Tag: Near Neighbours

Getting Crafty at the Old Printworks

Sophie Handy writes about Community Craft Worskshops at the Old Printworks in Balsall Heath:

“We are two weeks into the programme and have started to learn batik and felt making. The first week we had twelve women. The women who came were from a mixture of existing groups including the Friends of Clifton (a parents group who meet once a term for fundraising activities at Clifton Primary School), members of the congregation from the Wesleyan Holiness Church, members of the Saheli women’s project, associates through St Paul’s Church and Community Development Trust and a couple of women who have attended independently due to their own personal interests in crafts. The second session in felt making- we had sixteen participants with five new members joining us (two through Clifton Primary School, two with a particular interest in felt and one who had just heard about the project through a friend- all of these new members are keen to join the whole programme).

Batik Workshop- 6th February

This was the first workshop- led by Layla Tutt. Layla is an exceptionally enthusiastic young lady who has seven years experience of teaching and developing her love for batik. We chose Layla as to start as we know her passion is infectious and she is exceptionally skilled in making people feel welcome and relaxed. We had an introductory welcome which allowed everyone to share their personal interests and start to get to know each other.

Batik is a beautiful art form which as you will see from the photos everyone was able to create and complete a fantastically colourful piece. Apart from one lady who remembered doing batik many years ago at school, no one else had tried batik before. Layla explained the history of batik and gave the group a great insight into the many countries and cultures which use this technique to create textiles for clothing, home furnishings and tourist memorabilia. Layla explained how she has developed her skills in this area, creating her first pieces to sell at local crafts markets and now how she has developed a career from her craft- alongside her passions for playing the guitar- of which she also gave us all a rendition during the lunch break! Layla then led a demonstration explaining the materials, tools and techniques of batik and the different methods of application.

The women who have joined this group are from a variety of different places and although they are all from the local area, most had not met before. During the workshop there was a gentle hum of conversation and supporting banter towards one another commenting on each other’s work, inquiring how they had created that effect, their colour selections as well as some general more personal questions of interest, including HRT advice!
Due to the shared interest and interactions with the batik, everyone had a common ground and mutual reason for being there. This is why I love arts and crafts for community projects. There is no right or wrong way of doing things, everyone’s interpretation is different and everyone can learn and share something.
The lunch break was lovely and encouraged the women to move around and talk to people other than those they had been working by. I made sweet potato and carrot soup and we had fresh home-made bread from our in-house baker, who following its success has now struck us a deal for the whole programme. Some of the women from the group took a loaf home with them that day and have placed their orders for more.

At the end of the session everyone left saying how much they had enjoyed the batik session, how great Layla is and that they were looking forward to the next session. We talked about having an exhibition at the end of the project which everyone was really enthusiastic about. The group left their batik creations behind to start the first display of the groups work.

 

 

 

Felt Making- 13th February
This workshop was led by Ildiko Nagy. Ildi was at the group last week so she had already started to get to know some of the group. Ildi gave an introduction to the materials and her personal interests and developments in the craft- including passing round some wool from her grandfathers sheep back home in Hungary. She then gave a demonstration into needle felting techniques. As with the batik workshop, the group were given the choice to either create a template as a guide for their designs or start directly with an idea, pattern or image from their imagination. This worked really well, as some people are more confident than others with their own creativity and enjoy this direct experimental approach, while others are much more comfortable with the method of explicitly visualising their idea and planning prior to embarking on their final design.

There were a few new members to the group this week and it was really nice to hear people welcoming each other and saying how much they had enjoyed the session last week. Some of the women were discussing forthcoming workshops and which ones they were most looking forward to. We also discussed as a group the possibility of starting a craft business utilising everyone’s skills base and making things to sell- a few of the women were very keen on this idea as a way of sustainably carrying on doing the things they love.

Everyone has their own agenda for joining the workshops, while some are keen to learn or develop a particular craft technique, what is becoming apparent is that everyone seems to have an inherent creativity that they are enjoying being able to explore and share. Being in this setting is encouraging everyone to try new things, express themselves and realise how like minded we all are!

Planning, Personality and Pressure

The third Catalyst day took place at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre on Saturday 12th January. In a packed day the group learnt about basic planning for events including budgeting, risk assessments and safeguarding. After a wonderful curry for lunch the group thought about how their personality affects their leadership by going through an introduction to the Myers Briggs Tye Indicator personality test. This useful and entertaining session was led by Tom and Judy Walsh who helped us all see how personality impacts the way we lead and how we relate to those in our teams.

The final session of the day was on Leadership under pressure and was led by Jake Diliberto who brought a vast array of experience to the topic and described pressure situations he’d been a leader in that we all hoped we could avoid!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a warm up for this session the group were all put under pressure as they were challenged to use £5 to buy ingredients for a tasty snack for us to share in the tea break. The pressure was added to as they only had 35 mins from receiving the instructions to needing to serve the food. In this time they had to buy the ingredients, prepare them and do a risk assessment on the activity. A beautiful fruit salad, mini fruit kebabs and cheese and tomato on ciabatta were the results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In April all the members of Catalyst will have to prepare and run a Near Neighbours event, to prepare them for this task Immy Kaur shared her experience of running the Art for Action project in 2012.

Next up for Catalyst is our Residential trip to London from 28th Feb-3rd March. Look out for more updates

Can God be your Best Friend?

This was one of the questions that came out of our discussions at the second Catalyst day in December. The participants were asked to describe God in juts a few sentences and then to look at what other people had written. If they warmed to that description of God they put a tick. If they didn’t really understand what was written they put a question mark. If they didn’t describe God in that way they put a dot. One phrase that got an almost equal number of ticks and dots (but no question marks) was ‘My Best Friend’. For some this felt comforting, for others it was too informal and reduced God to our level.

Munpreet, who wrote the comment, has written a thoughtful blog post on why she wanted to describe God as her best friend. It’s well worth taking the time to read.

So what do you think? Too informal, an intimate and profound insight? And how might you describe God in just a few sentences?

Faithful Friends – Portraits of Friendships

Since September 2011, Near Neighbours has been encouraging people across the city to come together to make new friends, deepen relationships and transform their communities. We now have 92 projects that have been funded by Near Neighbours – initial feedback suggests 3,000 people have met each other through these events.

To celebrate these friendships between people of different faiths and ethnicities we comissioned 15 portraits taken by a professional photographer, Dee from Outroslide, that give the people and their relationship a context.

We shot the pictures and interviewed all the people involved during June, July, August, September and a bit of October, had bespoke display boards made that could fit in a car and be assembled as quickly as possibly (thanks to John at Morse-Brown Design) , hunted around for funding (thanks Transforming Church and Westhill Endowment) and eventually launched the exhibition on November 17th at St Martin’s Church in the Bull Ring.

The events was hosted by the Bishop of Birmingham, the Rt Revd David Urquhart working with comedian Barbara Nice and Sajid Khan. Guests browsed the exhibition, heard from some of the participants, danced, laughed and enjoyed afternoon tea.

The exhibition and its launch were featured on Central News – the piece included interviews with people who had been involved with the projects and some of those whose friendships are depicted in the portraits. You can watch the coverage here.

Since then the Exhibition has been seen at the launch of the Christian Muslim report into women’s work, at the national Together In Service event hosted by the Department for Communities and Local Government. It is booked by local primary schools, churches, universities and other places of worship but is available for anyone to borrow.

Booking forms and more details are all on our website – we really want people to see these pictures and think hard about the personal and political importance of friendships that bridge communities, challenge prejudice and broaden our imagination. Have a look at the pictures and stories featured in the exhibition on the Outroslide website.

(All pictures from the launch were taken by Helen Tomblin – thanks.)

 

 

 

 

 

Sunrise in Sparkhill 2

The Birmingham Faith Leaders Group were invited to Sunrise in Sparkhill to lead the crowds in the reading of our faith pledge. Written specially for the event this pledge was inspired by the Olympic aims of ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’. We wanted to capture the aspirational element of that simple phrase and adapt it for a faith context. Our hope is that the pledge can be read by people of all faiths, and although it refers to faith we trust that people of no faith can also use it.

At Sunrise in Sparkhill people were given a copy of the pledge and 3 candles of different colours red, white and blue and Bishop David Urquhart, Bishop of Birmingham encouraged everyone to light these at home, perhaps when watching the Olympics and to recomit to the words of the faith pledge.

We were also jojned by faith leaders from different parts of the city who took candles and pledges back to their areas to be shared with members of their communities.

The pledge reads:
Inspired by the teachings of our faiths, and spurred on by the example of the Olympic athletes may we all seek to be the best we can be.
Increasing our compassion,
Growing in our generosity,
Becoming more hospitable,
Practising greater forgiveness,
Striving together for the good of our communities,
Urging one another on in acts of righteousness
So that we may bring hope and joy, friendship and laughter to enrich the lives of every person who lives in Birmingham

Feel free to use the Sunrise in Sparkhill Faith Pledge yourself and change the place name to your location.

Sunrise in Sparkhill 1

At 5am on July 1st Sparkhill Park was unusually busy as a team of volunteers assisted by staff from the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre were busy getting ready for the Sunrise in Sparkhill event. This was due to start at 6am and was a community event to mark the Olympic Torch relay.

The event, partly funded through Near Neighbours, brought together members of the local faith communities including, Christians (Catholic and Protestant), Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims as well as local schools, businesses, the council and police.

The groups provided free breakfast for everyone, games and activities as well as performances on the bandstand that reflected all the faiths represented and which was compered by Nikki Tapper from BBC Radio WM.

In all over 1000 people came to the event of all ages and backgrounds. There was great excitement at seeing the torch and real enthusiasm for all the acts who performed. We also had a visit from Anne Barnes who had carried the torch the day before and she showed the torch and allowed people to be photographed with her and the torch.

The event featured much more that will come in future posts

Culture Shock Gets Moseley Rocking

There was dancing in the aisles, swaying in the pews and a standing ovation as Culture Shock brought their 90 minute set to a close with a Samba-ho-down bringing together the beats of Brazil with the twang of Country and Western. It was a fantastic performance which combined a blend of musical traditions from across communities and countries into a coherent and innovative sound that got the people of Moseley on to their feet.

Culture Shock was a one-off performance by eight of Birmingham’s top musicians who had spent the previous five days sharing their talents, skill and influences to create a unique musical narrative performed on the evening of their sixth day together. Musicians in the ensemble ranged from a trumpeter and a violinist to an Emcee, via percussionists, keyboards, guitarists and vocalists.

Each performer introduced their own piece of music and talked about the influences that shaped their music but each performance was shared and blended, giving the evening its unique flavour.

Before the main musical event the audience were welcomed to the free concert with a flavoursome fusion of delicous snacks provided by Indian and Lebanese caterers. The sun shone outside the beautiful St Anne’s church in Moseley as people mingled over meze and, as happens so often at Near Neighbours events, new relationships were made, new opportunities explored and new events planned.

There are plans for the ensemble to get together again and perform for the community at schools and local events. If you get the chance to hear them – don’t miss it. This was a group well-worth bringing together – so huge thanks from Near Neighbours to all the performers, organisers and to St Anne’s church for hosting the event.

Jubilee Celebration

Across the country people are gathering to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the congregation at St. Christopher’s Church in Springfield are no exception. They worked with friends from the Woodlands Road Mosque to organise a big lunch for the whole community. Springfield is a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham, but the church has built good links with people from all walks of life over the yeras. They benefitted from a small Near Neighbours grant to help them fund the games, decorations and activities that were all pert of the celebrations.

Several hundred people attended the event which was helped by the glorious sunshine throughout the day. Whilst the adults sat and eat and chatted children enjoyed playing on the bouncy castle, making crowns, face painting and tucking into an enormous amount of tasty food.

A Warming Welcome at Lozells Food and Faith Festival

The sun might not have been shining but the welcome was as warm as toast as friends and neighbours gathered in George Park for the Lozells Food and Faith festival, funded by Near Neighbours. Organiser, Pall Singh, was one of the first people I spoke to about Near Neighbours when I began this job in July and I was not surprised to receive a bid from him, on behalf of the Lozells Project, quite soon after the fund opened in the autumn. He was pipped to the post, however, by the Buddhists who have a temple just by the Hockey Flyover and were the first organisation to apply for Near Neighbours funding.

So on Saturday, not only did we see the fruit of Pall’s application, as local residents had the chance to meet representatives from their local faith communities and sample a wonderful range of tasty foods but also two of the strands of the Buddhist-based application were represented. Inspire, the music project, provided some of the entertainment on the stage while representatives of the Flour Project were selling the most delicious looking cupcakes.

By 1 pm the park was full of the sounds of fun and music as children enjoyed the fairground rides and bouncy castles and all enjoyed the food, on-stage entertainment and the chance to see the exhibitions on display by community groups and faith organisations. As Near Neighbours we were made really welcome by other exhbitors and appreciated the chance to speak about Near Neighbours on stage with the local faith leaders. So huge thanks to all involved with this fantastic day and huge thanks too to the two local residents who popped back to their house by the park to make us stallholders a cup of tea – much appreciated.

 

Putting Faith in to Action

Jubilee Debt Campaigner, Audrey Miller, was given a Near Neighbours grant to run workshops for women in Sparkhill on the theme of global poverty. The workshops were run at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre in March and Audrey was kind enough to share photos and her evaluation with us.

She said that all four creative workshops received positive feedback from the participants who really enjoyed their interactive nature. Activities ranged from banner-making to debate, from crafts to role-play.

The numbers of women attending varied from eleven to eight for the four sessions and participants were drawn from the Sikh, Muslim and Christian faith traditions.

Amogst the Christians were people from the Seventh Day Baptist Church, Church of God of Prophecy and the Orthodox Polish Russian church – all were new to Jubilee Debt Camppaign Multi-Faith meetings.

Different perspectives were given by women of African- Caribbean, Moroccan, Philippine and Asian heritage, who shared their experiences of poverty and culture.

A Jubilee Debt Campaign information resource pack was given to those attending the session and a fairtrade rainbow scarf was given to each participant and used to “create” a new item. This resulted in turbans, a cotta, bags, a necklace and various styles of scarves.

You can seem more photos from the workshops on the Near Neighbours Birmingham facebook page

 

 

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