Since 2014 People’s Health Trust has partnered with residents of Lozells in Birmingham through local organisation, Aspire & Succeed. The Local Conversation set out to bring residents together to develop a shared vision for their community.
Who
Residents in Lozells decided the priorities and activities of the programme and were supported by Aspire and Succeed to deliver them. The area has a large proportion of low-income households and an ethnically diverse population of predominantly Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities. Aspire & Succeed worked specifically with more marginalised members of the community as part of the Local Conversation.
What
To tackle inequalities within the neighbourhood, the Local Conversation in Lozells chose three main priority areas. These were jobs and money; children and young people; and a Health Commission which explored the impact of health inequalities on the community during the Covid-19 pandemic, and asked what can be improved in future.
Where
Lozells, Birmingham
Achievements
- Shaped the neighbourhood to get local people to take the lead on cleaner greener streets, reduce fly tipping dramatically and help with set up Mobile Recycling Centres.
- Supported local people with welfare and employment through regular drop ins, case work and information events, providing advice and advocacy.
- Supported young people to develop their leadership skills and gain experience of sitting on local boards, including the Health Commission.
- Working with the council to secure homes for many families via the action team, and supported families to secure energy, food and hardship grants.
- Setting up a Women’s forum to facilitate skills sharing and small business development.
- Initiated the Lozells Health Commission, working with Warwick University to explore the impact of health inequalities on the community following Covid-19 and what could be improved.
When
2014 – 2023
Aspire and Succeed, a local organisation run by residents, partnered with People’s Health Trust to deliver the Local Conversation in Lozells. Using a community organising approach, Aspire & Succeed engaged local residents in a Steering Group, as volunteers and as participants, and collectively they agreed priorities to work on over eight years.
The Local Conversation took a whole-systems approach, working with partners and the local authority to address the wide-ranging housing issues affecting residents, alongside their other work prioritising employment, children and young people and the local environment. Through initially working on smaller projects developed by residents, the Local Conversation was able to make a difference to thousands of residents and implement local changes.
Housing became on of most important issue in the neighbourhood in Birmingham, with many families struggling to meet market rent and are living in poor quality homes. The Local Conversation ran housing surgeries and specific individual support to help people find social housing or address existing problems in their rented housing.
There was also a focus on improving the availability of jobs and a decent income for residents. Through partnerships, organising and influencing local and national government, and bringing together businesses in the area, the Local Conversation supported people into jobs and to push for more jobs and contracts for local businesses to be made available.
During the Covid-19 pandemic they supported over 100 new families with welfare advice and housing advocacy services. They also provided weekly advice surgeries, job and CV workshops, accredited courses, budgeting advice and housing workshops. Project members also campaigned for some of the 5,000 new homes in the Commonwealth Village nearby to become social rented homes and for the Council to urgently build more social rented family homes in the area.
A further priority was young people and the introduction of a Youth Leadership Programme was a platform for them to raise problems and address them. The youth leaders went through training and a paid placement as part of the course.
They have also formed vital partnerships with Birmingham City Council, local schools, businesses, GPs, and universities. Through these partnerships they are supporting important research into the health inequalities impacting their neighbourhood.
The Lozells Health Commission brought together residents and health experts with the aim of targeting and influencing local decision makers to implement plans to improve community involvement in health service decision-making and action on the building blocks of health.
“Ours is a wonderfully diverse neighbourhood with the church, the mosque, the temple, and most of the shops on the roads are made up by local people so there’s a great sense of community. We’ve done some amazing work in supporting our residents to improve their housing conditions but the problems aren’t going away.”
Shale Ahmed
Director