The problem is clear

Work has been a priority of Birmingham Citizens for a long time. Rooted in a longstanding project with Aston University and Ashley Community Housing, we started in 2022 with years of deep, community rooted listening to understand the barriers people faced and creating solutions.

A few years ago, primary school children at Ark Victoria Academy in Small Heath decided to tackle unemployment in their community. They ran a local listening campaign, and took action to secure a meeting with an employer.

EE responded. Those primary school children negotiated a deal: CV support, interview skills workshops, and tours of EE's offices for families in the community.

Last year, we removed the three-year wait for English classes in the West Midlands. People can now access English classes from day one. In November, we packed a room with major employers and 18 of them signed pledges on the spot to create clear routes into good jobs.

We've proven we can win. But the listening we've done across Birmingham shows there's much more to do.

Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust gets huge numbers of applications but struggles to fill vacancies. Not because people don't want to work, but because they lack the skills, English language support, and guidance to navigate the process. They've told us: if we can fund a pre-entry programme that upskills people and supports them through recruitment, they'll deliver it and employ people who complete it.

Meanwhile, Birmingham City Council's approach to employment support is disjointed — small pots of funding creating short-term projects where the place you go for help keeps changing. And the council isn't setting the example: of 200 roles funded by their apprenticeship levy, only 2 are early career apprentices. Young people find it nearly impossible to access work experience with the council, and when they do, it's unpaid.

Last year, Birmingham Citizens won another major victory. For years, people arriving in Birmingham had to wait three years before accessing funded ESOL classes. That meant they couldn't work and were stuck in limbo. We fought to get that three-year waiting period removed in the West Midlands. People are now eligible for English classes from day one.

In November, we packed a room with major employers and asked them to work with us to create clear routes into good jobs. 18 of them signed pledges on the spot.

These wins came from listening to people across the city. And that listening has shown us there's much more to do.

What we're asking for

After months of listening and building relationships with employers, our Work Action Team has developed four clear asks for the future leaders of the city council:

To make it happen we need you

It is not enough to have well-researched and impactful asks. To win, we need to create a situation where politicians must say yes.

On April 16th, we are holding what will likely be the biggest non-partisan pre-election event in the last decade.900 people from all communities, faiths, and cultures will come together at the University of Birmingham's Great Hall to make the case for our priorities on work and housing. Leading politicians from five major parties will be there, asked to make specific public pledges - on the record, before an election.

At our last assembly, hundreds of people from across Birmingham voted to approve these priorities. We have a mandate. Now we take it to the politicians.

We've done this before. The three-year ESOL wait is gone because we fought for it. Tens of thousands of young people have better mental health services because we organised for it. We know that if we can turn out 900 people ready to show their support, we can win.

Interested in learning Community Organising? It is the method we are using to build this movement. We are running a training on the 5th of March.