Community Project Management & Production
Alongside my design work I do a lot of volunteering in my local community. My work is mostly hyperlocal to Stirchley, South Birmingham, where I’ve been living for a decade. I have worked on and organised numerous community projects and initiatives, not just in my local area, but city-wide as well. Events such as Ladies Wine Design Birmingham, Glug Birmingham and Pecha Kucha Birmingham, seeing several through from conception to long-term sustainability.
I have practical, on-the-ground experience in events production, project and team management, volunteer co-ordination, delegation, marketing strategy and content delivery, fundraising, community engagement, as well as organising and curating exhibitions, speaker-events and workshops.
This experience adds to my graphic design services and by working with me you’ll undoubtedly be offered strategic advice, useful resources and tools, and relevant contacts from my broad network of fantastic human beings doing good stuff locally.
Stirchley Bloomers (Feb 2018 - present) - Co-founder
A small group of residents / green enthusiasts with a shared aim to make Stirchley a greener, brighter place to be. On hiatus at the moment due to volunteers shielding, this is a long term project, linking up with other green projects in Stirchley. We’re set up as constituted community group and pre-pandemic I wrote the monthly newsletter where you can find out more information about the meet-ups, held loosely on the second Saturday of the month.
Friends of Stirchley Library (Dec 2016 - September 2018) - Co-founder
Stirchley Library was under threat of closure through city wide budget cuts. I was part of the founding trio that brought together the Stirchley community, spreading awareness and campaigning to keep library services in the library building. The community formed a Friends of Stirchley Library (FOSL) group. FOSL work closely with the council and library staff to make sure the library gets the support it needs. FOSL have since increased the library’s opening hours from three days a week to four, the library no longer has to close during lunch hours, and they hold regular evening events. During my time there I fundraised for new equipment and seating, a project coordinator, and capital funding for roof repairs.
Ladies, Wine, Design (LWD) Birmingham. APRIL 2016 - Sept 2017, Co-founder
Along with Charlotte Audrey, I co-founded the Birmingham chapter of the International Ladies, Wine & Design socials, initially founded by Jessica Walsh in New York. The events we held were casual conversations on a wide variety of topics relating to creativity, being a womxn in business, and life. The name of the meet-ups felt off to Charlotte and I over time (Ladies, Wine) as we learned more about inclusivity and gender, and as I explored my own gender identity and labelling. LWD felt limiting, even though events were designed to be inclusive and supportive spaces. LWD Birmingham is now organised by a new team and joins up with Birmingham Design Festival.
Kopfkino Community Cinema (Jan 2017 - present) Founder / Producer
I organised several film screenings raising funds for various charities: B30 Foodbank, SIFA Fireside, Kings Heath Action for Refugees, Refugees at Home, Hope Projects, Eco Birmingham and ACORN Birmingham.
I haven’t got any plans for future screenings under the guise of Kopfkino at the moment. I helped co-found Stirchley Open Cinema in May 2018 which fills the community cinema gap locally in B30! You can find out more on StirchleyCinema.co.uk @StirchleyCinema
Stirchley Community Market (July 2011- September 2018) - Market Manager
For seven years I was involved in Stirchley Community Market - starting as a general volunteer on the day, through to becoming market manager. The market gives the local community and commuters on their way home from work, an opportunity to find out what Stirchley has to offer - held on the first Tuesday of the month, March — December. The market is entirely run by local residents on an unpaid voluntary basis, with a shared aim of making Stirchley a friendlier, more social, community driven place. The market has strong values; supporting the local economy and high street, encouraging people in the community to come together, and it gives first-time market stallholders a leg up into the market circuit in Birmingham, at an affordable rate.
Created in Birmingham, July 2012 – Sept 2016, Editor
Created in Birmingham existed as a blog / platform to share what was going on in Birmingham for both the cultural and creative scenes. The blog was active for almost a decade, between 1 December 2006 and 5 September 2016, promoting, discussing and being part of Birmingham’s creative community. I planned blog and social media content, wrote articles, commissioned writers and responded to and digested relevant news, in order to share it with the community. As CiB, in 2014 I brought international speaker series Glug to the city, and in 2015 I helped resurrect’s Birmingham’s edition of international event Pecha Kucha Birmingham. We had a newsletter, before newsletters had their moment. CiB was truly a good thing and all good things must come to an end eventually!
Do you want to set up your own community group? You should check out Birmingham Community Matters.