Power in Place FRIDAY Birmingham Settlement Neighbourhood Futures Festival

A day for community groups, green and growing spaces and anyone interested in greening their street or neighbourhood in Ladywood & beyond.

Now in its fourth year, Birmingham Settlement's Neighbourhood Futures Festival brings together people to celebrate nature, to share, learn and reconnect.

Brought to life by Birmingham Settlement and 40+ local partners, you’ll find a packed programme of thought-provoking activity, workshops, conversation and creativity to support urban wellbeing and tackle climate challenges at a local level.

This free 3-day festival takes place 26th-28th June 2026 at the Birmingham Settlement Nature & Wellbeing Centre - a tranquil urban oasis next to Edgbaston Reservoir.

This year, the Neighbourhood Futures Festival is focused on local action and urban green spaces, with people of all ages are warmly invited to join, experiment and take action to discover how our shared spaces can support healthier, fairer and greener urban futures.

Power in Place: Friday 26 June

Join us for an uplifting day surrounded by trees and birdsong, beside the Local Nature Reserve at Edgbaston Reservoir!

The festival opens with a deep dive into place-based climate action, shining a light on the inspiring work already happening across Ladywood and the city - from community gardens and bold initiatives for greener streets, to grassroots organising, micro-movements, hands-on experimentation and community-led change.

Gather around the campfire to hear from speakers sharing stories of what’s already growing across Birmingham - reflecting on the journeys of starting and sustaining community green and growing spaces, the challenges faced, and the lessons learned.

Grab lunch from the Red Shed Community Café and explore drop-in activities throughout the afternoon - stay for the whole day or simply dip in as you please.

Later, we welcome everyone to a friendly community picnic - share food, try hands-on activities, music and play – a relaxed space to celebrate local creativity before the fullness of the weekend.

It’s a day to share learning, spark collaboration, connect, generate practical ideas and grow mutual support - or simply to step back from the busy world and take time to reflect.

What to expect: Friday 26 June

We'd love you to spend the day with us, or drop-in to the workshops and activities that interest you. Our full programme with timings and speakers will be announced soon, but expect to find:

Start the day with yoga and mindfulness at 10.30am-11am in the beautiful surrounds of nature.

Green Connections 11am-11.50pm – Ladywood NNS bring a pacy networking session for community organisations starting or improving a green space.

Campfire Conversations 12pm-1.30pm – inspiring stories from the people, organisations and groups regreening their streets and communities – from allotments and community gardens to planters and neglected corners.

• Ideas to bring nature into your neighbourhood - from guerrilla gardening, pop-up growing, and acts of nature reclamation – be inspired to take action!
• Growing in tiny spaces – if you don’t have a green space, don’t worry! Explore creative ways to bring nature into urban life without access to traditional garden. Inspiring examples of how even the smallest spaces can support both biodiversity and wellbeing.
• Learn how small-scale growing and micro-greening initiatives contribute to the region's wider Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
• Navigating complex systems – from access to land and funding to permissions, partnerships and ownership structures – we explore how to get ideas off the ground.

Take a walking lunch 1.30pm-2pm - a guided tour to discover the journey of Birmingham Settlement’s Nature & Wellbeing Centre. Hear how we have developed our 3-acre site for people and nature, explore our community growing and wellbeing projects and learn about practical climate action at a local level – from composting and rainwater harvesting to solar power.

Join Friends of Edgbaston Reservoir for a walk round this designated Local Nature Reserve and a site of historic importance. The area supports a variety of birdlife and is also a valuable city site for animals such as newts and bats.

RECLAIM: Design a community garden! Imagine if we could transform our neglected urban spaces into beautiful green places for everyone. A creative workshop to explore the kinds of shared green spaces you want to see, using found and recycled materials.

3pm-6.30pm:

• Neighbourhood Picnic: We warmly invite friends and neighbours to join us for a neighbourhood picnic. Bring a blanket and your choice of food or buy a sandwich from the Red Shed, meet neighbours and relax!

• Sports and fun games on the field for all the family.

• Inclusive nature play and crafts - make a seedbomb, sow and grow!

• Campfire Open Mic: Neighbourhood Voices 5pm-6.30pm: Stories, poetry, music, reflections and neighbourhood conversations around the fire.

Who is it for?

Power in Place is for community groups and organisations both with and without a green space, community gardens and growing spaces of all shapes and sizes as well as residents, activists, organisers and anyone interested in bringing more nature, connection and climate action into their street or neighbourhood.

You don't have to already be doing it - come along to be inspired and find the support and inspiration to get started!

We also welcome councillors, funders, local businesses, investors and commissioners to join us to see the power of local.

Children and their families are very welcome to drop in throughout the day. While the talks and workshops are primarily aimed at adults, our green space can be enjoyed by everyone! We have a small children’s play area plus sports and games will be available on the field all day. More dedicated family activities begin from 3pm, as well as throughout the weekend Play & Discovery Days.

Power in Place celebrates the work being done by the people across our neighbourhoods: the change that happens not because the system makes it easy, but because people care enough to make it happen anyway.

It’s what is happening despite limited funding, the structures that don’t always make space for communities and the decisions being made far from the streets and neighbourhoods they affect.

It’s driven by people who care deeply about fairness, justice and the places they live - who are organising, growing, reclaiming and creating change from the ground up - putting community power into place.

About Birmingham Settlement charity

Birmingham Settlement is one of the city’s oldest charities, supporting communities since 1899. Founded by social reformers outraged by the poverty of the19th century, our early work focused on women and families in the deprived St Mary’s area, now known as Newtown.

Today, our work is much broader to meet the changing needs of Birmingham’s communities. Whether its ising living costs, cuts to local services and increased inequality, our work helps people when they need it most - providing advice, opportunities, and welcoming spaces where no one has to go it alone.

About the Nature & Wellbeing Centre next to Edgbaston Reservoir

In 2021, we began transforming a three-acre green space beside Edgbaston Reservoir. It has since become our Nature & Wellbeing Centre - a safe, accessible and inclusive green space for nature, social connection, and improving community wellbeing.

Facilities include a warm and welcoming Community Café (fondly known as the ‘Red Shed’), two geodesic learning domes for nature connection, an amphitheatre for arts and performance, community composting, grow plots and open green space for physical activity and play.

Everyone can enjoy and be part of our community, with a particular focus on Ladywood and North Edgbaston and serving communities that lack access to safe green space, that are isolated, facing financial challenges, and with physical and/or mental health needs.

Our unique spaces can also be hired for community and corporate events.

We always keep our activities and events free so they are accessible for everyone. If you are able to make a small donation to our charity to help keep the festival open to all and to support care of our site, we would really appreciate it.

Partners & sponsors

The Neighbourhood Futures Festival is delivered in partnership with many other passionate, environmentally-conscious organisations, community groups, artists, educators, wellbeing providers – far too many to mention here but we are eternally grateful to you all!

We are so grateful to our 2026 festival sponsors for helping us to make the festival happen. Thank you to our Friday supporter this year:

Ladywood Network Neighbourhood Scheme (NNS)for their generous support.