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MISSION POSSIBLE: Dojo members are determined to make their dream a reality

WE CAN and we will! That’s the determined message from a group of young people as they step up their campaign to get a much-loved community base back up and running in the heart of Birmingham.

Armed with questionnaires and clipboards, they organised their own consultation day on the site of the former Hockley

Adventure Playground, which once served as a valuable community space for generations of youngsters.

Now the Dojo Community Project, which took over the lease five years ago from Birmingham City Council, is determined to find the funding needed to breathe new life into the site.

CONSULTATION

Hundreds of local people filled in the 60-question consultation during an open day held on the site of the old centre,

which is ideally placed between Hockley, Newtown, Handsworth, Spring Hill and Lozells.

“Once and for all we must get this valuable asset working for us again in our community,” said Dojo founder

Delores Pinkney, who along with her brother Hector has campaigned tirelessly for the past decade to reopen Hockley

Adventure Playground.

“Generations of youngsters have grown up on this site and it’s a legacy we want to pass on to the next generation.

A facility like this is desperately needed in this part of the city.”

A community building which once stood on the site was demolished several years ago on health and safety grounds.

FUNDING

With funding from Awards For All, youngsters who are members of Dojo have undergone a six-week training scheme on how to create and deliver questionnaires to the community.

They have asked people what they would like to see at the centre – from its environment to programmes and facilities on offer, including the possibility of a wildlife scheme, better sports facilities and a community building.

Martin Raymond, 26, a Handsworth-born poet who helped with the consultation exercise, said: “This playground could bring the community together because it’s at a neutral location which could be used by so many groups.

We’re trying so hard to get it back.”

Voluntary worker Latoya Dixon, 21, also from Handsworth, can remember playing there as a child before it closed over a decade ago. She said: “I used to come here just to play on the tyre. I loved it! I can also remember a BMX track and children

playing volleyball.”

Student Mickiel Bedward, 25, who also used to play there, said: “It used to be a great place to feel safe and meet your friends. I just hope we can bring that all back.” Local city councillors supported the consultation day and said they would do everything they could to support Dojo with fundraising and bid writing.

WILDLIFE

Brenda Lawrence, Dojo company secretary, said: “A lot of schools and child-based establishments would like to see perhaps an outdoor wildlife classroom here, along with better sports facilities.

“We also need a full-time development worker here so we can move the project forward a lot faster.”

Dojo’s logo is a powerful image of two hands. One reaches down to help pull up the second hand.

“This is what Dojo is all about,” said Delores, whose mother Mavis Pinkney started Handsworth’s first unofficial youth centre from the living room of her home in Leonard Road, Lozells, before Hockley Adventure Playground was ever created.

“For the past 50 years our group has been all about empowering, educating and encouraging the next generation.” Dojo also focuses on fitness, organising weekly evening community runs from Handsworth Park, and classes for the elders, while Hector Pinkney organises karate classes and workouts at a local gym.

Published: 31 August 2009
Issue: 1387

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