Community Regeneration

The Church of England, working in partnership with other organisations in the Birmingham Diocese, is committed to play its part to improve the lives of people in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods of the Diocese and to create neighbourhoods that are clean, safe and generous. Churches are encouraged to play a role in local regeneration activity while the Diocese works to influence regional and local authority policy making. During the week, many of our church buildings are open providing a base for community activities run by the church itself or other organisations.

The purpose of the Community Regeneration department and its charity, Thrive Together Birmingham, is to encourage and support Christians and churches to participate in activities that help to transform the lives of people living in their local neighbourhoods and particularly to support Christian activity that alleviates poverty and disadvantage.

The department endeavours to achieve this in three ways:

• Offering a support service to churches, projects and individuals to enable them to tackle issues of poverty and disadvantage
• Encouraging churches to develop a vision for how they might have a greater impact on the lives of people in their local communities
• Raising the profile of the work that Christians and churches do to address the needs of communities across the Diocese particularly with local authorities and statutory bodies

The Community Regeneration department is a valuable resource to support churches and community projects with advice on issues such as employment of staff, funding, organisational policies and governance, to creative use of church-owned buildings, project support, and developing parish strategies to better engage with their local community.

Meet the Team