One of the things I like to do when I need a bit of space to myself is go solo to the cinema. Helps when it’s a fairly decent film which this was

As we are safe in the league, love a good cup run

That was a wet and cold Sunday morning walk. Made up though by wonderful soup on the way round

Wonderful for the girls and me to treat the amazing Mrs Evans for Valentines Day

Why do you think Spurs fans @rdsallynash @dansmith_1984 - will he keep you out of the relegation places!!

First meeting yesterday with Birmingham City Community Foundation. I’m supporting them to develop alternative education provision with young people and thinking about their wider pathway

What a brilliant collaborative, imaginative, visionary time with my fellow @loconomybrum collaborator @ifor.jones.77985 including agreeing to connect with our friends at Social Life

Wonderful afternoon with my good friend and collaborator Carol talking through 3 different projects and organisations we work with together. Really insightful and I’ve come away with some new insights and clarity.

ABCD training feedback: Thank you for another insightful and educational workshop today! It’s opened my eyes to so many possibilities on how to “serve” and be “served” by the community. It actually seems doable now, whereas in the past it just seemed like an intangible dream, so thank you.

Last couple of days delivered ABCD training part 2 for two different contexts. Thinking in particular about having Good Life/Abundant Community conversations and doing Head/Heart/Hands/Feet and Listening exercises

Great meeting with local organisation CEO and M.P’s office to pursue development of a potentially great community asset

Loved my first day of ABCD training for this wonderful organisation. Really thinking about is there something beyond services, is there something that services should supplement not supplant, can we move from doing for to doing with and by.

For my Community Building/ABCD practitioner friends here’s an invite to our next online gathering. Love to see you there!

Anyone else up watching? What’s your prediction?

Absolutely brilliant to have Iona with us doing all the running with Coco! Chatting about what’s she’s thinking for Uni and her views on contemporary politics and the psychology of people’s values and culture. Plus breakfast of course!

Been running my own freelance company for a while now so great to have his perceptive questions and insights. We identified a clear next step, message left with was ‘what if that works the way I envisage or even in surprising ways I didn’t, rather than worrying about the opposite. So grateful! 2/2

Friends with Paul for many years. On YMCA Board together he came and did some facilitation for senior staff in organisation I was CEO of. I went to him for a series of coaching sessions some years ago and it was life changing. Really helped me think about my values, skills, causes and callings 1:2

Paul and I have worked together for nearly 20 years! Good to catch up on our mobile venue project, developing our Community Improvement District, and next meeting of our Community Development Trust which I chair.

Really close game of squash yesterday which ended in a 2-2 draw. All of the games went to at least 13 points for the losing player. Played so much better than I have in the previous few games

Lovely evening with Loconomy team as we said thank you’d and goodbyes to Ian as he leaves us for the Office of National Statistics. Pizza was good!

Thanks to Aston Villa Community Foundation for hosting, Ladywood NNS for sponsoring, our Community Treasure ABCD training. First day with group of super energetic community builders from across the city

Today was the first day of Community Treasure ABCD training in Ladywood. But don’t worry if you missed out on this one - we have another course coming up so do sign up quickly as places tend to go fast! Come and explore community building together

Resident steering group conversation which was really positive thinking about study visits, meanwhile offers and planning applications.

We had our first gathering today and 39 people turned up! Thanks to Jen and Sam for amazing facilitation and Rich for the technology. Rich conversations and connections. Next one is 17th March 10am - we’ll post publicity - love to see you there. Just email Rich (details on the flyer) to get the link

After a really lovely and insightful Peace Meal last night reflecting on where we find hope in the midst of brokenness, loved our walk this morning talking about life, faith, transitions and most importantly our kids, with a bit of lunch thrown in

What stylish bowlers we both are!

Brilliant time with my good friend Sarah and Jacob. Bit of ten pin bowling and lunch. He’s getting a mountain bike so next time he wants to get out on the trails together. Going to have to get my fitness levels up!

Instead I caused a mess others had to unwind. Lesson learnt - I don’t have to be good at everything, in fact I’m absolutely not! 2/2

I have a tendency to expect a lot of myself that sometimes lands me in trouble. Today I’m so grateful for the graciousness of some amazing co-conspirators and friends. I’d got myself in the middle of logistics because I was so keen to make good things happen. 1/2

Great to co-facilitate this half day away for staff and board exploring their community building practices and emerging ‘Village Vision’

Great to spend time with senior leadership both Board and Exec of this great alternative education academy trust, exploring ways in which I might become e more involved in their work supporting some really vulnerable young people

Ash Barker and I would love to see and journey with you on Valentines Day! Come and explore justice, local community leadership, and community building work together with a bit of ABCD and Change Makers thrown into the mix

To all my community building/community development friends. I am part of developing an ABCD network across the country and I’d love you to be part of it. Come and join us for the first online session and share practice, thinking and support from fellow practitioners

Late last year I was awarded the contract to facilitate the Economic Justice Brum movement and today was my first outing! Absolutely loved the passion, energy and wisdom in the room as we thought about what we wanted to Keep, Stop and Start in relation to the work so far

Friday had a couple do wonderful coaching sessions with amazing people building community and making a difference. Exploring developing Fathers and Sons work in the morning and then neurodiverse community building. Lovely walk back along the canal.

I absolutely love our poker nights. I enjoy playing the game and the quality of the play last night was really good. But the thing I love the most was that this is a bunch of people I’ve journeyed with (employed a couple of them!) for over twenty years.

Really chatty walk with Ria and Coco with some breakfast on the way round. Love these times of connecting in our journey of life together.

Brilliant couple of days with staff, volunteers and residents in West Howe delivering an Introduction to ABCD training. Principles and Practices first day, practical tools and turning this into action for the second. Love envisioning and equipping people.

Lots of people talking about Mark Carneys speech at Davos.

Spent the day learning how to make videos so watch out world! Thanks Hamza for being such a patient and good teacher. Wonderful time with Community Treasure colleagues. Then bus back to meet with team in Firs and Bromford - lots of planning and collaborating around the next phase of community life

Finished the weekend having beers and food with my amazing friend. We talked leadership, politics, life, future plans, how we’d tackle thorny public policy issues and I got some help with couple of work issues.

What do we think?

What a great day. Steve and I met at Uni in 1990. Spent the day revisiting campus, places that we lived, pubs that we drank in (most of which have shut down) and a laundrette I occasionally used. Even video called friends Rich and Helen who are now in Australia but met in our first year

Went to Uni in Swansea, now live in Birmingham and do some work with the football club so perhaps a draw was the best result for me. Not for my Uni mate Steve, who was gutted that they were the better team, hit the woodwork three times, but didn’t win

Off to spend time with my great friend Steve Edwards from Uni days, going back to the city we spent 3 years together in to watch Swans play Blues. We are not 21 anymore but might be a few beers consumed!

My day: Online meeting re: challenge iconic listed building into sustainable community asset, delivered online webinar ABCD Vision and Planning, meeting re ABCD storytelling and evaluation, finished at @theunityhubb.wardend planning Board/staff away day

Brilliant evening catching up with my good friend @paulnash9363 on life, faith and community. Loved sharing some of our life stories together as well as good curry!

A brilliant partnership meeting about developments in my community countered by the sadness of literally watching a driver ruin one of our grass verges as I walked home

One of the things that experts and research talks about is importance of weight training as you get on in life to preserve some muscle mass. Fortunate that I enjoy the gym and so enjoyed a bit of a weights session