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.

A Lozells family stands holding hands in a tunnel

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