• Walking brings a community together

     

    Location: Birmingham  

     

    The Warstock Community Centre is based within what was traditionally a white, working class neighbourhood. Over the last decade a more diverse community has emerged, but this diversity was not reflected in the use of the local community centre and there was a visible divide between the different ethnic groups.

     
    Rama Bharadwa, the Community Development Worker at Warstock Community Centre explains that although people from different ethnic backgrounds were using the centre, it was at different times and for different purposes. This meant there was little or no contact between different communities. Rama decided to encourage wider use of the centre and set up Dosti, a women’s friendship group.
     
    When the Ramblers’ Association approached Rama about delivering a ‘Get Walking Keep Walking’ programme with women from the centre, it was discussed as an opportunity to bring women from different backgrounds together as Dosti had consisted predominantly of South Asian women.
    Rama then worked at getting women from local church groups and other local places to come along for the walks.
     
    The women, who were from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and different faiths gathered to walk in the local area. Not only were they keen to walk more, they were also delighted to meet new people. The group was a success with up to 35 people attending in total. Sam, a young woman from a white British background says “I managed to lose some weight and have also made some new friends and found some new places to walk. I’ve been able to learn a new language by socialising with some of the women from Asian backgrounds. This is a much more mixed area than before, I like it. I now also cook Indian food.”
     
    Nancy, another local woman from African Caribbean background says “it’s wonderful and got me walking a lot more, even when I’m on holiday. It’s made a difference to my health.”
     
    Taru Patel says “it’s good meeting up with everyone, we enjoy talking to each other and there is more confidence within the group. One of the ladies, when she first joined us didn’t speak with anyone and now she interprets for the whole group!”
     
    The Dosti group continues to meet and walk together, and this has supported the ongoing work for better health and community cohesion in the area.




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