interest in filling one of the residents’ spaces, please contact Terrie on 0845 5212436.

Could this be what David Cameron envisages when he talks about Big Society? Faced with no water in a closed graveyard and no clear responsibility the Castle Bromwich Community Project set about solving the problem itself. With the collaboration of Castle Bromwich & District Lions, local resident Jerry Gray and British Waterways members of the Castle Bromwich Community Project restored the water supply so that elderly residents would no longer need to lug water from their homes to the graveyard.

The graveyard is the final resting place of Alderman Thomas Clayton one of the founding members of Fellows, Moreton and Clayton canal carriers and boat builders. It's therefore somewhat fitting that British Waterways donated the water bollard which the project and its supporters fitted. Click on the link below to see  the work that went into the restoration:

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Installation of Graveyard Tap

Thanks to local residents and community groups, Castle Bromwich is set for a more colourful Spring in 2011. The Castle Bromwich Community Project, assisted by Castle Bromwich Youth & Community Centre and Castle Bromwich Lions,  hosted a further clear-up of the closed graveyard by St Mary & St Margaret Church which culminated in hundreds of bulbs being planted for spring colour.

Members of Castle Bromwich Community Project also worked with Waterloo Housing Association and local residents on the Parkfields to plant bulbs around the residential flats.

Whilst community representatives from Castle Bromwich Junior School have also been out planting in the community. Photos can be viewed on the Junior School website HERE

Volunteers will be undertaking another clear-up of the closed graveyard by St Mary & St Margaret Church Castle Bromwich Monday 25th October - Thursday 28th October between 11.30am and 3.30pm. Any local residents wishing to help are welcome and anybody wanting to find out more about how the Castle Bromwich Community Project is helping to restore the graveyard is invited to come along and ask questions and see what has already been achieved.

If you're reading this it's unlikely that you've experienced a shopping trip without seeing where you are going, who you are talking to or what obstacles are in your way, but that's just the experience that the estimated 314 million people with visual impairments including low vision and blindness live with every day.

For those of us fortunate enough to be able to see clearly, it's difficult to imagine what life might be like for those people who are not so fortunate. To raise awareness of the importance of regular sight tests to pick up any possible eye problems at an early stage when they are usually treatable, It is estimated that 80% of blindness could be prevented if problems are detected at an early stage. Depite this it is estimated that the incidence of blindness will double in the next 20 years. It was against this backCastle Bromwich & District Lions invited members of the local community to experience a walk around the shopping centre without vision.

Pat Wooldridge, President of the Castle Bromwich Lions, Ian Backhouse, Headteacher of Castle Bromwich Junior School, Councillor Ted Richards OBE and Shabbir Kaderbhai, a local Optician, were amoung those who volunteered to be blindfolded and guided around the area. With some trepidation they set off on their journey and and were soon very aware of how reliant they are on their sight. Most commented afterwards on how disorientated they were and several said they felt dizzy. They all said they had to place their trust in their guides to enable them to do something which they would normally undertake without problems.

The biggest problems were encountered when trying to cross roads, despite the improvements in street furniture and crossing designs with the introduction of bumped pavements to indicate crossings, this still proved to be a difficult task. Trying to move between parked cars aas was necessary to reach the zebra crossing proved even more difficult both for the guides and the guided.

Negotiating steps and doorways was another difficult aspect of the task which would have proved virtually impossible without the help of a guide and once inside the shops anything on sale could only be experienced through touch, smell and in a few instances sound rather than being able to see what was on offer.

Despite all this, it is doubtful that any of these volunteers could truely experince what it's like to live without vision as at the end of the walk they removed their blindfolds and carried on with their normal routines unimpeded by lack of vision, but they all hope that they have raised awareness of the importance of regular eye checks to ensure that preventable vision loss is eradicated.