Boosting Brandwood: Together for a Thriving Brandwood

The Boosting Brandwood consortium is a network of over 25 community and faith organisations, voluntary groups, schools, and businesses working in — or serving — the neighbourhoods of Brandwood, a distinct suburb in the Kings Heath area.

From October 2024 to October 2025, we came together to deepen our understanding of the neighbourhood — its strengths, assets, and the amazing work already taking place. Together we have been establishing a Cultural Action Area (CAA) designed to boost these neighbourhoods over the long term through community‑business collaborations and activities that enliven public spaces, spark curiosity and bring fresh energy to the area.


Our approach is to create a place‑based ecosystem that, over time, delivers real social and economic benefits for local people. We see culture in its broadest sense as a driver for change — a way to connect neighbours, promote inclusion, and improve quality of life.

Estate agents market homes as part of desirable Kings Heath, masking the reality that most of the Brandwood neighbourhoods sit within the 10% most deprived neighbourhoods in England. While there is a specific focus on helping communities and businesses to flourish in areas where people experience higher levels of socio-economic need and a depletion of resources and investment, our aim is to create a BUZZ all about and around the whole Brandwood area.

Capital investment activities to establish a Cultural Action Area

Dawberry Corner Community Garden

Investment was made to complete the transformation of Dawberry Corner Community Garden. This has included public realm improvements and landscaping work, the purchase of an accessible toilet and events equipment. We are now a fully inclusive community garden.

Murals & Artwork

We commissioned seven painted murals within the area by two talented Brandwood-based artists Graffiti by Title and ForThemHandpainted to create vibrant public realm improvements, uplifting four shops or shopping parades and boosting pride of place. We also added a mosaic hopscotch to Dawberry Corner Community Garden by CAA-based arts organisation kaos-arts.

Community Noticeboards

We commissioned branded upgrades of 3 existing community noticeboards, making them useable for all consortium members through changing key locks to pin padlocks.

We also built three new ones; one to replace a broken one and two more in strategic locations by new community spaces.

Revenue activities to establish a Cultural Action Area

Brandwood Buzz Consortium

We ran four workshops to bring together the Brandwood Buzz consortium, start conversations and collaborations.

We discussed four main areas of work:

  • Improving Internal Communications between consortium
  • Improving External Communications to connect Brandwood
  • Collectively piloting activity which encourages and educates people to take more pride in how the CAA looks
  • Moving forward in a sustainable way once the seed funding to establish a Cultural Action Area has run out…

Together, we developed a Shared Vision and Legacy Plan.

Baseline perception survey

We launched a public perception survey for people who live, work and visit the Cultural Action Area. The area is highlighted in blue on the earlier map. It’s aim was to create a baseline of ‘perception’ against which we can measure impact in the future. It asked about people’s awareness of what was on offer within Brandwood, how they accessed information, how they scored the area in terms of quality of the environment, safety and activities. It also asked what challenges needed to be addressed to improve the area.

We received over 200 responses to the survey, with 54% of people living in the CAA. The baseline showed that people rated the CAA on average being a 4 and 5/10 in terms of awareness or quality indicators. Something to work with!

Branding and identity

A sub group developed the Brandwood Buzz public-facing branding and social media channels, leading to the development of a website – ready for launch in 2026 www.brandwoodbuzz.co.uk

This is the website for everything in and around the suburb. Stay local. Shop local. Discover more.

Facebook Instagram Facebook

Youth engagement

We have piloted a youth CV-building and volunteering programme to improve employability and civic engagement.

We piloted the scheme with 10 young local 14-19 year olds and 4 have clocked up at least 24 volunteer hours so far. We will provide them with a reference for 12 months once they hit this 24 hour milestone or for longer if they continue to volunteer within the Brandwood community.

A gift of poetry for World Poetry Day

Our first consortium-driven place based project was about starting to build relationships with shops in the patch. We asked 15 of them to give a ‘gift of poetry’ to their customers on World Poetry Day on 21st March 2025. Over 550 boxes with poems, were made by the children and young people of:

  • Wheelers Lane Technology College
  • Allens Croft Primary School
  • Colmore Junior School
  • Woodthorpe Junior School
 
 

Read a selection of poetry by children here.

 

Introducing a Zebra Zone

Our second consortium-driven campaign was to introduce a ‘Zebra Zone’ to keep children safe between Allens Croft Nursery School and Allens Croft Primary School and home. Through creative interventions working with the children to design zebras, community participation and effective messaging through the school children, we are reducing risks. The initiative included traffic counts before and after the ‘zone’ was created and traffic incidents, averaging 48 per count before Easter 2025, dropped to an average of 11 per count – that’s an impressive 63% reduction, showing how simple, creative interventions have the potential to save lives. In September 2025 another 3 traffic counts showed there was still a reduction of 50% of incidents after the launch. 

The Brandwood Bash

The Brandwood Bash was organised by the Friends of Dawberry Fields Park, with this year’s theme being a showcase for the Boosting Brandwood consortium, highlighting activities running from Brandwood venues and our community and faith organisations. Free food was provided as sponsorship by two local businesses – Masala Hub who served 200 biriyani boxes and A Natural Undertaking who served a ‘Treats Table’. 

Dawberry Corner Community Garden

We developed Dawberry Corner Community Garden as a community asset. We have been meeting outcomes for volunteering, skills building and community and business engagement. We have partnered and collaborated with other consortium members to bring new people and activity into the garden. We have hired out the space to local community businesses. All commissions for new art in the garden, tradespeople and the sponsor of our Christmas tree have been sourced from within the CAA.

Cultural activities funded by Birmingham Municipal Charity to help us establish a Cultural Action Area

Establishing a Cultural Action Area enabled us to leverage more funding from different sources for cultural activities. We ran Good Vibrations for All Generations – an event and workshop programme – between May and October 2025, with something programmed for every Brandwood venue and green space, organised with Leaf Creative Arts CIC. We also programmed neighbour events into Dawberry Corner to develop audiences to the space.

This work was funded by the Birmingham Municipal Charity.

VISION STATEMENT AND LEGACY PLAN 2026-2030

A Cultural Action Area is a long-term vision to boost Brandwood

Vision Statement and Legacy Plan 2026-2030

Together over the next 5 years we will revitalise the Brandwood suburb of Kings Heath to create a vibrant Cultural Action Area with a distinct identity, where collaboration sparks opportunity, pride blooms in every corner, and culture inspires creativity, curiosity and connection. Through grassroots action and strong community-business ties, we will boost visibility, shift perceptions, tackle neighbourhood issues, and nurture a place where people care deeply, live fully, shop locally, and feel positivity, safety, and belonging.

Looking ahead, the consortium will build on the momentum of our first year establishing a Cultural Action Area. 

We will grow as a supportive, place‑based network, working with greater collaboration and sustainability, and leveraging future investment through Cultural Action Area status to make a lasting, culture‑enriching difference to the area.

Please download our Legacy Plan Aims and Aspirations for 2026-2030. For a copy of the full Boosting Brandwood Legacy Plan, please contact Suze at team@ourscene.org 


Thank you to Birmingham City Council for seed funding this programme through an Enterprise Zone grant, which will help us to unlock more investment to deliver a creative and cultural strategic vision for Brandwood in the years to come.