It is great to see so many of you at our virtual Coffee Mornings and Tea Times. If you have not been to one then we would love to welcome you to join us.
For our next Coffee Morning, we will be meeting up socially distancing outside, along with Zoom as well
If you are happy to meet up, then come along to Cotteridge Park on Wednesday 12th May at 11.00am
Franklin Road, Cotteridge, B30 2HG
We will be outside at The Shed run by the Friends of Cotteridge Park
Tea, coffee & cake will be available
Please wrap up or bring an umbrella, depending on the weather
This Coffee Morning will still be online as well, so if you cannot come in person, please come along virtually!
Join by clicking the zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83366556895
From the 28th May to 13th June Birmingham is again taking part in the Great British Spring Clean, organised by Keep Britain Tidy.
Arrange your litter pick & clean up to be part of this national event and join in with Birmingham's Spring Clean.
Birmingham Council's Cleaner Greener Street Team can then help out to supply any equipment you may need and orgainse collecting the bags at the end of the activity.
To take part, please contact me on info@bosf.org.uk with the date, time and location for your event.
I can then pass this over to the Cleaner Greener Streets Team for them to help you out further.
They also have some equipment available for your group to help with your activities. This is limited, but please contact John Murphy at john.x.murphy@birmingham.gov.uk
This equipment includes:
Brooms, loppers, trowels, hoes, litter pickers & hoops, bags, graffiti kits, first aid kits etc.
Let's get together to help make Birmingham cleaner!
City of Nature Challenge with the Wildlife Trust
The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country, EcoRecord and Birmingham Museums Trust are calling for local residents to take part in the City Nature Challenge and help showcase the rich diversity of wildlife across Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
This global citizen science project takes place between Friday 30th April and Monday 3rd May 2021 and anyone can get involved by downloading the free iNaturalist app from inaturalist.org or from the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Simply take a photo of any wild plant or animal and upload it to the app where the species-recognition software helps with identification. Any wildlife counts including birds, mammals, insects, trees, flowers, amphibians, reptiles, fungi, moss and lichen.
Birmingham and the Black Country took part for the first time in 2020, recording over 1,300 species - more than any other European city area! 244 cities took part across the world and Birmingham and the Black Country placed 31st by number of species recorded ahead of all other UK cities that took part. Some of the highlights of 2020 challenge recorded by Birmingham and Black Country residents included Weasel, Red kite and otter poo as well as the area’s first record of a rare Box Bug (Gonocerus acuteangulatus).
Take the City Nature Challenge!
News from the Friends of Manor Farm Park
Manor Farm Park now has three picnic benches funded by the National Lottery’s Heritage Fund, a new permanent shelter and a new bench overlooking White Hill Lane.
Manor Farm Park, located off Bristol Road South, was part of George and Elizabeth Cadbury’s estate until it was gifted to Birmingham City Council in 1954. It has a rich history going back to the Romans and beyond. It also has a wide variety of animals, birds and plants and includes two streams, an artificial lake, woodlands, and several areas of open parkland.
The new picnic tables also have a QR code that can be scanned to link to the Manor Farm Park Heritage Trail. The trail, which celebrates the park’s history and nature, was funded by a grant given to the Friends of Manor Farm Park by The National Lottery’s Heritage Fund.
To create the Heritage Trail, the Friends of Manor Farm Park collected information about the park and its history to make it available to park users and for educational resources for local schools. Many paths in the park are suitable for buggies and wheelchairs and there are no steps on them.
The new shelter near the car park provides a focus for park users to meet up and enjoy the park in all weathers including providing shade from the sun. The Friends of Manor Park together with the newly created charity the Cadbury Barn Trust secured the funding from a National Lottery Community Fund grant in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with the support of Birmingham City Council.
The shelter enables up to nine people to have socially distanced meet ups in the park while Covid 19 restrictions and guidance are in place, regardless of the weather.
Nature & Environment Youth Art Competetition
Birmingham Museums have recently launched their sixth annual young person’s art competition, Inspire ’21. Every year, they have hundreds of entries.
The theme this year is ‘Nature and the Environment’ and they want to encourage young people in the Midlands to get out and about in their gardens, streets, parks and nature reserves to enjoy the natural environment, then share what they’ve experienced or their thoughts about the future of our planet, through creativity. They will be sharing everyone’s entries online and the winning entries in each age group will also receive a prize, and their work will be displayed at Thinktank for thousands of visitors to see.
Celebrating Communities Grants Celebrating Communities is now available for projects under one of three themes: 'Getting Active', 'Ready, Steady, Fun' and 'Celebrating Culture'.
The first application window is open until 1 June. Then it will open again from 1 October until 30 November.
The BCM lunchtime grant guidance sessions will begin online on Thursday 29 April (from 12 noon to 1.30pm) and be repeated throughout May. To take part, please visit this Eventbrite listing and register for a suitable date. You can also drop them a line at ccsupport@birminghamcommunitymatters.org.uk.
Community Renewal Fund
The Community Renewal Fund (CRF) has been introduced by the UK Government for 2021/22 to support people and communities most in need across the UK.
The deadline for the next applications is Wednesday 12 May at 12 noon and all applications must be completed using the national application form.
Edgbaston & Northfield NNS Fund
Neighbourhood Network Schemes are locality and constituency-based networks funded by Birmingham City Council which enable the engagement with and investment in community assets. This is for the purpose of supporting older people to connect with individuals, groups, organisations, activities, services and places in their local neighbourhood.
Grants will be available up to the value of £10,000 to constituted organisations.
Organisations will need to be working actively within the wards of Edgbaston or Northfield, as defined by the Parliamentary Constituency boundaries.
Wesleyan Foundation Small Grants
The Wesleyan Foundation would like to support organisations and charities that focus on supporting Black/African Caribbean communities following the recent BLM conversations.
We are unable to support any projects which focus on campaigning. However we can support projects which focus on health, vulnerable groups, employability. Projects must fall into activities which form part of the current aims of the fund.
How has lockdown changed our relationship with nature? A new article from the ONS draws together data examining our use and access to parks and greenspaces, exercise levels in and out of lockdown, and the links between nature and personal wellbeing. The article can be found by clicking here.
New Countryside Code launched A new refreshed Countryside Code has been published by Natural England and Natural Resources Wales, 70 years since the first booklet was published in 1951. Changes include advice on creating a welcoming environment, clearer rules, and advice on how to seek permission for different activities. For more details,click here.
The People and Nature Survey for England The interim indicators from the People and Nature Survey conducted by Natural England have been released, covering February 2021, to understand the impact of COVID-19 on how people use the natural environment in England. One of the main findings shows that 41% of adults said visiting green spaces has been even more important to their wellbeing since coronavirus. For more details, click here.
