Hello and welcome to our autumn newsletter. We have had an exciting and busy time over the summer with launching our two new campaigns (A Breath of Fresh Air and Climate Refugees) as well as raising investments through our Unlocking The Warehouse community share offer. Take a look at 240,000 reasons to be grateful to find out all about our exciting plans. We have also had to say farewell to Phil Burrows who was our General Manager for 9 years. We all want to say a massive thank you for all your hard work and we wish you all the best for the future.
In this issue we will be taking a closer look at our air pollution and climate refugee campaigns along with discovering what else is going on in Birmingham with guest articles from Small Footsteps and Brum Radio. We will also be taking a look at the Birmingham Campaigns Course which we are helping to run.
Air Pollution
We took part in Wheelers Lane Active streets evening on 15 June to highlight National Clean Air Day. It was great to see families playing outside together. There was plenty to do including football, rounders and a bike which makes smoothies!
After months of planning we launched our A Breath of Fresh Air campaign during Clean Air week at the end of June. During the week we attend different events including Billesley Lane Allotments Open Day, Moseley Street Festival and CoCo Mad to talk about air quality issues in Birmingham. Take a look at Poppy’s article to find out more.
Energy and climate change
We launched our new Climate Refugee campaign during Refugee Week (19-25 June) with a film night at The Warehouse. We showed the film, Climate Refugees which highlighted the impacts of climate change on millions of people worldwide. Read Eunice’s article to find out more.
Nature
We enjoyed taking part in the Great British Bee Count back in June. We spotted various different species of bee including tree bumble bees who had taken over one of our bird boxes. Let us know what bees you have seen.
Our beehives in Digbeth Community Garden are thriving and we have been busy fundraising to buy them.
Waste
Our Waste Isn’t Rubbish campaign has been quiet while we wait for Birmingham City Council to respond to last year’s public consultation on the Future Waste Strategy for Birmingham. Our lead waste campaigner, John, has been keeping an eye out for any developments.
As part of the Birmingham Campaigns Course, Jodie is working on a new recycling campaign, calling for a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles. Read Jodie’s article for all the details.
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 meetings (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.birminghamfoe.org.uk)
