Grapevine Coventry and Warwickshire

Two women stand side by side looking towards a clear sky outside the green tiled walls of Grapevine. The brunette woman wearing glasses is CEO Clare Wightman and the blonde woman wearing a patterned green dress is deputy CEO Mel Smith. Credit: Jorn Tomter for UCL Policy Lab magazine.

Organising around hope—how #CommunityOrganising is rewriting #Coventry's history. A new interview in @uclpolicylab.bsky.social's magazine delving into post-Blitz recovery and retracing Grapevine’s own 30-year journey shifting power into ordinary people’s hands: bit.ly/4mbtU2b

What would you create if you could let your imagination run wild? Young people with #SEND from our intensive development programme, Teenvine Plus, put together the most brilliant art exhibition entitled 'Imagination Creation', with help from our friends at Art Riot Collective #Coventry 👇

More history to read here: theweavershouse.org/history-of-b... Learn more about our own 30-year part of this centuries-old story here: bit.ly/GV30YearsStory Thanks for reading! #GrapevineAt30 4/4

Moira's Wet Fish shop as 'Colbridge Appliances' in 2023 (complete with green screens on the TV sets in the window ready for 1950s programmes to be added digitally).

Our landlords, Spon End Building Preservation Trust, helped stop the terrace from being demolished over 30 years ago—carefully restoring it, bringing it back into regular use and maintaining it to this day. Lenny Henry's 'Three Little Birds'
@itvx.com drama transformed it in 2023. 3/

123 Upper Spon Street nowadays. Moira's son Ben says the shop sign has remained the same since his Dad painted it and is protected by a preservation order.

A photo of part of the Black Swan Terrace in the 1990s all boarded up. Credit: Coventry Live article, 2020.

It may have been a watchmakers run by the Langdon family around that time. By the second World War, the shop at 123 was a greengrocers/fruiterers. Later becoming Moira's Wet Fish shop, until the early 1990s when the terrace was condemned as 'unfit for habitation'. 2/

Sketch by Christopher Sidwell, July 2025 shows the Grapevine building today with green tiling across its bottom half and a modern extension to the right hand side.

Drawing by S J Bunney, 1917 shows the original wattle and daub frontage and sloping roof to the right hand side of the building.

#WeAreGrapevine 🍇 From 1917, to the 1990s, to the 2020s. Another great sketch from #Coventry artist Christopher Sidwell of our home on the corner of Upper Spon Street and Barras Lane. Christopher kindly included the same drawing produced by his great, great Uncle in 1917! 1/

Introducing them to other people on the project can also be a part of that journey—so when weekends come, exciting plans are already in motion! Relationships change everything. Find out more about our Strengthening People work here: bit.ly/GVstrength 3/3

...meeting people where they are and helping them to:
✨ Move beyond crisis
✨ Rediscover their strengths
✨ Build their confidence
✨ Make a plan for their lives
✨ Connect with others
✨ Lead their own journeys of change. 2/3

A photograph taken on a summer's day of a calm blue lake surrounded by trees and bushes. Grass and a chimenea line the side of the lake.

"Sharing this picture to brighten your day. Taken by two new friends who got together for a swim at Lake Berkswell." A tranquil spot for a new friendship to blossom 🌻 Our Help and Connect project for people with learning disabilities and autistic people sees our connectors... 1/3

@nhsconfed.org @tnlcommunityfund.org.uk @thekingsfund.bsky.social

One #HealthyCommunitiesTogether partner—NHS #Coventry and #Warwickshire ICB—also give their thoughts on how HCT offers "valuable lessons for how we ensure neighbourhood health in Coventry and Warwickshire is really built from the ground up" bit.ly/4mb93LY

The learning from #Coventry's Healthy Communities Together programme is now available. To check out the most important ingredients for building a powerful combination of community power and service delivery, please follow this link: bit.ly/3ZSaoyM And...

The front page cover of our main HCT report showing an aerial view of residential streets alongside the words 'Neighbourhood health from the ground up - a community-led approach to reducing health inequalities' and logos for Grapevine, NHS, Coventry City Council and our programme funder The National Lottery Community Fund.

REPORT: Reducing #HealthInequalities from the ground up 🧱 The NHS 10-Year Plan promises prevention, closer-to-home care and community partnership. So what does it take to build a more relational, integrated public health system that works with communities, not just in them? 👇

A pair of white hands cup a yellow flower. Image by Lina Trochez on Unsplash.

A gentle reminder that the closing date for our Settle and Thrive project worker #job in #Coventry—helping people who've experienced homelessness and rough sleeping build brighter, connected futures that grow—is approaching on 28 July. Please apply now! bit.ly/4l8hVC3

@warwickshirecc.bsky.social @coventrycc.bsky.social

A photo of a heart-shaped speaker plugged into two cables on a wooden desk, next to a quote from a Grapevine expert by experience about their role in producing the All Age Autism Strategy 2021-26 and evaluation survey. In purple quotation marks, a quote from EbE Dawn reads, "Autistic experts by experience like me have been at the heart of the All Age Autism Strategy... but we are aware that we are each just one autistic person."

The deadline for feedback on the All Age #Coventry and #Warwickshire Autism Strategy has been extended to 20 July. Share your views its impact, what has worked and what needs improving. Experts by experience working for Grapevine have helped co-produce it: bit.ly/4erZqGk

Image of an A4 poster advertising the Growing Together project in Heath Road, Stoke Heath, Coventry. Photos of hands planting vegetables in soil and a female gardener smiling while wearing an apron in the sunshine are shown. Get involved by contacting Grapevine community organiser Gemma on 07747 213926 or by emailing growingtogetherstokeheath@gmail.com. Join the dig planning team on 16 July at 5pm at The Highlife Centre CV2 4LY, or come to the dig event on 19 July from midday at the Heath Road site, CV2 4QB. Everyone is welcome to get involved.

#CoventryGrows is a new citywide initiative bringing local people together with support from @coventrycc.bsky.social, e.on, Grapevine and @gardenorganicuk.bsky.social to "green up" three areas of #Coventry with the least amount of green, growing spaces. Join the Big Dig Day on 19 July from 10am!

A white woman with brown shoulder-length hair and wearing glasses and a cream lace top smiles at a street event. She is Janet Doran.

2️⃣6️⃣ must be a magic number because we also say goodbye to #HealthyCommunitiesTogether programme manager Janet Doran, who came to us almost two years ago with a 26-year career in local government under her belt. Thank you Janet for all of your hard work 🙏 bit.ly/3ZSaoyM

And thank you to Coventry and Warwickshire CDA finance assistant Sam Young who joined us in the last year to help Cathy and leaves with her as we start our next chapter as #GrapevineAt30✨

Four women line up for a photo in a restaurant with a big bunch of flowers in the foreground. They are—left to right—Clare, Naomi, Cathy (holding a white envelope) and Mel.

After clocking up more than 26 years of service to #WeAreGrapevine our wonderful finance director Cathy Allen retires from our team. Her work with Coventry and Warwickshire CDA (of which Grapevine was a project back in the 1990s bit.ly/GV30YearsStory) for a little while longer yet. Thank you Cathy!

Are you bold, compassionate, full of hope? Experienced at supporting people with complex lives or people who have been marginalised? Ready to walk alongside #Coventry people who've experienced homelessness and rough sleeping? Apply for a #job with us 🍇 bit.ly/4l8hVC3

Still time to get your free ticket for tomorrow's online Ally Gathering and CYA Playbook launch 💛 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cya-ally-g...

Project update: We're working to capacity on both Teenvine Plus and Next Steps intensive development programmes for teenagers aged 13-18 with #SEND. Please follow this link to complete a referral form for a young person for Sept 2026 for Plus and January 2026 for Next Steps 🔗 bit.ly/GVstrength

A photo of Grapevine's Sarah and Paul at the 'Full of Beans' event in May, standing next to a Teenvine banner and table with leaflets on it. They are both smiling. Sarah is wearing a unicorn rainbow t-shirt and pink skirt and making a peace sign above Paul's head. The Coventry Improv logo is also seen.

This Friday (11 July) it's the third and final #Coventry Improv comedy night with Teenvine Plus as their chosen charity. We're extremely grateful to them for supporting our vital work with disadvantaged young people with #SEND in the city and #Warwickshire. 🕖7pm at The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum

Our new full-time Settle and Thrive project worker will be supporting people in #Coventry who have experienced homelessness and rough sleeping to move beyond crisis, build confidence and lead their own journeys of change. More info and to apply 🔗 bit.ly/4l8hVC3 2/2

YouTube video by Grapevine Cov and Warks Working at Grapevine | A short film by Coventry College students

We're excited to see lots of applications coming in for our full-time Settle and Thrive project worker #job in #Coventry! So we thought, what better time to reshare this short film about our culture and what our staff think about working here... www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU40... 1/2

@crips-against-cuts.bsky.social

@disrebellion.bsky.social @disrightsuk.bsky.social @dis-ppl-protest.bsky.social @scopepolicy.bsky.social @mencap.org.uk @francesryan.bsky.social @smkcampaigners.bsky.social @elissanoves.bsky.social

📆 Thursday 10 July
⏰ 11:30am to 1pm
💻 Online

Get in on the action by grabbing your ticket and more info here 🎟 bit.ly/4ezl2Am #ShiftingPower #SystemsChange #Campaigning 5/5

This is more than a download. It’s the CYA Playbook. For youth workers, organisers, disabled young people starting their own thing, allies, educators, creatives, campaigners and anyone who wants to think like a community organiser. 4/ #DisabilityPrideMonth