Tackling the Cost of Living Crisis across Birmingham’s Voluntary, Community, Faith & Social Enterprise Sector

  

  • BVSC and Barrow Cadbury Trust Cost of Living Event took place on 1 November  
  • Over 140 people heard how Birmingham City is being impacted by the Cost of Living crisis 
  • Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector organisations providing vital services are facing both increased demand and rising costs 
  • Toolkit to help the sector to tackle the crisis launched – can your organisation contribute to this? 
  • Event report to published by Christmas 

A Cost of Living event for Birmingham’s Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise sector took place on 1 November 2022. Over 140 people attended the event organised by BVSC and funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust.  

We were delighted to be joined by several speakers on a wide range of topics including:  

  • Overview & Birmingham City Council Response - Richard Brooks, Director of Strategy, Equality and Partnerships, Birmingham City Council 
  • Birmingham’s Food System Strategy - Cllr Mariam Khan, Cabinet Member for Health & Social Care, Birmingham City Council  
  • Employment & The Real Living Wage - Andrew Gordon, Programme Officer, Living Wage Foundation  
  • Citizens Advice Response – Janice Nichols, Chief Executive, Citizens Advice Birmingham 
  • Crime & Community Safety - Tom McNeil, Assistant Police & Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands 
  • Health & Wellbeing – Michelle Howard & Elisabeth Sheppard, The Active Wellbeing Society (TAWS) 
  • Community Buildings & Warm Welcome – Fred Rattley, Director of Community Regeneration, Church of England Birmingham and Chief Executive, Thrive Together Birmingham 

Workshops took place throughout the day led by experts from across the sector and partners on key themes: 

  • Employment & Volunteering – The Living Wage Foundation; BVSC 
  • Finance & Funding – West Midlands Funders Network; Birmingham City Council 
  • Housing Poverty – Birmingham Social Housing Partnership (BSHP); Shelter 
  • Food Poverty – The Food Justice Network 
  • Utilities Poverty – AgilityEco (LEAP); Severn Trent Water; Smartlyte/ Get Families Talking 
  • Equality, Diversity & Inclusion – Birmingham Council of Faiths; Birmingham Race Impact Group (BRIG) 

A full list of speakers and workshops is available here. 

Cost of Living Toolkit: 

Sorry you missed out? Don’t worry – we’re launching a toolkit to help the sector tackle the crisis including: 

  • Presentations and supporting documents from the event (will be uploaded within one week of the event) 
  • Information and resources from sector and partner organisations to be provided on an ongoing basis 

The toolkit will be made available here: https://www.bvsc.org/cost-of-living  

Does your organisation have anything they would like to add to the toolkit? Please contact [email protected]  

Event Report: 

BVSC’s Research Team have started to pull together a report of the event which we hope to be published before Christmas – though they have a lot of material to get through! A link to this will be provided once published on our toolkit web page. A copy of the report will be provided to all who expressed interest in the event as well as to partner organisations. 

Further Information: 

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