Meet our team
We're pleased to meet you!
BCM’s core team, associates and trustees have many interests and areas of experience. We share a love of Birmingham and a passion to help people feel inspired and confident about making things happen in our wonderful city.
Core team
Becky Coley
Chief Executive Officer
“I’ve been involved in the voluntary sector since 2004, focusing on community outreach, engagement, project management and fundraising. It’s a joy, through BCM, to see groups responding to the changing needs of communities, and to help them grow and sustain their activities. As CEO I’m keen to continue championing our city’s micro and small community organisations, as BCM expands its reach.”
AD
Operations Support Officer
“I have lots of experience in customer services, which helps me in my role at BCM. I enjoy hearing why people set up their group or charity, exploring together the questions they need answering, then finding the best ways for us to support them. No two enquiries are ever the same!”
Francesca Jarvis-Rouse
Project Officer
Debbie Hibbert
Delivery Support Administrator
Profile coming soon.
Associates
Rob Jones
Associate
“I’ve been with BCM since 2021 and have loved working with groups across the city. I first got involved with supporting grant applicants, and have gone on to deliver one-to-one and group sessions, as well as training workshops on fundraising, governance, policies and procedures, and monitoring and evaluation. I look forward to working with many more community groups in the future! Outside of BCM I founded a charity called Misfits Music which runs community music projects across Birmingham and Sandwell.”
Rob
Netherway
Associate
“I’ve worked in the charity sector since 2011, with particular experience in managing community services, community development, advice and guidance and health and wellbeing.
I currently support charities/community groups to set up projects, secure/manage funding, measure their impact and make improvements. I’m excited to share what I’ve learned with more groups across Birmingham to help them keep doing great work in our communities.”
Trustees
Emma Woolf MBE
Chair
“I’m a veteran volunteer with 35+ years’ experience of running and setting up community groups. Alongside BCM, I’m a volunteer and trustee for the Friends of Cotteridge Park and Birmingham Open Spaces Forum. What I like most about BCM is that it celebrates and uses the vast experience of Birmingham’s volunteers for the benefit of the people of Birmingham.”
Catherine De Soyza
Vice Chair
“I have several years’ experience in HR, working in a range of industries in the private sector. I was a corporate liaison with a couple of charities in a previous firm, and have been part of a voluntary organisation in Paris as well as being a fundraiser for a social enterprise. I believe community groups play an important role in our society in bringing people together, and so I am delighted to be able to use my experience in HR in my role as a trustee in BCM.”
David Broome
Treasurer
Dipali Chandra
Trustee
“Having worked in the community and voluntary sector for over 20 years, I am currently a freelance consultant who runs West Midlands Funders Network, and undertakes funding assessments, monitoring, organisational reviews, research, strategy and business development for the third sector.”
Lorna Wallace-Davis
Trustee
Profile coming soon.
Claudie Richardson
Trustee
Profile coming soon.
Karen Cheney
Trustee
Profile coming soon.
Meet our partners
NDSU
Birmingham City Council
We’re grateful for our working relationship with the Neighbourhood Development and Support Unit (NDSU) team at Birmingham City Council, which supports the aspirations and activities of community organisations and active citizens in Birmingham’s 69 wards.
We worked with NDSU to deliver grant support for Birmingham City Council’s Celebrating Communities fund (see Locality section on the right). We were awarded a small grant from Selly Oak NNS, managed by NDSU, to provide capacity-building support to groups working with adults aged 50+ in the Selly Oak constituency. We’ve also worked with NDSU and Locality on a Neighbourhood Planning Toolkit for Birmingham, funded by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Locality
National network for community organisations
Birmingham Community Matters is pleased to be a member of Locality, the national network providing advice and connection to independent community organisations.
We worked in partnership with Locality when delivering support to groups applying for Birmingham City Council’s Celebrating Communities grants, set up to help local people celebrate the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. It was a joy to combine our knowledge and resources with Locality’s, to host workshops and create information sheets and videos for applicants.
We are proud to maintain this close working relationship with the Locality team, for mutual benefit and indeed for the good of all the community groups we support.
Get Grants
Grant fundraising consultancy
Get Grants is a Birmingham-based grant fundraising consultancy which gives practical support (training, information and advice) to groups and charities who are seeking and applying for grants. We enjoy working with Get Grants to deliver workshops that help people feel more inspired, confident and ready to secure funding for their Birmingham community group.
