I’m glad the forecast is for sun tomorrow, because I’ll be spending the day in my local park at a Highgate Funday organised by Friction Arts.  I’ll be sitting in the Heritage & Place corner of the ‘Arts Zone’, playing with a little bit of an idea I’ve been wanting to do something with for a while.

In March I was pretty inspired by My Street – Cuban Stories, a beautiful book from artists Diana Ivanova and Babak Salari, who worked in Cuba to help people tell the stories of their street to someone who’s never been there with words and photography. At the launch event Babak commented how much more mobile we are than most Cubans, moving quite often rather than spending our lives in the same areas, using me as an example:

“When I was talking to Nicky, I couldn’t really work out where she was from . [He'd gotten the Irish father/English mother/Welsh childhood/Midlands adulthood backstory.] But when I asked her what street she’s from, then I knew.”

And he was right – I’m from Vanfield Close in Caerphilly, where I spent a large part of my childhood.  It’s not where I first lived and I’ve moved quite a lot since living there, but it’s the place that holds the most memories for me.  Of course, this may change in the future.

Since then I’ve been enjoying seeing people use Google Street View to revisit ‘their street’ and talk about the memories they hold.   So tomorrow I’ll be at Highgate Funday, talking to people about what they feel is ‘their street’, possibly revisiting those places on Google Street View and recording the stories they have to tell about them.  I’m hoping to create a simple map from these recorded conversations.  Whether it will work well or not remains to be seen – wish me luck!

On Monday the talk about local team went to Stanhope Hall in Highgate for a second session.  William talked to the group about how a website can help with local campaigning and getting their message across.  We then worked with the Stanhope Women’s Group on developing the site they created during the fist session. 

The Stanhope Women’s Group plan to use their WordPress blog to cover all the activity within the Stanhope Hall centre, which is a real focal point for the community.  So much goes on there that  is well worth bringing to a wider audience, such as their garden, which grows some of the food that’s eaten in their community lunches and the herbs for the womens’ group’s holistic medicine course.

We helped a member of the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum create a WordPress blog to keep track of reporting issues to the council and making sure these are resolved.

We also spoke to the person behind Abacus Flats (Bradford Street, Digbeth) about how she can safely use her WordPress blog to discuss reoccuring problems within the three apartment blocks, hold the property management company to account and create a sense of community amongst the residents. 

It was a great follow-up session that let us delve a bit deeper into the potential of the community websites created once we had gotten past the initial set-up stages.  We’ll be keeping in touch with the people we met at Stanhope Hall, giving them ongoing support and poping by every so often to enjoy one of their delicious community lunches!

Things got off to a great start – about 12 people came along, including the local police and we created a site for the Stanhope Womens’ Group  that meet regularly in the community centre.

We’re going back there at 11.00am this Monday 9th November to work with the group on developing this site and talk to anyone else who is interested in creating or contributing to a community website.  The session is open and completely free, so if you’re nearby and would like to learn how to create a website, or perhaps need help with a site you already have, please come along and talk to us.

The first is this Wednesday 14th October in Burton-upon-Trent at Trent & Dove Housing’s offices, 10.00am-1.00pm.  The session has been arranged via Community Action & Support – East Staffordshire (CASES). 

The second is a lot closer to home at Stanhope Hall, Ketley Croft, Highgate, Birmingham B12 (map here) next Monday 19th October at 10.00am-12.00pm.  With talk about local land being just ten minutes away in Digbeth, we were keen to do something in Highgate and Sandra and Lee at Friction Arts were kind enough to put us in touch with the community centre’s womens’ group, who are enthusiastic about creating an online voice for the area.  They are open to others’ input so come along if you’d like to contribute! 

Both sessions are open and completely free, so if you’re nearby and would like to learn how to set up a community website, or perhaps need help with a site you already have, please come along and meet the talk about local team.