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Really sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We’ve been waiting for Black Country Touring to confirm a few things for us.

Aardman are now kindly giving the film licence for free but they have quite strict marketing guidelines for us to follow so we are just in the process of getting together the artwork for the promotion of the event – which needs to be signed off/approved by Aardman – this should be early next week.

We’ve also been looking at the easiest option for our audiences to watch-along and join Q&A afterwards so that it’s accessible to everyone. 

They have suggested a platform called Eventive, which seems to be the best option. Despite the cost if this is a successful ‘test run’/pilot we would like to do more like this with our audiences who are isolated within their own homes.

It will mean we can livestream and switch over to Zoom for the Q&A seamlessly everything will be in one place – the platform also include ticketing. Please can we re-allocate the costs to cover the one-off platform:

In response to the pandemic and lockdown restrictions, plans for Coseley’s Community Cinema had to be reimagined.

The Coseley Community Cinema applied for funding from Film Feels Connected, a UK-wide cinema season, supported by the National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network, to reconnect with our local audience.

East Coseley Big Local worked in partnership with Black Country Touring, Film Feels Connected and Aardman Animations to bring a virtual Watch-along of Shaun the Sheep the Farmers Llamas followed by an interactive Q&A with voice actors from the film.

The online watch-along was aimed at people of all ages who may have been isolating, feeling uncomfortable about going out to the cinema, and families finding new ways to entertain their children during lockdown. The funding provided an opportunity to be creative and trial a new online activity for the community.

Community Connectors helped generate a build-up to the event with Pom-poms 4 Loneliness activities. They invited people, including the coffee morning group, to craft sheep pom poms in the build-up to the event. This collaboration enabled more isolated people to engage in the activity.

Darkhouse Baptist Church is a place where things happen, the venue is well used and hosts many activities for the local Coseley community.

Kim is a Deacon at Darkhouse Baptist Church and spends a lot of her time looking to keep the space utilised. Kim is also a member of the Big Local Core Group and gets involved in many activities to help her local community, at the same time encouraging local groups to use the building and the facilities.

The Coseley Holiday Club came about in 2015 after it was identified that children in the Coseley area needed something to do during the school holidays.

“The first time we approached East Coseley Big Local for funding was because we wanted to provide some sort of entertainment for the children during the school holidays. The club runs for 5 days at the end of the summer holidays when children tend to get bored and fed up. Parents appreciate that their children have somewhere to go at the end of the holidays.

Big Local have supported us every year since, in 2017 about 40-45 children came each day to enjoy storytelling, singing, crafts, a magician and dancing from local group, Aace Dance. On one of the days, several volunteers walked up to Bayer Street Allotments with the children to have a picnic and to learn about gardening, picking raspberries, carrots and rhubarb. They also planted lettuces.

They learnt about musical instruments when local band, The Coseley Comets, came to visit, the children enjoyed learning how to play all the instruments. Local young theatre group, Act One, did drama activities with the children. We provide a variety of different activities for them. The money from Big Local was used for a clown disco and an animal man to visit the club”

A lot of the children come back every year until they get a bit older. The numbers have grown over the years with more advertising. We also like to tell them about other activities at Darkhouse such as the Girl’s Brigade, the Stay and Play toddler group and the Boys Club, as we’re quite tucked away here and sometimes hard to find!”

Kim has also formed a link with volunteers at New Hope Baptist Church who help out at the holiday club.

“Since being involved in Big Local, people have started to recognise me and associate me with the venue. The space is used a lot more now that we are connected with Big Local.”

Kim is involved with a lot of things in the community and has become a familiar face for local people, this means she is able to signpost people to different things as she is so well connected.

“It’s given me confidence, I was never a confident person. Because I’ve got involved with all these things it’s something to talk about. I never thought I’d run a Holiday Club, but I knew there was a need for it and how much the children enjoyed it. As a volunteer I like working with the children, it’s great to see them enjoying themselves.”

Darkhouse is also a location for the Coseley Community Cinema

“We applied to East Coseley Big Local for blinds so that the Coseley Community Cinema could take place in the hall. We had very old curtains that didn’t work very well or block out the light. We’ve also used the blinds for Clubbersize in the summer too, to block out the light nights in the summer. It’s vastly improved the experience for both events.”

The Skittle League, which takes place in the Darkhouse hall, was an idea that came about to bring the community together. The league is very well attended by people and groups from the local community

“We applied for funding from East Coseley
Big Local for new skittles for the league. We already had a skittles alley which had been made by two local men from the church, but the skittles were chipped and broken, so we bought brand new wooden skittles – but have kept the old balls!

We started with 9 teams, now there are 13! It’s a chance to get together and network, chat about different ideas for things in the community. A good way of connecting and keeping in contact, it’s great to see new people on board. We’d never had much to do with Silver Jubilee Park as they were on the other side of the road, but now we’ve made a really good link with them and they have formed a skittles team.

We run 4 fundraisers at the Skittles League, 2 fundraisers for the Girls Brigade and 2 a year for the church. We also do raffles to raise money for the food bank, which is also located at Darkhouse Church.”

The Coseley Food Bank has been operating from Darkhouse Church for around 7 years and has 6 volunteers. People from Coseley can come with a voucher that they have been given from the local Family Centre, Citizens Advice or Just Straight Talk. The food bank supports around 30 local people from the Coseley community every Tuesday.

George Langford started as a Cub at the age of 6. He’s now 22 now and is a Young Leader.

George applied to East Coseley Big Local for funding for a scout recruitment drive in 2018. “The aim was to find new scouts, we put the money towards a website to put ourselves out there. We built the website ourselves. We had flyers and posters printed that we handed out at the Coseley Big Event, we also put posters around schools to get information out there about what we do.”

The website has given us an online presence and has attracted many new people, we can see this from the traffic to the website. We’ve built up numbers and it’s still on going. So the recruitment drive worked.

Big local have supported us to exchange information and get us to the Big Event. We bought huge banners with the money funded by Big Local, which showed us off at the event. We had a steady queue at the event, did a raffle and helped to sell tickets for the events rides at the same time.”

We’ve been able to connect with the local community and encourage our scouts to help in the community. One of our next events is a carwash to raise money locally.

The best thing about being a scout leader is giving something back. We have a laugh, it’s really rewarding.

George Morgan is 20, he’s been with the 1st Coseley scouts since he was 8, he became a Young Leader at 18. “I’ve made some great friendships through being in the scouts and I’ve done activities that I thought I’d never do. Cliff diving was one of the best activities I’ve ever done! We get together, do activities, we like to have a laugh and a joke. We like to make it enjoyable because that’s what makes people stay. That’s what made me stay, every week there was something new to do. I like to help young people to get their badges.

We go on camping trips where scouts get to do stuff they’ve never done before like shooting, archery, abseiling, activities that you thought you would never do until you came here. We also go away for a week

annually. We’re going to Blackpool this year, it’s a great get together in the summer. It’s just pure camping, we get the tents and marquee up – it’s more of a holiday – we go on hikes, to theme parks or water parks. I love the simple things like sitting around the fire. It’s a place to make good friends and mingle with scouts from different areas.

The activities the young people get to do with the scouts are just fantastic. If they are here enjoying themselves they’re not out on the streets with nothing to do. If they are here they can do activities that they have never done before, meet new people and learn new things.

They also learn life skills like cooking, cleaning and camping – so they can learn how to put a tent up at a festival! I don’t know what I would do without it. My best friend told me about scouts and how fantastic it was, 12 years later I’m still here. All it took was one positive message. I spend a lot of time doing what I do because it benefits them. I want to do what previous leaders did for me.

Girls started joining in the ’80s. Most scouts come from the cubs. There is a nice divide of boys and girls, I think the scouts reach out to everyone. We are looking to recruit more scouts, so we’ll be going to the Big Local Big Event this June, we’ll have a stand with a banner and we can talk to young people about what we do and why it’s worth joining,”

Anthony is Scout Leader, he has been with 1st Coseley Scouts since 1964, 55 years ago he joined as a cub when he was 8. He has seen many changes over the years. One of the things he’s most proud of is going away for a week every year, this began in 1982 and they haven’t missed a year since. They’ve been all over the country, Whitby, the Lake District, North Wales, and Torquay, to name a few.

East Coseley Big Local set out to bring families together, to improve green spaces and to get local people meeting and talking to each other. Coseley Bowling Club is a great example of just this.

One of the first projects to be supported by East Coseley Big Local was a large net to keep bowlers safe from cricket balls from the neighbouring cricket pitch. Last year the club was supported to create a Buzz Garden to attract butterflies and bees and improve the overgrown green space for the benefit of the people who visit and bowl at the club.

Joe has been Chair of the bowling club for 3 years. When asked of the impact of Big Local support, he said “You can see that it’s made an impact by just looking around the bowling green. We’ve had support from Big Local for timber partitions to tidy up the green and prevent the old one from rotting. Last year we had the new shed as a facility for visitors to watch the bowling. Big Local has bought tins of paint to do the place up and make it nice for the community. All the hard work that volunteer Joe has put into maintaining the Buzz Garden – we wouldn’t have had anything as good as this without our volunteers and the support of East Coseley Big Local.

People come from all over to use the bowling green – Edgbaston, Dudley, Dartmouth – it covers a big area. I’d like to think the green shows Coseley in a good light.

We just want to keep on making it better. We’ve put a lot of time into the green. The money needed to maintain the green is generated ourselves.

Volunteer, Joe, has been involved in the Buzz Garden since the start.

Joe said, “It was a wilderness and we wanted to do something with it. I put gravel boards down and raised it all up, we then started to get more ideas. We selected plants that were wildlife friendly. We’ve seen a massive difference to the wildlife on the green. We now feel like we can spread our wings to do more, we’d like to do different beds with different flowers, some people have been talking about edible beds.” When Joe was in his 20’s an old gardener who was in his 70’s said to him “Never let a weed see a Sunday.” This is now Joe’s motto!

Joe has put slabs down and added paths in amongst the flowers. The Buzz Garden does what it’s supposed to do and attracts many butterflies and bees. There are Lavender and Buddleia plants – also known as a butterfly bush – from Joes garden. In amongst the garden plants are little painted stone houses. Julie who paints the stone houses, started by bowling for the ladies team and is now groups secretary.

The bowling green also attracts many birds, including Wagtails, Wrens and Swifts.

Chair Joe said, “We have 50 odd bowlers at the club. We had 5 teams, we’ve now got 8. It’s constantly expanding especially the ladies bowling team. It gets people actively involved, which is the biggest impact to the community. The cricket club is also a really active group, most of our bowlers use the cricket club too so that makes it a thriving place.

It benefits people by getting them out. Families can bring their children to a safe place. New friendships have developed here. It keeps me busy anyway!”

The club is now looking to attract more people to come and have a go at bowling. If people like it, they can join the club. “The age range of people who come here is 17 years old to late 70’s. A lot of bowling clubs have aged and eventually closed. We have a steady influx of middle-aged people here, many 30 year olds took it up for the first time and found they liked it. It’s a very vibrant club that I think is going to carry on for a bit. Bowling is a dying thing in a way, there are fewer greens now, pubs used to have bowling greens, and with the general demise of pubs, the greens have gone. I like to think that we appeal to a wide age group and we bring families together. We have a laugh here.

The Coseley women’s league is in their 4th season. They buy their own uniforms in pink. We all like to look professional and represent the club.”

The bowling club has 2 teams that play at the Coseley Skittles League, “The Skittles League is a great way to connect with the community. This is how we got to know Bayer Street Allotments. We’re getting to know a lot of people involved in Big Local and meeting with others who care about Coseley.”

In the future, they would like to get a toilet on the green.

Silver Jubilee Park is just outside of the East Coseley Big Local border, but the park and its activities benefit many people in the Coseley area.

The Friends of Silver Jubilee Park were supported by East Coseley Big Local to purchase a laptop and printer in 2017. When asked of the impact, the response was “The biggest impact to our group has been access.”

Jan, secretary of the Friends of Silver Jubilee Park group said, “At first, we approached Tesco’s ‘Bags for Help’ to support us to buy a computer, but then East Coseley Big Local offered to help and support us. Tesco’s Bags for Help is actually an online application, so we needed a computer in order to apply for any funding.

After receiving the computer from Big Local, we were able to apply to Tesco. When we received funding from Tesco, we were able to buy a marquee, marketing and promotion material, and a long hosepipe to save people carrying watering cans long distances. Big Local has enabled us to widen our scope, as we now have access to apply online for funding for other things to make the park better for local people.”

With Big Local support the group has become more independent. “Originally the council would do funding applications for us, but now we can do it ourselves. We’ve got more access!”

The printer has enabled the group to print papers and posters which have helped local people who don’t have access to email to get involved and find out what is happening on the park.

Many activities take place in the park including Health Walks, Buggy Walks for mothers, Nordic Walks, Yoga, and Keep Fit classes. The Health Walks used to be led by council staff, now volunteers have taken them on. Their walking route includes not just the park but the Coseley canal and Bayer Street Allotments.

We met some of the people from the walking group. Local lady Brenda has been coming to the Health Walks for 8 years, she likes to take her son’s dog for a walk. Abdar is in his 70’s, he does 5 laps around the park every week.

Another local lady, Cindy, came to the weekly walking group when she had not long had a stroke and could hardly walk, 4 years on she’s happily walking around the park and now attends the parks committee meetings. Week by week she has improved.

Around 2 years ago, the Friends of the park group started to come to East Coseley Big Local meetings. From this, they made new connections and built relationships with other groups based in Coseley.

East Coseley’s Community Connectors Dave and Shona have been connecting local people to activities in the Park.

“Dave will bring some of the people he meets whilst working in the Coseley area to the park. He brought one lady, Iris, who can’t speak but is able to hear, she has been joining in with the Health Walks on a Wednesday morning. Linking with JST has been very good, some people haven’t stayed but they have got out of the house and they know where to come if they want to do something different.”

The Friends of Jubilee Park has also joined the Coseley Skittles League. From these nights at Darkhouse Church they have built up links with other Coseley groups and got involved with Big Local activities. They now feel more connected in the community. “It’s really nice to get involved in social activities as a group. It’s given people here a wider view of what’s going on in the area. When we do our walks, we’ll have a walk down to the allotments, they give us plants for the park, it’s all about sharing.”

The local Pentecostal church now has a coffee morning once a month in the park, they also link with East Coseley Big Local.

The group is working hard to improve public and green spaces for the people of Coseley. They have been busy clearing the old bowling green on the park to create a family space for the people of Coseley. “Before, nobody would come in because it was just an overgrown wilderness.”

Since the 6-8 foot of hedge has been taken out by the group’s volunteers it’s opened up the park. “People feel safer, you can see the Bowling Green from the parks Hub. People were afraid to come into the park because it was all closed in.”

Ray has been planting African Marigolds from his garden. Joe is busily digging and getting rid of weeds, he’s even named a part of the bowling green, ‘Joe’s Corner’, where he’s cut down the overgrowth, found rocks and is creating a beautiful rockery. Jim’s neighbour has donated a lot of plants. Blackcurrant plants have been donated by the allotments to create an edible border.

When Jim, Joe and Ray are working on the park, many people stop to ask what they are doing and tell them how good it looks.

The park has also received funding from the local Community Forum to purchase picnic benches for disabled people, allowing for wheelchairs to fit under the benches.

East Coseley has been working in partnership with Beatfreeks, a youth organisation based in Birmingham, to engage communities of Coseley in creative activities on Friday evenings. For each seasonal programme, a suite of different creative activities are developed and thoughtfully put together as Friday night ‘drop-in’ sessions. Young people have been involved in the design process of each programme to ensure they are invested in its success. So far, the activities have been a great success and have been enjoyed by Coseley residents of all ages!

The last programme of events focused on unlocking the hidden talents and potential of young people in Coseley. Activities included poetry, crafting, filmmaking, circus skills, singing and comedy, and at the end of the programme, creative residents took part in ‘Coseley’s Got Talent’ and were also treated to a pizza oven in the car park!

What we found most important, is that these sessions were enjoyed not only by young people but their families too, ages ranged from 6 years old to grandparent age!

The new Spring/Summer programme will focus on storytelling and is aimed at all ages in the community.

Over 10 weeks the people of Coseley will create and design a magazine, gather stories from around Coseley via various different media, and at the end of the programme will host an exciting event to give out the magazine and show the rest of Coseley what they have been up to! These sessions will include, photography, illustration, collage, poetry and interviewing techniques.

There will be opportunities to join in every week and you don’t need to come to every single session to be able to join in.

If you’ve missed the Coseley Nights experience so far, here is a little taster from one of the Friday night filmmaking activities. This film was produced with young people of Coseley and their families at one of the sessions themed on happiness, and named ‘The Secret of happiness’….

Paul and Joanne Westwood arrived in Coseley three years ago with a vision to improve the lives and welfare of people in the community. With a little support from East Coseley Big Local, they are now turning one of their ideas into a reality and building positive futures for young people in Coseley.

Paul and Joanne started working with groups of young people at a youth club back in 2008. They found that the young people came along to the club because they were a little at a loose end, or for social reasons, a couple were a little introverted, anxious, and found it difficult to mix and communicate.

They decided to start a music group when they arrived in Coseley about 3 years ago, to help young people socialise and play music together. It was at this point that they realised how much young people were communicating over music and the idea behind Music Moves started to grow.

They approached Big Local, Big Local Project Investment Team he primary reason for starting the Music Moves project was to support young people that are affected by bullying, it is a 12-week programme designed to introduce a new way for young people to cope with anxiety, and emotional and physical bullying. Using a referral method through schools, health professionals, police and other agencies, the programme will take them on a journey of positive personal growth and development through the medium of music..

Their base at New Hope Baptist church provides welcoming, vibrant and multi-use space located in the heart of Coseley, perfect location for young people to build their skills.

Music Moves (www.musicmoves.org)

Paul, Pastor at New Hope Baptist Church and musician said, “Hopefully it will be a preventative model for those who struggle with low self-esteem and other mental health issues, and it will give them something they can do away from their usual environment of school.

The Hope Project has successfully received £13,000 to finish equipping the recording studio at the church, and to pay professional musician to run the Music Moves programme.

“The structure of the programme is in three parts. The first 4 sessions we teach the young people to play something within their skill set, the second 4 week period is bringing them together collectively, in a band environment, and the final 4 weeks, we take them into the recording studio to produce a CD or a digital download. This means they will also be introduced to music production.”

Music Moves, is a music based course supporting the emotional well-being of 11-17 year olds.

When they came together in June 2016, members of the Big Local Project Investment Team could feel the energy and enthusiasm Amy and Asher had for their idea. They told Big Local that they were really excited about it, they had been waiting for an opportunity and the timing was perfect. They wanted to use the Coseley Community Centre (previously the Youth Centre) for dance classes as it is a great space.

Before approaching Big Local for some funding to start up. Through the Big Local Project Investment session Amy and Asher heard about the Darkhouse Summer Playscheme and offered to run a dance class with them which would help to promote the newly forming Aace Dance to more children and parents, and help volunteers from Darkhouse to offer a new activity.

The Hope Project has successfully received £13,000 to finish equipping the recording studio at the church, and to pay professional musician to run the Music Moves programme, supported us with an application for funding from East Coseley Big Local, she helped us to see our vision more clearly.”

Paul worked as a full time musician for a while, and started to work with young people at the youth club, “Music Moves really grew out of that idea, all the way back in 2008. I started working with groups of young people that primarily came through the church but other groups as well. These young people were a little at a loose end, others came for social reasons, a couple were a little introverted, anxious, and found it difficult to mix and communicate.”

The Hope Project has successfully received £13,000 to finish equipping the recording studio at the church, and to pay professional musician to run the Music Moves programme.

The Hope Project, presents three very distinct programmes, Music Moves, a music based course supporting the emotional well-being of 11-17 year olds, Living Life to the Full, designed to support people who struggle with anxiety, low mood and depression, and Beauty for Ashes, designed to support survivors of domestic abuse. Each project has been designed to positively impact the wellbeing of people in the Coseley community and surrounding areas.

This months Big Local Forum was an evening full of thought provoking talks from inspirational special guests.

An eclectic mix of guests including the Canal and River Trust, Beatfreeks Birmingham, Phase Trust Youth Group, Just Straight Talk and Unlimited were invited to the forum to talk about their current projects including, wildlife,  befriending, loneliness and isolation, young people and supporting entrepreneurs.

You could almost feel the positive energy radiating around the room (which wasn’t just the venues surprisingly hot radiators!) and a real sense of excitement to collaborate together to get projects and ideas moving forwards. Young working with old, wildlife, parks and canals working together, partnerships, collaborations – the possibilities seemed endless.

Jayne Sargeant, Phase Trust Youth Group, gave an inspiration talk about working with a wide range of children and young people across the borough including those with complex needs such as anti-social behavior, autism and mental illness. Jane and her team at Phase Trust do everything they can to support children and young people, whether it’s feeding them after school or simply providing a safe environment for them to explore who they are and where they want to be. ‘We don’t come in with the answers we come in with an arm or a shoulder’, said Jane, which I think is an important point that we all took on board.

Zeddie Lawal and Tony Bhajam from Beatfreeks based in Birmingham introduced themselves with an uplifting talk about their work with young people. The workshops and projects they provide including performing arts and music, aim to unleash the creativity of young people, giving them the opportunity to develop skills, build networks and confidence. Undoubtedly an interesting collaborative opportunity for many people at the forum who would like to connect with young people in the area by creating fun and engaging activities.

Kate Beale, Just Straight Talk, actually works with young people by day but on this occasion wanted to focus our attention on her other passion to help the elderly. Kate pointed out the growing problem of isolation and loneliness with older people in the area, and the importance of befriending. To demonstrate this she had brought along her 80 year old neighbour, and friend, Madge.

A moment of silence and admiration filled the room when Madge unexpectedly opened up about her plight with loneliness, her brave and emotional story of the battle she faces everyday to deal with isolation captured the hearts of everyone in the room. It’s not an easy thing to admit that you are lonely and we all need to recognise the signs of someone who might be experiencing loneliness and do everything that we can to help.

Taking that extra bit of time to notice someone in need will lead to a more caring community.

Paul Squires of Unlimited had driven all the way from his home in Cornwall (..not jealous at all..honest!) to talk to us about the support he provides to social entrepreneurs. It was interesting to hear about some of the people he had worked with who had noticed a need for something in their area and combined it with their own unique skill. Paul gave an example of a lady called Julie who had a passion for roller-skating, with funding and business support she set up sessions with a rule to ‘bring along someone over the age of 60’. Apparently, over 60’s make the best roller-skaters!

The talks were followed by group sessions to brainstorm current and future plans and ideas. How can we take our projects to the next stage? who can help us achieve all that we want to achieve? These were common questions surfacing from the session, with the answers bouncing from different areas of the room.

Sharing, caring, collaborating and connecting, these words seemed to sum up the evening.

Brian, who chaired the forum, highlighted for me one of the most important learning’s from the evening, ‘anything is possible if we work together’.

The future is certainly looking rosy and with this kind of community spirit and passion to connect and collaborate, I know that we will make a positive difference in Coseley.

During the summer East Coseley Big Local has been creating opportunities for people to come together for all sorts of creative fun and sharing!

This included a pop up, pot luck, picnic in the park!

People of all ages came together on a gloriously sunny day in August. They brought food to share, shared their knowledge and proudly shared new skills that they had recently learnt!

Coming together in this way feels like a real celebration where everyone can be involved and included. The simple act of sharing cakes that people had baked and brought to share helped people to talk to people they had never met before.

Aace Dance group who East Coseley big Local have been supporting to start dance classes were really excited to be involved and asked if the children wanted to showcase what they had learnt, they could not wait! Everyone came together to cheer them on and it gave the picnic a vibrant energy with lots of smiles!

For others it was a chance to come together to chat and relax in the sun with great food and company. The Crafternooners came along and after sharing food and suntan lotion they were soon crocheting and knitting together.

We shouldn’t underestimate the joy of coming together in this way. Firstly it’s simple to do and is open to everyone no matter what the age or circumstance. All you need to do is bring something to share whether that’s a bit of food, a picnic blanket, your knowledge or a skill or your hands to help tidy up.

There is true beauty in seeing people coming together to laugh, chat, play, create, share and have fun! There is also something really amazing about seeing open spaces (that are often used by just a few dog walkers) being in used in new ways. Who could keep massive smiles of their faces when watching little girls in purple tutus proudly sharing the new skills they have learnt! There was even time to share Ice creams together! What a lovely way to spend a summers day.