URBRUM Social Media Wellbeing Programme

investing our energies upstream through communities to address continued inequalities in
achievement and acquisition of skills.
Along with the challenges faced in Birmingham in respect of upstream investment in
wellbeing and prevention as well as ensuring that our people have the best possible
opportunities to flourish and achieve aspirations, we also need to be looking into the future
– Horizon scanning.
One key challenge we face is one of identity at a shared and individual level. Through
perceived difference and shared ignorance comes fragmentation and dysfunctionality in an
ever-diversifying City. Through recognising and embracing both our differences and shared
ideals, Birmingham can truly move forward, a city with a shared identity through equally
embracing its diverse foundations.
The Foresight Report (2013), Future Identities, Changing identities in the UK outlines that
identities are integral to mental health and wellbeing as they determine how a person
understands their place in the world, and how they relate to others. Maintaining and
expressing multiple identities freely is important for individual wellbeing and social
integration. For an individual, their various identities are fundamental to selfhood and are
deeply rooted in their psychology. The same can be said for shared identity.
Common Unity recognise that the URBRUM Programme continuously needs to develop to
respond to change and to place URBRUM in a position to give a more rapid response to social
need. URBRUM, plays a pivotal role in challenging many of both the present and future
challenges that all communities experience through offering a dynamic, person centred
service solution to best support people from all sectors of our city to realise their own
aspirations and find a voice both across communities as well as within the wider health and
social care landscape.
The Way Forward for URBRUM
The URBRUM Voice - a real opportunity for engagement, discussion, dialogue and debate
on the current issues affecting citizens and the issues citizens want to affect in the wider
Birmingham arena.
The URBRUM Voice will strive to further enable opportunities for citizen centred debates and
discussion on key topics involving both community representatives, guest speakers/panel
members on an equal footing.
Podcasts - Along with the spoken voice realised through The URBRUM Voice, the power of
visual media and sharing of that media plays an ever-increasing role in influencing citizens