<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><h2 style="margin:0px 0px 22px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-weight:normal;clear:none"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Sleeves up, bring in some real benefits</span></font></h2>

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<font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">A community group that has pulled a suburb of Birmingham out of the mire has ministers cock-a-hoop</span></font></h3><div style="margin:10px 0px;padding:0px;border-width:1px 0px;border-top-style:solid;border-bottom-style:solid;border-top-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-bottom-color:rgb(204,204,204);outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;overflow:hidden">

<div style="margin:0px;padding:6px 0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:italic;clear:none;display:inline">Francesca Angelini </span><span style="margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;display:inline">Published: 9 February 2014</span></span></font></div>

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</span></font></ul></div></div><p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="margin:10px 10px 17px 0px;padding:10px 10px 8px 0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;float:left"><img src="http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/multimedia/dynamic/00404/STR0904BALSALL2_404916k.jpg" width="580" height="386" alt="Edna Shaw, left, and Maisie Dill are Balsall Heath volunteers" title="Edna Shaw, left, and Maisie Dill are Balsall Heath volunteers" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;"><span style="margin:0px auto;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;float:left;clear:both"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Edna Shaw, left, and Maisie Dill are Balsall Heath volunteers (Andrew Fox)</span></font></span></span></p>

</div><p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Four miles separates Balsall Heath from Winson Green and, at first glance, the two areas appear to have much in common: both are inner-city areas of Birmingham, their streets are lined with red-brick Victorian terraces and curry restaurants and both were badly hit by the collapse of the city’s industrial economy at the end of the 1970s.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">But that is largely where the similarities end. Winson Green is home to James Turner Street, the Benefits Street of Channel 4’s documentary, whose residents — or at least those who feature in the documentary — have mostly accepted their unenviable lot; the residents of Balsall Heath, however, are a formidable bunch whose tenacity and energy have transformed the area.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Twenty-five years ago Balsall Heath was one of the most blighted areas of Birmingham; now it’s an archetype of community regeneration, boasting clean streets and neighbours who look out for one another.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Much of this is down to Balsall Heath Forum, a residents’ organisation that works with the police, the council and schools to resolve problems; locals and politicians are convinced that a similar system could operate in every area of Britain. Abdullah Rehman is the forum’s co-ordinator. A father of two, he was born in Balsall Heath and recalls when the district was synonymous with vice.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">“It was a no-go zone: prostitutes lined the streets, people would come into my shop and start rolling up drugs. The area was like a bombsite,” he says, walking past the grocery he used to run.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Now Rehman, 43, is proud to live there. “There’s a women’s gym and centre where the prostitutes used to be, an adventure playground, an animal farm and a nursery in an area that was totally derelict, and all around the area are hanging baskets, shrubs and greenery — and it’s all down to the residents,” he says.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">“Where the council and police could do nothing, we picketed the streets, shamed the kerb-crawlers into moving away and took on the drug dealers,” he explains. “I was threatened with guns, but we knew it was fight or flight and the whole neighbourhood took on the issues in a very co-ordinated way.”</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Balsall Heath Forum was born as a street group (see panel) but has now developed into a model of decentralised governance.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">The government is nothing short of impressed: last week Stephen Williams, a communities minister, visited to see it in action and to look into how a similar programme might be set up in other areas.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Its credentials are impressive: over the past 20 years the group, along with other community movements, has tackled problems including environment and schools, and it continues to innovate.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Its latest project is Heartbeat, which organises volunteers to look after the elderly by fixing electrical or plumbing problems and making sure they are OK. As with all the other services the group provides, the idea is that this will take the burden off local services and the NHS, and will be tailor-made to individual needs.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">The police are strong supporters. “Balsall Heath Forum does a number of things,” says Chief Superintendent Alex Murray of West Midlands police. “We chat regularly with them, point out areas where there are a high number of burglaries . . . and they help patrol them, often with the police.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">“They can work with the police as partners, sharing their concerns, asking for help and empowering them to take action . . . as we can see in Balsall Heath, they can be transformational.”</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">The group is helping to fill in gaps left by cuts to council and police budgets, according to Rehman. “Until a few years ago we had to lobby the police and council to let us get involved, but now they come to us,” he says. “They realise how valuable it is to collaborate, and they recognise how we can take some of the burden.”</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Walk down the street in Balsall Heath and the work of the residents is unmissable: some volunteers are tending shrubbery, others are looking after animals on the farm and others are picking up litter.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">“It’s all very rewarding. We wouldn’t do this work otherwise,” says Edna Shaw, a forum volunteer who has lived in the area all her life. “People come to me and tell me about problems, and I’ll take them to the forum and they find a solution.”</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Shaw, a pensioner, may look a little frail, but she will not be messed around; nor will she allow her neighbours to be upset. She tells me that just a couple of weeks ago, tired of youths out on the streets making a disturbance, she brought the matter up with the forum, which encouraged the community football team to get them to join up.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Representing the Mary Street residents’ association — one of the forum’s 10 — she is particularly hot on litter and sprucing the area up. The phrase “What would we do without Edna?” is used often.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Since 2002 house prices have risen 40% faster than in the rest of Birmingham, and the crime rate has gone down.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">It’s an efficient model, according to a study conducted by Professor Tony Bovaird of Birmingham University, which found that for every £1 invested in the forum, £7 was saved by service providers, including housing associations, the police and the council.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">But at the heart of the project is the notion that “one size cannot fit all at neighbourhood level”, a view that Tony Kennedy, a city councillor, embraces wholeheartedly.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">“As with every area in Britain, we have a rich tapestry of issues, and residents are part of the answer to addressing these,” he says.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Dick Atkinson, a retired sociology lecturer, is one of the forum’s co-founders. “If we want to replace the idea of less for less, neighbourhood budgeting has to be the way,” he says.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">He is convinced the Balsall Heath model can be used nationwide, even in James Turner Street.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">“All that is needed to start is a couple of Ednas and Abdullahs,” he says.</span></font></p>

<h3 style="margin:0px;padding:2px 0px 19px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-weight:400"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><br style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline">

</span>Power to the people</span></font></h3><p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Balsall Heath Forum came into being in 1992, after a campaign by residents to clear the streets of prostitution and drugs.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">The first meeting agreed that the forum would comprise a leader and representatives voted in by residents of 10 districts containing 100 streets and 6,000 houses.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Current initiatives include: Heartbeat, which looks after the elderly; Streetwatch, which helps police the streets and fights low-level crime; Cleaner Heath, which plants greenery and deals with rubbish; a food bank; a joint action team that works with the police; and a “walking bus”, in which volunteers take children to school, making sure they get there on time and have breakfast.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">The forum employs seven people full-time and operates on an annual budget of £180,000, most of which comes from grants and funding. It has about 500 volunteers.</span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0px 0px 19px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Last year it was selected by the Department for Communities and Local Government to be one of 12 pilot projects that redirect power from Whitehall to the community.</span></font></p>

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<div class="" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent">1 hour ago<span class="" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;font-family:arial!important"></span><div class="" style="padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent">
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Fantastic - power to t<span style="background-color:transparent">he people!</span></p></div><div class="" style="padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:11px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;float:left">
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</div></div><div class="" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><a class="" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-top-style:none;border-right-style:none;border-left-style:none;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:none;font-weight:bold;border-bottom-style:none!important;font-size:14px!important;color:rgb(47,69,103)!important;font-family:arial!important"><span itemprop="author" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent">WildeChild</span></a>2 hours ago<span class="" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;font-family:arial!important"></span><div class="" style="padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent">
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I've lived in and around Birmingham all my life, I have friends in Balsall Heath, and the change in the area is absolutely down to the people (as the built environment has changed.little in 20 years) there is a real and visible community, love it.</p>
<a href="http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/newsreview/features/article1373030.ece">http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/newsreview/features/article1373030.ece</a></div></div></div>