Campaigns digest
Hello and welcome to our summer newsletter. We have been very busy over the past few months developing our exciting new campaigns and hosted two events. On Sunday 2nd April we had a party to celebrate 40 years of being at the Warehouse. I’m pleased to say the party was a success! It was great to talk to people who have been involved with the group over the last 40 years and to talk about what the future holds. Then on Thursday 6th April we teamed up with Rail Future West Midlands to put on a transport themed Metro Mayor event which you can read all about in Stuart’s article.
In this issue we will be taking a look at our new campaigns; air pollution and climate refugees, along with finding out what else is going on in Birmingham with guest articles from the Jubilee Debt Campaign, Northfield Eco Centre and Uprising. We will also be catching up with our nature campaign and Divest WMPF.
Air pollution
The poor air quality in Birmingham and the proposed Clean Air Zones have kept air pollution in the news. At our campaign planning day back in February we decided that our priority campaign for this year is going to be air pollution. Take a look at a Poppy’s article to find out more about the campaign and how you can get involved.
Economics
The Birmingham Pound held an open campaign planning meeting on Monday 27th March. The meeting looked at how the campaign has developed and how to take it forward. Keep up to date with Birmingham Pound news at brumpound.wordpress.com
Energy and Climate change
At our campaign planning day we decided that our second main campaign for this year is going to be climate refugees. At the time of writing, the campaign is still in the early planning stages. The campaign will be raising awareness of the impacts of climate change on migration alongside asking for a recognised legal status for people who are displaced because of climate change. Find out more about climate refugees in Elena’s article.
Nature
Our new lead nature campaigner, Branwen has been busy preparing our new bee campaigns materials. We are enjoying taking part in the Great British Bee Count and you can follow our results on Twitter and Facebook. To take part, download the app need link here and tweet us your pics.
Waste
I joined our lead waste campaigner, John Newson for a meeting with Councillor Jacqui Kenndy and Anthony Green, Director for Waste Management at Birmingham City Council,for a discussion about the new waste strategy for Birmingham. We spoke about the need for a sustainable, greener waste system which included better recycling facilities and a food waste collection.
How you can get involved
We always welcome new people and there are many different ways you can get involved with our campaigns. Whether you have an hour or two to spare or a whole day please get in touch or come along to any of our weekly Monday evening meet ups (contact and meeting details on the diary page).
Follow us on Twitter (@Bham_FOE) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/birminghamfoe) to keep up to date with our latest campaigns news. For more in-depth Information on our campaigns take a look at our website (www.birmingahmfoe.org.uk)
