Businesses and Charities Compete for the Community at the Birmingham Community Investment Games

Businesses, Charities and other Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) organisations came together on 4 June to ‘Compete 4 Community’ in the Birmingham Community Investment Games.

The Games, hosted by Pitch2Progress CIC and supported by the Birmingham Business & Community Partnership, brought organisations together not only to compete in a variety of fun sports and games and share delicious home cooked food, but also to encourage connection and collaboration with the hope that this would help “make the magic happen” for Birmingham communities.

A Pitch2Progress and Kier Group joint project is a powerful example of how connection and collaboration between the voluntary sector, public bodies and private organisations can deliver life-changing outcomes for local communities. In East Birmingham Pitch2Progress deliver vital support, sports and development opportunities for young people. Operating from shipping containers located on reclaimed land, power outages were frequent, and generators often required, limiting their ability to deliver consistently. Through the Birmingham City Council Social Value Team, Pitch2Progress were connected with Kier Group who installed permanent electricity.

Young people who have benefited from Pitch2Progress support volunteered at the Games, offering encouragement and support to those taking part. Attendees were also able to hear from Pitch2Progress about the impact of their work on young people including in providing safe spaces to build life skills, promote wellbeing and open pathways to education and employment. A workshop to craft a ‘Home Poem’ was particularly insightful, contrasting attendees positive experiences of home with young people’s, often unsafe, home environments, showing the great need there is for the project.

Businesses, community organisations and public sector bodies at the Games also all took part in a ‘speed networking’ activity and provided details of ‘offers’ and ‘asks’, opening up opportunities for further connections and collaboration to take place beyond the event.

 Aaron Rai, Hays Recruitment said the highlight of the day was "seeing what this place has done for children and the volunteers working with us today and running these activities were a delight...very professional, very energetic and very, very good to work with...to have local kids come and volunteer and help out is an achievement in itself"

Harry Debenham, Northfield Community Partnership said the highlight of the day was "being with charitable organisations, like-minded people and making connections"

Check out highlights of the event here in a brief film from Pitch2Progress (Opens in Vimeo):

 

About Pitch2Progress

Pitch2Progress CIC is a lived experience-led community organisation empowering young people in inner-city Birmingham. They use sport, mentoring, and community programmes to build life skills, promote wellbeing, and open pathways to education and employment. From youth clubs and girls-only sports sessions to school mentoring and community events, they provide safe spaces for young people to grow, connect, and thrive.

Please see here for more information on Pitch2Progress:

Pitch2Progress

 

About Birmingham Business and Community Partnership

Birmingham Business and Community Partnership includes:

 

Get Involved

If you would like to connect and collaborate with businesses, communities and public bodies to support Birmingham communities

  • Read and sign up to our quarterly Community Investment Bulletin for inspiration from business and community partnerships and for information on future events
  • Sign up to Birmingham Match My Project – a meeting point for the business and community sector where community organisations can get help for their projects from businesses working in Birmingham
  • Contact us at [email protected] if you would like further information
Thanks to our all Supporters & Sponsors

       

  

Manage Cookie Preferences