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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

Happy New Year to you all. We can’t wait to see you again! With the Covid-19 Omicron variant continuing to cause problems, we are making some changes to our programme. We are very aware that there is no firm guidance from government as we write, but we also feel it’s important to ensure that we can continue our activities as safely as possible while we await more guidance and to hear more about the evidence of the risks. Here is a list of how we’ll manage our different Januar

We’re delighted that we are going to be opening up our Bakery creche so that it’s a small Stay & Play session for local parents and babies/tots! Every Monday and Wednesday the wonderful Naomi St Juste from Juste4Kids sets up a pop-up creche in our Community Room, ably assisted by local volunteer Deanne. This enables some of the bakery team to participate when they wouldn’t otherwise be able to due to a lack of affordable childcare. It’s small and cosy, we’re only opening up 5

On Tuesday we had our second coffee morning at Bearwood Hub which enabled us meeting lovely people. It was great to share a cuppa with Vildan’s homemade cookies alongside a friendly chat. Thank you everyone who joined us. You are all most welcome on Tuesdays between 10 -11 am ! Vildan and Fatma “I’ve moved back to B’ham! Great to meet friendly faces and of course great BAKES! ” Shallo “Very friendly and welcoming. It was great meeting new people and sharing experiences with

Ever wondered how the bakery works? Well, not like a normal one! We work within school ours so that our volunteers can participate. That's why the bread isn't ready until 2pm - but so very worth waiting for! The team have devised their ways of working in the kitchen - who takes what role, who prefers to focus on which breads, who does the opening and closing checks (and cleaning!) and who packs and labels the bread. In about 4 hours the team are producing about 30 loaves ever

Image description: around 20 people sat around a large table, waving happily at the camera, smiling and eating. A mix of ages and nationalities, with a large selection of food to choose from. One of the projects that has developed most naturally and (excuse the pun) organically, is our Bring and Share Lunch. The bakery team and other volunteers and staff needed to eat. So we ate alongside each other. Then we started to share the fresh bread, and our homecooked and shop-bought

We have been so grateful for the companies and individuals who have supported the set up of our bakery , including Incredible Surplus and the lovely folks at our local Cooperative Food store. One of those is the inspiring Wildfarmed . Wildfarmed make very special flour. Through the varieties they grow and the way they grow it, they are showing that food production can be done with compassion for our planet. And what's more the flavour from these varieties is out of this wo

Image is of a cricket ball on grass with the Women & Theatre logo and the title 'Women/girls & Cricket' Women, Girls & Cricket: A Thousand Threads Drop-in research session by Women & Theatre at Bearwood Community Hub, 21 October, 2-3.30pm Inspired by Women’s Cricket featuring in the Commonwealth Games for the first time in 2022, Birmingham based theatre company Women and Theatre (W&T) will produce a new intergenerational community production about women, girls, & cricket. Per

And it's up! The We Are Bearwood tapestry, made by over 100 local people during lockdown, now has a permanent home at Bearwood Community Hub in our coworking & community room. A colour image of two men proudly standing in front of the tapestry, a woodland scene with a bear in the background. In the foreground is a table with a volunteer's tools laid out ready for use. Thank you John and Ian for putting it up for us. It's the nanny volunteers like you who make our space such

Over lockdown Sandwell NEU started an initiative to create access to educational resources for those struggling during the pandemic. So far they have donated £8000 worth of materials to local schools and organisations to enrich and spark creativity amongst young people . This fully aligns with what we are trying to achieve here at the Hub by allowing children room to have fun, express themselves as well as have a go at new things. Today, Rose and Paul delivered books, paints

We have finished the evaluation of the Bearwood Bonds project! The project ran from January 2021 till June. We are so pleased that this project was able to go ahead and help us reach people we wouldn’t have come into contact with on social media, even during the middle of a pandemic in a safe and secure way. What was the Bearwood Bonds Project? The project was a way for us to keep in contact with the community. Hub staff posted leaflets and residents left the leaflet in the w

We’re going to do a quick update here so that you all know what’s going on. There’s more to write, but we’ve just found out that we’ve been successful in getting funding to deliver a playscheme for children locally who are eligible for free school meals (you rock @MarcusRashford!), and we have a lot to sort, very exciting! Anyway, you will hopefully know that we have been planning for a number of years now (thanks, Covid!) to work with St Mary’s Church on Bearwood Road to ren

Help the Hub! Hi! We’ve had a bit of a tumultuous couple of months working out our future and how to enable the community space that so many of you have told us is needed and have helped to design. BUT, we have two big funding applications coming up and we want to try and show the funders that people are behind us. With that in mind, Sally has done a quick (and shaky!) video to explain what we need. Would you watch it and then send her one back, to 07599 595 514? Sorry about

The co-creation of a Bearwood Art & Culture Manifesto with The Bearwood Young Person’s Design Company As some of you might be aware, during the first lockdown in 2020 The Bearwood Young Person’s Design Company was born! They have have gone from strength to strength: They developed, made and sold hand-made sustainable textile products which can be found HERE. They were commissioned to take part in the art and food festival “In The Mix” by Sandwell CEP The latest project they h

We are really pleased to announce that Bearwood Community Hub CIC is now a Community Partner with Brum YODO for ‘In Memoriam’ by Luke Jerram. From the 8th – 16th May, Brum YODO and Birmingham Hippodrome will be presenting In Memoriam – an open-air artwork by internationally renowned artist Luke Jerram – in Aston Park as part of Dying Matters Awareness Week 2021. Featuring 120 flags created from bed sheets , In Memoriam is a temporary memorial for the public to visit and

What is Dip into a Book? Volunteer leader Coral Musgrave tells us all about it A time to unwind, sit back, relax and listen to a short story. You are welcome to bring a cuppa with you when you join us. There is no need to have read the story beforehand. Dip into a Book is a shared reading group. Carefully chosen short stories, excerpts from novels and maybe a Poem for Pudding will be read aloud for you to listen to. A bit like a Book at Bedtime. You may choose to close your

We kick off the month with one-to-one business advice and signposting surgeries from Dan Carins, Productivity Lead at the Black Country Local Economic Partnership. Book a half hour session with Dan on 3rd March: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/276902792707 Our Stay & Play is back on Mondays and Wednesdays - book to attend each week until the Easter holidays, either on a Monday or a Wednesday. It’s cute, cosey and we’re told it’s a lovely break for parents. Booking essential:..

It’s a question that four socially minded local entrepreneurs are inviting you and your children to explore on 26th October at 6pm, to celebrate the opening of the Bear Bookshop at 588 Bearwood Road, a children’s bookshop focused on fostering a love of reading, storytelling and community. To celebrate the opening of Bear Bookshop, owner Jenny McAnn has invited Sally from Bearwood Community Hub, Amy from #RadicalChildcare and Romany from the forthcoming Bearwood Road playroo

During lockdown we had heard from many young people that they wanted something purposeful to do and create during lockdown. By them and through partnership with Grand Union Arts in Brum, the Young Persons Design Company project was created, thanks to funding from the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner. One of the young designers collaborating on the project, Millie Brown, tells us all about her experience below. The Bearwood Young Person's Design Company is a free d

Unfortunately we were not successful in our application to be included in the Smethwick Towns Fund (£25m from Government) . We usually try to stay super positive (especially because we don't want to look like we have sour grapes!) but we're really concerned about the process and the outcomes of the shortlisting stage. We think it’s important to share. Scroll (or read!) to the bottom for the survey link. Local people are being asked to complete the survey (shared on Council so