Rob Langley, Marketing Manager at BCMG (Birmingham Contemporary Music Group)
Chairman of the Citizenship programme run by The Civic Society
1. Who / what is your inspiration?
My inspiration really is just to give something back and know that I am doing something useful with my time. I grew up in a household where both my parents always committed a lot of time to Church and community groups and volunteering in the scouting movement – so their drive and personalities rubbed off on me a lot!
2. Which / what type of organisation are you involved in?
I have been involved with The Birmingham Civic Society for some time now. The Civic Society does fantastic work in the city in areas such as heritage, conservation and education. I have been Chairman of The Civic Society’s Citizenship programme since November 2008, managing two award schemes and promoting positive attitudes towards citizenship in the city.
3. What prompted you to get involved in volunteering?
I passionately believe that we need to encourage, engage, and nurture the young people of our city. We need to inspire them to have a voice, and to give a thought to the place they are living, learning and growing up.
4. What’s the best thing about volunteering?
The best thing is the buzz I get from knowing I am doing something positive with my spare time, seeing the reaction the young people give when presenting their proposals for improving the city and hearing the comments from teachers on how positive an impact the citizenship work is having on them.
5. Who have you met while volunteering?
I have been fortunate enough to meet hundreds of young people from the city’s secondary schools, along with their teachers, head teachers and a number of parents, as well as regularly meeting with a collection of some of the city’s most prominent business people who sit on the board of trustees for The Society with me.
6. What project are you working on at the moment / would like to highlight?
The Next Generation Awards – we ask secondary school pupils to think about the area in which they live and to focus on one problem that citizens living in that area face. They then prepare a proposal on how to combat the issue and present their ideas to a panel of judges who give each group an award. In 2009/10 we hope to engage with 20 Birmingham Secondary schools and more than 4000 students.
7. Why should others get involved?
Other people should get involved if they truly care about young people, if they care about the future city that they will be living in and growing old in and if they are passionate about having a positive impact on the lives of others.
The Civic Society’s website is: www.birminghamcivicsociety.org.uk. If you are interested in getting involved with the Citizenship work please contact Chloe Edwards (chloe.edwards@bevanbrittan.com) or Claire-Elaine Arthurs (CArthurs@hbj-gw.com) on the Community Development Committee and we will be able to put you in touch with Rob to discuss opportunities.
If you are doing voluntary work in Birmingham and would like to highlight your chosen organisation and your work in the Thrive pages of the Birmingham Post and the Future website, please get in touch with Chloe Edwards ( chloe.edwards@bevanbrittan.com ) to sign up for a ‘Volunteer Spotlight’!
