Sutton Coldfield Neighbourhood Network Scheme

Hate Crime Awareness Week (9-17 October)

Hate crime hurting your community?

Get help from BVSC for your community group to tackle hate crime together.

National Hate Crime Awareness Week takes place 10-17 October
Birmingham Hate Crime Awareness Week launches 9 October
Hate Crime Awareness Roadshow to visit communities across Birmingham City
Get involved in raising awareness or getting help to tackle hate crime in your community

About National Hate Crime Awareness Week – 10 – 17 October

National Hate Crime Awareness Week (National HCAW) is an annual week of action to tackle hate crime, held between the 2nd to 3rd Saturday in October- this year taking place 10-17 October 2026.

The national week aims to encourage the authorities (Government, Police and Councils), key partners and communities affected by hate crime to work together to tackle hate crime incidents across the UK.

The anti-hate crime charity which organises the event believe that it is important to remember those we have lost, those who need our ongoing support, and to educate others to bring an end to hate.

They deliver a programme of Hate Crime Projects including an annual H.O.P.E campaign to raise awareness and keep tackling hate crime firmly on the national agenda.

To raise awareness of the week, download resources here.

Download resources here

What’s Happening in Birmingham- 9 – 17 October

Birmingham City Council’s Cohesion and Community Safety Teams are bringing partners together to raise awareness of hate crime, increase reporting, and ensure people know where to access support.

A Hate Crime Awareness Roadshow will launch Hate Crime Awareness Week at the Council House on 9th October 2026, before travelling to locations across Birmingham.

Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector organisations, West Midlands Police, and other key partners can help spread the word and engage communities.

If your organisation would like to participate or promote awareness in your area, please contact cohesion@birmingham.gov.uk as soon as possible

Please check back on this page for further updates to Birmingham City events

BVSC Support for Your Community Group

BVSC are supporting National Hate Crime Awareness Week and Birmingham City partner activity, as part of supporting VCFSE sector to tackle hate crime, along with wider issues such as Community Cohesion, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and Race Equality.

Resources relating to tackling Hate Crime and Community Cohesion for your community group are available here:

Resources

Hate Crime: If you become aware of a hate crime, please refer to the guidance on how to report the incident. The resources include details of VCFSE based local hate crime reporting centres who can offer support, advice and ways to report without having to talk directly to the police.

Birmingham Community Safety Partnership West Midlands Police

Brummies United Against Racism and Hate Crime: Brummies have come together to create the 'Brummies United Against Racism and Hate Crime' initiative, and have developed a poster campaign for sharing across neighbourhoods. For more information, see the Facebook group here:

Brummies United Against Racism and Hate Crime

National Hate Crime Awareness Week - October each year: This is a week of action to encourage the authorities, key partners and communities affected by hate to work together to tackle hate crime across the UK. Take part in local events or organise your own. For more information:

National Hate Crime Awareness Week

Violent Extremism: If you are concerned about violent extremism, please refer to guidance on how to report this through the Prevent Scheme here:

Report Violent Extremism

Small Steps: Small Steps is a specialist training company aimed at educating frontline staff, educational establishments, community activists and young people about the dangers of Extreme Right-Wing (ERW) extremism via quality training and resources delivered by people with lived experience of extremism.

Small Steps

Birmingham City Council - Community Safety & Resilience Team: The City Council Community Safety & Resilience Team provides support around Hate Crime and Community Cohesion.

Birmingham City Council - Community Safety & Resilience Team

Birmingham City of Sanctuary: Birmingham is a City of Sanctuary, committing to include all refugees and migrants visiting, residing or working in the City.

Birmingham City of Sanctuary

Birmingham City Council - Resettlement & Migration Team: The City Council Resettlement and Migration Team provides support around resettlement and migration.

Birmingham City Council - Resettlement & Migration Team

Migrant Support: The Migrant Advice Portal is a hub to access support and to better connect asylum, refugee and migrant services across Birmingham and the West Midlands. This includes details of VCFSE migrant support services.

Migrant Advice Portal

The RMC Charity: The RMC Charity (previously known as RMC- Refugee and Migrant Centre) empowers refugees and migrants to overcome barriers by providing free, expert support for successful community integration.

The RMC Charity

Birmingham Race Impact Group (BRIG): BRIG is committed to promoting racial justice in Birmingham. They lead on the Birmingham Race Impact Summits and on supporting Birmingham to become an Anti-Racist City.

BRIG

VCFSE Mini Race Impact Summit: BVSC worked with BRIG and VCFSE partners on the VCFSE Mini Race Impact Summit and Position Paper.

VCFSE MRIS

BRAP: A charity looking to transform the way we think and do equality.

BRAP

Birmingham Council of Faiths: A charity supporting relationships between different faith groups and partners across Birmingham City

Birmingham Council of Faiths

BCF Footsteps: Faiths for a Low Carbon Future: Footsteps is a Birmingham Council of Faiths project, bringing together faith groups in Birmingham, to respond to the challenge of moving to a low carbon future.

BCF Footsteps: Faiths for a Low Carbon Future

Uplift Adult and Youth CIC: Uplift was established with a vision to create a thriving and connected community, with their centre serving as a hub for engagement, learning and shared experiences.

Uplift Adult and Youth CIC

Ways for Wellbeing: Ways for Wellbeing work with individuals to support their wellbeing.

Ways for Wellbeing

BVSC Directories: A webpage listing VCFSE and partner directories, organisations and services across Birmingham City. Use this to search for wider information and support.

BVSC Directories Page

Birmingham City Council- Public Participation Team: The City Council Public Participation Team makes sure that citizens' voices are included in all Council decision-making and service design. This includes the work that the Council undertake around hate crime and community cohesion.

Birmingham City Council - Public Participation Team

Be Well Wellbeing Toolkit: A toolkit created for all staff involved in, or responsible for, staff wellbeing in refugee and migration organisations. It will encourage inclusive conversations about staff wellbeing and help you create a wellbeing policy.

Be Well Wellbeing Toolkit

BVSC Community Cohesion Statement and Support, 2 October 2025: In October 2025, BVSC Chief Executive Brian Carr issued a statement on Community Cohesion. BVSC offered support to the VCFSE sector on Community Cohesion issues.

Statement and Support

Birmingham City Partnership Board Statement, 24 November 2025: In November 2025, members of the Birmingham City Partnership Board issued a statement on Community Cohesion: Forward Together for a City Beyond Racism

Birmingham City Partnership Board Statement

VCFSE Community Cohesion Summit Report: BVSC and BRIG convened a VCFSE Community Cohesion Summit in February 2026

VCFSE Community Cohesion Summit Report

Sutton Coldfield Neighbourhood Network Scheme recruiting

Age Connects West Midlands

Neighbourhood Networker and Digital Support Officer

22 Hours per Week
£16,176.16 per annum
Based in Sutton Coldfield

Make a Difference in Your Community

Age Connects West Midlands is looking for a Neighbourhood Networker & Digital Support Officer to support local people, community groups and organisations across Sutton Coldfield.

This is an exciting opportunity to join our innovative team and help strengthen community connections while promoting digital inclusion.

About the Role

You will:

• Support and commission local organisations to deliver community activities.
• Build relationships with community groups, partners and volunteers.
• Coordinate digital inclusion sessions across Birmingham.
• Promote local services, activities and opportunities.
• Maintain Birmingham City Council's Connect to Support directory.
• Help people stay connected, independent and engaged within their communities.

What We're Looking For

✔ Experience in community development, community engagement or digital inclusion.
✔ Strong communication and relationship-building skills.
✔ Good digital skills and confidence working with a range of stakeholders.
✔ A positive, proactive and creative approach to problem-solving.

What We Offer

• Free onsite parking.
• Additional annual leave linked to length of service.
• Employee Wellbeing Scheme.
• Perkbox employee benefits.
• Full induction and training.
• A varied and rewarding role where no two days are the same.

Apply Now

To arrange an informal discussion or apply, please send your CV and a covering letter explaining how you meet the role requirements to

Pete.Millington@AgeConnectsWM.org.uk

Please note:

Please note, we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date if we receive a high level of suitable applications, so we encourage early applications

Closing Date: 2 October 2026

Funded by Birmingham City Council

GDPR training package for Sutton Coldfield Assets

Sutton Coldfield NNS have commissioned James Robson of Datum Longevitus to produce a training package for local community groups on Data Protection (GDPR).

The training pack is in an accessible electronic format with speech, text and pictures which is ideal for individuals or small groups to watch on a laptop or computer.

The training has 13 modules on MP4 which each take about 5 minutes, making it easy to do all in one go, in bite sized parts with breaks or one module at a time. James has designed the training pack to the specifications of the NNS team, so it is pitched at volunteer board members and managers and paid staff of small community groups. The training pack is free to assets in Sutton Coldfield who identify as not-for-profit community and voluntary sector groups, to whom it is completely free of charge.

In the future we will consider distributing the course to other community assets and NNS networks in Birmingham.

The training course includes:

Introduction
What is personal data?
The Special Data
Whose data are we talking about?
Who is responsible for the data?
The Lawful basis
Who can I share data with?
Data Subject Rights Part 1
Data Subject Rights Part 2
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
How do you assess the risks?
Security
What to do in a data breach?

James Robson is the founder and CEO of Datum Longevitus, a UK-based data protection, privacy consultancy and compliance firm.

If you are interested in completing our Data Protection training for free, please send an email to the NNS team at nns@ageconnectswm.org.uk

Tell us the name of your not-for-profit community organisation and location. Please also give us an idea how many people will benefit from the training (names not necessary), also their roles in the organisation (number of staff, volunteers, board members, other beneficiaries).

We will also request a short review and report about the training within 3 months of you receiving it.

The training is for local organisations, it is branded with the SCNNS logo and is not for wide distribution.

The training course is not credited but SCNNS will be happy to issue a certificate of participation to your organisation on completion of 3 or more people.

Birmingham Waterfest - 3rd October 2026

Saturday 3rd October - Birmingham Waterfest at The Boat Inn, Old Kingsbury Road, Sutton Coldfield, B76 9AE.

Boat races and kayaking from 10 am to 4.20 pm

Book your team and time slot now to secure your place (8 paddlers per team)

Eventbrite: Birmingham Waterfront 2026

FROM BOSNIA HOUSE TO THE UK PARLIAMENT: A SPECIAL VISIT BY YOUNG PEOPLE FROM ZAPORIZHZHIA

The visit of a group of 20 young people from the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia is being organised by the Bosnia and Herzegovina UK Network, in partnership with Birmingham City Council and Zaporizhzhia City Council. Birmingham and Zaporizhzhia are twin cities, and this visit represents another important step in strengthening the links between the two cities and their communities.

On the second day of their stay in the UK, the young people visited London, where they saw some of the capital’s best-known landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, as well as several museums. However, the highlight of the day was their visit to the UK Parliament.

The visit to Parliament was initiated and organised by Dr Anes Cerić, Honorary Consul of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Midlands, in cooperation with Tahir Ali MP, who welcomed the group to Westminster.

During a guided tour, the young people had the opportunity to learn about the history of Parliament and gain a better understanding of how one of the UK’s most important institutions works. Following the tour, a special meeting was held with Tahir Ali MP, where they were able to ask questions, share their thoughts and discuss his work as a Member of Parliament.

Their week in Birmingham had begun the previous day at Bosnia House, where they took part in workshops and joint activities with children attending the Ukrainian Supplementary School. They also had the opportunity to meet parents and families from Birmingham’s Ukrainian community.

In just the first two days, new friendships have already been formed and many happy memories created. The programme continues at Bosnia House with further workshops, activities and opportunities for the young people to spend time together.