Grapevine Cov and Warks

15/10/2026

The 'Next Gens' (next generation) of Coventry Youth Activists - CYA host their first ever games night on Friday 23 October at Art Riot Collective in Coventry and they would love you to join them!

There are free snacks and drinks, games galore and no entry fee to pay - plus an amazing group of young disabled activists to chat to.

What have you got to lose? (well, maybe a couple of card games...)

So if you're aged 13 to 25 and would like to join us for some fun and interesting conversation, please come along from 6-8pm.

Complete this quick form to let CYA Next Gen know you're coming, including any access requirements and/or allergies you might have: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSBty5GBbLxaMj8Fb6qnVoixGotzUj9kIsuzRfa9dgYp7Cag/viewform

C-YA there! 🎲 🃏 💛

Art Riot Collective is based at FarGo Village Coventry 📍

ID: A yellow and black themed poster advertising CYA's games night on 23 October from 6-8pm at Art Riot Collective in Coventry. Illustrations of a board game and pack of cards are included alongside details of free snacks and an age range of 13 to 25.

13/10/2026

Each Autumn we welcome a new group of young people with SEND to TeenVine+ - our intensive development programme designed to build confidence, independence, friendships, networks and future ambitions, brick by brick, over a 12-month period.

This year, 37 teenagers have joined us and every one will receive one-to-one support, lots of opportunities to have new experiences and meet new people, and a plan for their future that is as unique as them and their individual strengths, skills and passions.

Over the last few weeks the young people have been helping to co-design an agreement between each other about shared space and boundaries which we can refer to as the programme unfolds over the coming months.

It has four sections on speaking and listening together, personal boundaries and things, feeling included and supported, and creating a comfortable environment and collective wellbeing.

Everyone signs the agreement, even our project workers Sarah, Laura and volunteer Daz 🎃 🍂 🕯

It means we all know what to expect from one another. We hope it also means everyone feels safe to be themselves so we can enjoy every moment of being together!

Our checklist shares some of this agreement ✔

The Teenvine Plus programme is part of our Strengthening Lives work in Coventry where we sit alongside people who are often (not always) in the hardest, messiest moments of their lives.

We listen closely to what they care about and are good at, helping them build natural networks of support that strengthen and open up their lives. This strength and capability keeps going long after they leave us. Here are some stories about that: https://www.grapevinecovandwarks.org/category/stories/

ID: An eight-point checklist supported by images associated with Autumn including a pumpkin, hot chocolate, a blanket, a jumper, a candle and cookies. The background is a page from a lined notebook. The title in handwritten style text says 'Teenvine autumn checklist' and agreements include time to speak without interruptions, honouring personal space and using kind, encouraging language - not swear words!

12/10/2026

SEVEN YEARS AGO TODAY we shared this amazing homemade cake (thank you Jen Cooke!) with guests at our 25th anniversary party.

With a little bit of editing, we've updated it for today - like our latest five-year strategy, it's adaptive.

While we hold to our vision, mission and ways of working, we respond to issues as they arise.

We don't focus on one issue to solve and we stay flexible about the routes we take - the issues we take on, projects and partnerships we build, places and communities we work with, and the balance of our efforts (like the layers of the cake) across the three strands;

💪 Strengthening Lives
⚡ Sparking Community
⚖ Shifting Power

Each layer of the cake keeps the structure steady.

They may each taste different but they work together effectively at the same time.

And like any good recipe/strategy, there's room to test what works, learn what doesn't and try out new ideas next time.

But we don't mess with the key ingredients/foundations - including our belief in how change happens or our commitment to relationships, strengths and local people leading.

Explore our 2026-31 strategy here ✨ https://bit.ly/GVStrategy2026to31

Turn the clock back 32 years to our disability-led origins, where our work today remains rooted 🕑 https://bit.ly/4qakar5

ID: Photo of a three-tier cake on a black tablecloth covered in cream icing with coloured tiles representing Strengthening Lives at the bottom, jelly babies on a seesaw representing Shifting Power in the centre and flames around the base of Sparking Community. Number candles at the top have been edited to say "32". Grapevine's logo and website are also seen.

08/10/2026

The second of two new blogs this week - a bit like buses, you wait a while and two turn up at the same time! Speaking of buses...

Michelle Lewis, our community organiser for social action in Warwickshire, goes behind the scenes of a lengthy campaign fought by local people to win back their bus shelter - taken away from residents of Grove Farm in Nuneaton three years ago without consultation.

The highs, the lows, the land disputes, the door knocking - it's all here.

Michelle writes: "Getting the shelter back was far from straightforward.

"When things became difficult, my job wasn’t to take the campaign back from Pam and do it for her. It was to stay alongside her, listening to the frustration, helping her think through what she could do next and reminding her that she was part of a group of people working towards the same thing.

"But the shelter was never the whole story.

"While the campaign was happening, something else was growing alongside it. The bus shelter campaign ended. The community didn't."

To learn more about what it takes to do this work on the ground from a community organiser's perspective - building people's collective power to demand change and win - please read Michelle's blog.

🔗 https://medium.com/grapevine-cov-warks-community-organisers/i-arrived-wondering-where-to-begin-i-found-people-who-already-had-588d46213686

You'll find more stories there too from other Grapevine community organisers reflecting on their work with communities and systems across a number of issues, themes and places in Coventry and Warwickshire.

📷 In the photo left to right are members of the now formally constituted group the Friends of Grove Farm; Gwyn, Paul and Vicky with Grapevine community organiser Michelle Lewis at the new bus shelter.

07/10/2026

The main topic of today's monthly team meeting was Grapevine's new 2026-31 strategy.

After listening to our CEO Clare run through the main parts of the strategy, we got into small groups to move through three sets of questions relating to the strategy in practice:

🔁 People flow
🧠 Intelligence flow
🔥 Sparking community

There's more to discuss next time we meet about the strategy, but we have plenty of food for thought in the meantime.

If you'd like to read our five-year strategy - along with six stories that help bring the three inter-related strands of our work to life (Strengthening Lives, Sparking Community, Shifting Power - not necessarily in that order or all three at once!) - visit https://www.grapevinecovandwarks.org/about-grapevine/grapevine-strategy-2026-31-2/

Our "rounds" question this month from Mel was: The current star sign is Libra and Libra is all about balance. What's one thing you'd like more of and one thing you'd like less of?

How would you answer those questions right now?

ID: A six photo collage shows our team at work on today's strategy questions at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry city centre. Three photos feature the team and three show prompts and post-its on wooden tables.

06/10/2026

At September's annual Labour conference in Liverpool, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced plans for stronger public control of the water industry through the removal of current limits on government ownership of shares in England's major water and sewerage companies.

Putting public interest at the heart of how our critical services operate - a public health and environmental issue many have campaigned to shift for a long time.

"Inspired by these announcements, I wanted to dig into community action for clean water and what it has to teach us Coventrians about our own fight for a fairer, greener city," says Grapevine Green for All community organiser Ari Fairgrieve.

"As a community organiser working on green spaces (parks, woodlands) and blue spaces (rivers, canals) in Coventry, I’m seeing this as an opportunity to open a conversation.

"How did we get to this result, who put this on the government’s agenda and what lessons should climate and nature concerned citizens be taking?"

Ari asks these questions in a new blog on Medium - a space our community organising team uses to reflect on their practice, sharing what works and what needs work based on what's happening in our communities.

Along the way, Ari talks about the challenges faced in our city and some ways citizens can get involved through Coventry's Green for All programme.

Hear from Ari and learn more about Green for All in their new blog here: https://bit.ly/4dTbEZe

ID: Image of people taking part in a demonstration for clean water among high rise city buildings and holding cardboard placards with their messages including "clean healthy rivers now!". Ari is superimposed on this photo holding a bunch of flowers. The white text on the image reads "New blog: What lessons do England's clean water campaigners hold for nature change makers in Coventry? By Grapevine's Ari Fairgrieve".

01/10/2026

UPDATE from the community meeting in Willenhall last Saturday (26 September) with the core team of residents and our community organisers ⚡

Here's what happened - if you live or work in Willenhall and something here sparks your interest, please get in touch!

Seven local people we've been working with over recent months wanted to reach out to their community to find out if the priorities they've identified for what needs to change in Willenhall are widely felt by other people in the neighbourhood.

The priorities they put forward were:
➡️ The community centre
➡️ Neighbourhood parks
➡️ Local youth spaces
➡️ Drop-in centre spaces
➡️ Public infrastructure*

A table was set up for each theme at the Hagard Community Centre on Saturday (see photos), with an additional general table for any other ideas people brought that didn't fall under the current five priorities.

What came next belonged to the people of Willenhall who took time out to come and speak to us, share their thoughts and listen to the core team's own ideas for change. Thank you 🙏

Around 60 people visited, along with local councillors, the chair of the Neighbourhood Board for Pride in Place and visitors from other organisations in the area.

Thankfully people were kind enough to wait when seats at all six tables were full, chatting with their neighbours and sharing food.

The general consensus from our conversations was that the core team's priorities are supported by Willenhall people we spoke to.

We collected details of people who wished to leave them (there were lots!) and will be forming an action plan tomorrow evening with the core team to take these ideas forward, contacting as many people as possible to come and be a part of that process.

In the meantime, please email our community organisers Siân and Edwin if you see this post or hear about the work we're doing and would like to join in:
📧 [email protected]
📧 [email protected]

This is a promising start - let's keep the energy going! ❤️‍🔥

*Benches, walkways, fountains for example.

30/09/2026

It's International Podcast Day! 🎙 And we have the perfect podcast for you - Grapevine's senior community organiser Siân Lewis on Grounded, talking about our work with people, communities and systems in Coventry and Warwickshire.

Today is a celebration of the power of podcasts and so we invite you to spend some time with Grounded host Anna Waldie speaking to Siân about the power of stronger, more connected communities.

Where people self-organise, tackle the root causes of their problems through collective action and lead change by challenging the systems, decisions and processes that hold them back.

Dive into the conversation here 🔗 https://bit.ly/46Fdo4g

ID: Siân, a young white woman with a fringe and long auburn hair, holds a white mug in her hands to smile for the camera inside the historic St Mary's Guildhall during a Collaboration Station monthly ideas night - hosted by Grapevine's Connecting For Good Cov movement for Coventry people to grow their ideas and support for change in their city. Five large tables with people sat around each are seen in the background.

29/09/2026

Autumn is in the air and with it a sense of new beginnings 🍂

That’s apt for our TeenVine+ programme as September heralds the start of a new 12-month cycle that, like the seasons, will move through:

🍄 The return to routines Autumn brings
🐿 The resource building and quiet reflection of Winter
🌱 The renewal and productivity of Spring
🌞 And the joy and activity of Summer.

We welcome every new young person to our 2026/7 group.

But we couldn’t fully start our next chapter without first sharing a few highlights from this year's summer camp out.

Our 2026 celebration had a real community feel, bringing 28 young people from this year’s programme together with former “graduates” who wanted to return to share news on how they’re doing.

15 Teenviners stayed overnight in the cabins with our staff, with one young person spending their first ever night away from home without their family.

With lots of encouragement, a young person also joined us from Teenvine's sister programme Teenvine+ Covid 19 Next Steps for the day and night.

Congratulations to all 37 young people who have completed 2025/26 on our intensive development programme Teenvine Plus.

Building their strengths, confidence and relationships to take them forward into the next chapter of their lives and the opportunities that await.

Read more here: https://www.grapevinecovandwarks.org/grapevine-news/we-had-a-blast-teens-with-send-celebrate-end-of-12-months-on-our-intensive-development-programme/

ID: On the right track - a white teenage boy wears a t-shirt and shorts with a turquoise helmet to ride a red go kart on a dirt path in front of a fence on a hot summer's day. He is wearing glasses too as he gives the thumbs up to the camera.

28/09/2026

Thank you for inviting our community organiser Ari (furthest right in the photo) to the latest Radford Partnership meeting last week 🙏

Ari is working in Radford, building local people's leadership on green initiatives in their community as part of Green for All in Coventry - led by Coventry City Council and funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Follow the journey on Instagram for news, updates and ways to get involved in your area! https://www.instagram.com/greenforallcov.grapevine/ 🌳

Today, Mal and I met with the Radford Partnership at St Francis of Assisi for their monthly meeting. The Radford Partnership is a group of organisations and businesses working in Radford including St Francis Employability, Coventry, Warwickshire and Worcestershire Mind, Aptitude Youth Work - Coventry, Grapevine Cov and Warks, Jubilee Crescent Community Centre, Imagineer Productions, and Coventry City Council Job Shop. The Partnership is a chance for organisations to share what they do, what programmes and projects they are working on, and what help they might need. It’s a great opportunity for collaboration to help our community.