Big Top Neighbourhood Watch Roadshow (BTNWRS)
The aim was to engage Residents and inspire them to start up a Neighbourhood Watch in their street and their community and to portray Neighbourhood watch in a different way that is open to all ages and can be a social meeting place where the community can support and look after each other and their families/property.
2012 the Neighbourhood watch started to use the natural attraction of the fair to engage local people at this time. The partnerships comprised of the Neighbourhood watch, Robert Wilkinson and the city council supplying the sites and also the royal British legion with their stall this relationship proved to be very successful in raising the profile of Neighbourhood watch and the royal British legion in the community. Big Top Neighbourhood Watch Road Show provides the free element and Mr Wilkinson provides the natural attraction with the cheapest fair in the West midlands,We have built a strong bond with all the communties within Birmingham and Solihull and work with public, private and third sector partners to make sure that issues we tackle is for the benefit and greater good of the residents of Birmingham and Solihull.
This led to other groups in 2013 joining us such as the Police Commissioner the late Mr Bob Jones/ Octavius providing learning opportunities/ Phoenix futures/ Claire Marshall from changing cultures and Neil De-costa who is so valuable with their advice, expertise and knowledge. Birmingham adoption and fostering services also joined us at various events in 2013.
In August 2013 the BTNWRS launched the Anti-bullying campaign targeting children and families especially primary aged children this was presented at the Parks in Birmingham at the fair on an ex-city of Birmingham festive stage this campaign is to raise awareness of bullying and how to deal with bullying we use the cartoon characters and music/dance to help strengthen the teacher, pupil and parents bond sending out our message in the show
STOP! NO! TELL A TEACHER OR AN ADULT
In the beginning of 2014 we became a non for Profit Company guaranteed by limited insurance. The BTNWRS is soon to have a charity status. In 2014 the BTNWRS gained an national Neighbourhood award for our work. We also gained National Lottery grant called Awards for all money just under £10,000 to help set up the pilot project and buy infrastructure to enable us to deliver the campaign to Birmingham schools, we was also supported financially by Shard end/ Soho/ Nechells wards by way of community first CDF money to visit schools in each of these wards.
The financial and moral support of these wards gave us inspiration to achieve our goals and up to yet the anti-bullying roadshow has visited around 25 schools and some 15 more to attend in the New Year the roadshow has visited schools outside the Shard end/ Soho/ Nechells wards as the word is getting around many more schools and they wanted the show to visit, the schools are requested to fill in a review form giving us feedback on the show and the message we are promoting. Up to now all the reviews have all been positive. Our volunteers Mark and Robert have had children come up to them outside on the streets and say hello and
STOP! NO! TELL A TEACHER OR AN ADULT.
In 2014 other groups joined the roadshow in the parks such as Health watch and NHS Health exchange and we saw the return of the Adoption and Fostering services these groups see benefit of working with our captive audience within the fair to promote their particular organisation and message they are delivering. The growing community campaign comes from the community grass roots who are concerned on the amount of people who are finding it difficult to feed their families
This year we will be encouraging and showing how people can grow their own food in very little or no space. To get people started we hope to give out hand outs of grow it bags and seeds, to tackle other issues like un-employment, mental illness, homelessness, alcohol and or drug misuse, violence
and abuse. we try to encourage the volunteers to get involved with our projects to gain life skills and further education to equip them on their future goals, we would also like to tackle other serious problems that our area is encounting at this moment in time.
We also want to introduce a petting corner with a range of different animals like Rabbits, guinea pigs, Turtles, Alpaca’s, Deer’s Etc. With our partners who are the Oasis Academy they will purchase the animals and are asking us to contribute to the running cost of feeding and taking care of them. The School they run would have the animals in the School weeks for pet therapy and we would have them in the weekends and school holidays for the pet Corner.
All this can be possible due to the fact that we are not working alone. We are building a network of True partnership working, Our Committee is built with that belief and all members joined from other Organisations and have made a commitment to the BTNWRS because they know that this is the way forward to tackle these issues. 2014 we saw the Birmingham District Allotments Society join us and we are working in partnership to deliver the growing communities and the pet Corner project which we will be hopefully launching Easter 2015.
We provide an information hub, Which has free face painting one side and the information Hub and an arts and crafts unit with an TV to show messages like Road safety Health and wellbeing, Anti- bullying which we have taken in to the parks and Schools, any message our old and new partner’s wish to get across, and with our partners help and guidance we will be tackling serious controversial issues such has mental illness, homelessness, alcohol, drug misuse, violence, abuse, Racism, human rights and international issues that may affect the UK.
The people of Birmingham come from many different cultures some that suffer with language barriers and find it hard to understand different cultures. Quite a lot of people who attend our events have financial and educational barriers to overcome and find it hard to integrate in to society .We give the opportunity for these people to have a purpose and find the life skills and training they need to equip themselves to live in a diverse society like Birmingham through the preforming Arts and help their community grow.
These are just some of the organisations we work with National Neighbourhood watch and the royal British legion, Police and the Police Commissioner/Octavius providing learning opportunities/ Phoenix futures/ Claire Marshall from changing cultures/ Birmingham adoption and fostering services/ Child line/ Health watch/ NHS Health exchange/ Birmingham city Council / Birmingham District Allotments Society and much more other Voluntary/ Public sector organisations. We would like to say that with light minded people and orgainsations around us we couldn't have done what we have, and we hope with your help and support to offer a lot more in the future
Mr Mark Anthony Jastrzebski Esq BEM
48 Knightstone Avenue, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6PR
Telphone – 1021 218 4186
Mobile – 07878 021 085
/ www.thebigtoproadshow.com / Face book – Bigtop Nwroadshow / Robert Wilkinson Facebook https://www.facebook.com/wilkinsonsfunfair Twitter - @Jastrzebski1970 / Skype – mark.jastrzebski