Curry in the community

Thanks to a friend from Yorkshire having been working in Dudley this week and staying in a hotel in Oldbury, I ventured to a new restaurant called Little Bangla. Despite having lived about 2 miles away for 11 years, I'd never been to Langley High Street, but a good reviews on Trip Advisor suggested that Little Bangla was worth a visit. I was intrigued when I looked at the restaurant website to see a page called Working with the Community

As we walked in the door we were greeted with warm handshakes and a friendly welcome by the owner, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of tables full, given it was a rainy Monday evening.

Little Bangla owner Zak

The food and service were great, enhanced for me by conversation with the owner, Zak. I asked him about the work he does with schools, which includes giving cooking lessons. He also works with local councillors, supporting the Mayor's charities. He is of the view that while he still needs ensure the restaurant is a going concern, there is much that businesses can do to support communities, both nearby and overseas. He hopes that if other businesses see him making connections in the community that they might follow suit.

Zak has been surprised at how useful social media has been for his business - he proudly informed us about how swiftly they have generated friends on the restaurant Facebook page and he is starting to use twitter more (@littlebangla1). The restaurant gives Facebook friends offers, and apparently around 90% of customers are regulars, there being little passing trade along Langley High Street.

Behind the bar there were a collection of 32 lovely awards which Zak had ordered to give to school children the next day. The restaurant recognise 2 pupils from each class of both Langley Primary School and Causeway Green Primary School, and give a meal at the restaurant to the child and their parents/carers, an award and a certificate of recognition. I've Storfied Zak's tweets with photos from the Awards Ceremonies this week.

I just love Zak's approach to life and business (from what I was able to see and hear of it in one evening) and wish that more local business people worked in this way. I'm feeling quite despondent about the likelihood of businesses in East Coseley linking in to the great opportunity which Big Local offers (see my post here), but I feel very cheered to know that there are people like Zak in the world. And even more cheered to find out that I'm within the delivery radius of Little Bangla! Though I will of course be eating at the restaurant again and look forward to hearing how the children liked their awards dinner.

Lamenting my languishing reflective place

So... I haven't posted here for a good while. Which perhaps means that I haven't created enough time and space lately for considered reflection.

In community development reflection on your own practice, values and beliefs is intrinsic to your work (whether it is paid or unpaid). I am fortunate to have carved out some time for reflective activities in my work, for example I convene an Action Learning Set, and I participate in sessions which prompt reflection on my work and approach, such as an event earlier this week for facilitators trained to use community influence frameworks Voice, echo and DUO. I also read a lot of blogs and try to reflect on what the authors say and add to the conversation.

However I'm concerned that I've been rushing around doing so much that I haven't given deliberate thought to how I am putting community development values in to practice in some significant activities I'm working on.

One of the activities is supporting the East Coseley Community Forum to get people involved in Big Local. I've been blogging a lot about what I'm hearing, seeing and doing in East Coseley, and it's been brilliant that my colleagues are also contributing posts, it feels like a real team effort. But the purpose of the sharing is for updates and information, not reflection.

I'm also working on a community-led health improvement project which is focusing on community assets, and there is so much in what we've done already which warrants reflection. I have been reflecting through dialogue with my colleague, but I often find that writing things down helps to unlock deeper thoughts and draw out new thinking and ideas.

These concerns are shared as a precursor to a more concerted effort to reflect on my practice, and share reflections here and in other spaces I'm creating to promote shared learning. I'd love to hear how others make time and space for reflection, and what helps them.