Birmingham’s neighbourhood forums are resident-led community groups which:
- Enable residents to come together through meetings (and online) to discuss local issues, share information and meet with elected representatives and officers responsible for delivering local public services.
- Elect a committee of usually between 5 and 14 people to represent residents’ views and work with other public, private and voluntary sector bodies and other local community groups for the improvement of the area.
Forums can do all sorts of other things – including:
- involvement in local planning
- campaigning for improvements in local services
- setting up and running a neighbourhood website
- working with the police and others to improve local community safety
- organising festivals
- setting up and helping to manage a local community development trust
- running a local market
- getting involved in local grant giving.
Forums are resident-led: what they do depends on what residents want to see happen.
Each forum covers between 500 and 8000 households (that is between about 1200 and 20,000 residents). Birmingham City Council – which pays a small grant to recognised neighbourhood forums – only recognises one neighbourhood forum covering each area.