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Several of the volunteers mentioned in this post are people who had initially come to Bearwood Community Hub to attend activities that we run, and now are volunteering. This is a really good opportunity to get involved as it helps you understand what we do. Please do look at our Events page to see what is coming up. Tahira What made you want to be a Volunteer? Finds happiness in being able to help others less fortunate What’s the main thing you enjoy about Volunteering? Talki

The volunteers we are mentioning are those that help out on Wednesday Warm Welcome but we also have volunteers helping with occasional activities and events like our Curiosity Cafe. Our volunteers' experiences really show the range of why people volunteer and how they got involved but also the importance of Wednesday Warm Welcome as a community space for our volunteers as well. Naz What made you want to be a Volunteer? Meeting Sally at the Urban Rooms for the first time and f

In celebration of volunteer week, we wanted to spotlight our amazing volunteers that make our incredible work possible here at Bearwood Community Hub. Also, want to make a special mention to our work experience student, taking the time to speak to volunteer who were happy to share their experiences and be mentioned on our website. Group photo, showing our volunteers from Wednesday Warm Welcome in Bearwood Baptist Church Peter What made you want to be a Volunteer? See differen

Our community is at the heart of everything we do at Bearwood Community Hub, and the Bearwood Baptist Church Hall has been a wonderful home for our Wednesday Warm Welcome. Each week, we see between 90 and 110 friends and neighbours come through those doors for support, a hot meal, and a friendly chat. It is truly a special place, but lately, our hall has been looking like it needs a bit of dedicated care and attention to make it as inviting as the people who use it. We are in

Welcome to Bearwood Community Hub’s world where we can come together to learn from each other and solve local issues with creativity and positive action. The first “cafe” will be 19th May at Thimblemill Library. The Curiosity Cafe adds to what we already do to help people connect, and it is very explicitly responding to what visitors to our Urban Room at Smethwick Library kept telling us: that we need more space and power to work together to develop solutions to local issues.

Last week, we had our first board meeting, and it was a great opportunity for the new board to get to know each other and how they can best support us in the work we do. I am just finalising the board minutes and reflecting on how our new board is well placed to help us into the next stage of the organisation. You can see the list of all the Board members on our website at https://www.bearwood.cc/team/ . This is the final of three blog posts where you can find out a little bi

Today, we are excited to be holding our first board meeting with the new board. We will be discussing the updates on the activities for the last two months and details of how the board will run over the coming year. You can see the list of all the Board members on our website at https://www.bearwood.cc/team/ . This is the second of three blog posts where you can find out a little bit more about them all! Next up - Holly, a regular coworker with a wealth of experience across

We were so delighted to hold our first AGM as a Community Benefit Society - and even more pleased that we have a new board of 9 Board of Directors. We thought that as our community of supporters and participants, you might like to know who was elected. You can see the list and bios of all the Board members on our website at https://www.bearwood.cc/team/ . This is the first of three blog posts where you can find out a little bit more about them all! First up - Jess who has

Bard’s Book Brings Community Together On Saturday 3rd June, around 400 people came to the Dorothy Parkes Centre to see the 400-year-old, publicly-owned copy of William Shakespeare’s works and to take part in a spectacular array of Shakespearean activities! Back in October last year talks began with the Everything to Everybody project about bringing Shakespeare’s First Folio out to Smethwick, and so after months of planning and coordination, the first Saturday in June finally

Bearwood Community Bakery is Trialling Home Delivery for a Month! We are excited to share that from the 8th - 22nd February, Bearwood Community Bakery will be trialling a home delivery option for Wednesday bread orders to addresses between the high street, Adkins Lane, Barclay Road, Rathbone Road and parts of Thimblemill Road. A full list of postcodes included within our delivery area is listed below. This pilot will enable us to work out the initial logistics and sustainabi

Bearwood Community Hub is moving You might be a little surprised that we are very soon going to be starting a new phase, working across various locations in our lovely community. St Mary’s is no longer available to us on the same terms as before so we have taken the difficult decision to relocate. We're hoping that by working across Bearwood we will reach even more people, offer greater access and play a small part in supporting a thriving high street on Bearwood Road. The

Like many, we are feeling increasingly dismayed at the rise in poverty and mental ill health where we live. We've noted a few ideas here if you are wanting to help but you're not sure how. There will be many more and if you'd like to add to this list please just drop us a line at hello@bearwood.cc . 1. Smethwick Foodbank ran out of food last Wednesday. If you are able, please consider setting up a direct debit or one-off financial donation by clicking here . To give non-peris

We are delighted that local residents Philippe and Rachel have asked to use the Community Hub to start their Bearwood Rainbow Social, an LGBTQI+ safe space for socialising and mutual support. The first session will be focused on ‘what shall we do/organise?!’ and is on Thursday 31st March - end the last Thursday of each month thereafter. Turn up at 7.30pm, it’ll be on until 9.30pm.

Bearwood Community Hub is digitising the dialogue of Women who are redefining Bearwood post pandemic. For feel-good pandemic stories and inspiration for how to seize your ‘can-do’ from Naomi St Juste, Sozan Hossain, Laura Billingham and Ellie Shaw download episode 1 Tuesday 22nd March here: CLICK HERE Bearwood Interesting Women Podcast

Art club member Pat Nimmo tells us all about the brand new art club every Monday at 2pm at the Community Hub: Bearwood Art Club at the Community Hub, St Marys Church Mondays 2-3pm A small group of us have started to meet to make art. We are very varied in our interests and education. Some of us have have done art at college and some of us haven't. We are interested in drawing, painting, felting, collage, inks, poetry, photography, sculpture and textiles! We meet together to e

Next date: Saturday 23 April 10am-1pm! It'll be just like the last one, which was a fun morning in the sun shine: Saturday 19th March 10am-1pm We need your help to clear up and beautify the garden area outside St Mary’s Church and Bearwood Community Hub! Come along, sign up for a job and get a little bit of your high street looking greener, neater and more inviting. St Mary’s Church and Bearwood Community Hub are working together on this event and we’re hoping that plenty of

We often get asked ‘what’s this coworking thing?’ Sally explains a little bit more with some wonderful examples from today’s session. As we wrote a while back, it’s definitely not just a desk, as lovely and important as our desks, refreshments and human company are! When we were designing this space as a community, one of the things on the wish list was the ability to connect, grow, support each other. And that’s what’s happening. As I write on 3rd Feb, just reflecting on the

Would you be intersted in a weekday arts and crafts group? Perhaps one where you bring your own work, to get on with alongside other people? Where you can share techniques and learn from others? Perhaps you'd like to hear from guest speakers? Maybe you used to go to the St Mary's art club and miss it? Andrea Bonnell from Birmingham Museums Trust is going to help us get something started on Monday 7th Feburary at 2pm. Will you come along to share what you'd be interested in. W

For our next coffee morning we will be setting up as a temporary museum! 10am, Tuesday 1st February, Bearwood Community Hub. Rosie Barker from the Birmingham Museums Trust (who oversee Thinktank, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Soho House, Sarehole Mill and more), will be coming along to our coffee morning in a bid to find out a little bit about what we like about museums and what stops us going. And she’ll be bringing with her some ancient Egyptian artefacts! Join us and

From time to time we try and share a little bit about how the Hub ‘works’. We get quite a few questions about how we’re linked to St Mary’s Church so today Sally is going to give you a bit of insight into our partnership with St Mary’s Church, whose building we are using and - we hope! - helping to be custodians of. If you want to know more, just come along to a coffee morning, walk or lunch, or pop Sally an email at hello@bearwood.cc It all started in 2018 with a phonce call