Open Door Community Foundation
Charity 1164850
hodgehillopendoor.wordpress.com
Overview
Summary
Open Door Community Foundation appears to be a neighbourhood community-building organisation rather than a conventional service provider. Its role is to turn everyday relationships, skills and local participation into a stronger civic infrastructure in Hodge Hill, particularly Firs and Bromford, while retaining a practical route into advice and support for people facing hardship. It seems distinctive for combining Asset-Based Community Development with partnership-based delivery, church-rooted origins and an explicit willingness to address unequal power and social exclusion.
Operational geography
Evidence and reasoning
Supporting evidence
Bromford and Hodge Hill
Confidence: medium
The organisation’s current official website explicitly identifies Bromford, Firs and Hodge Hill as its base neighbourhoods and describes current community-building activity there. It also identifies The Hub as a place to drop in. The available evidence does not directly establish ward-level operational geography.
- Open Door Community Foundation, official homepage (copyright 2025)
The charity describes itself as based in the Birmingham neighbourhoods of Bromford, Firs and Hodge Hill, with a rooted presence in community life; it invites enquiries about activities in Firs and Bromford. - Open Door Community Foundation, official About Us & Team page
Its stated vision is for Bromford, Firs and Hodge Hill, and it identifies ongoing activities including street connecting, Places of Welcome, livelihood support, wellbeing champions, green connecting and a local Pantry through its Together We Can project. - Open Door Community Foundation, official Get Involved page
The organisation invites people to drop in to The Hub, providing direct evidence of an operational physical site.
Remaining uncertainties
- The available current evidence supports a multi-neighbourhood footprint centred on Bromford, Firs and Hodge Hill, but does not identify separate current delivery sites beyond The Hub.
- Open Door advertises a training and consultancy offer, but the available evidence does not establish where this is delivered or whether it extends its regular operational footprint beyond its core neighbourhoods.
- A 2025 East Birmingham women's-economy report identifies Open Door as a partner in developing a proposed collaboration across East Birmingham. This demonstrates strategic partnership activity, but not sufficiently evidenced current direct service delivery by Open Door in other wards.
Additional evidence needed
- A current annual report, impact report or service timetable listing active projects, venues and neighbourhood coverage.
- Confirmation from Open Door of whether its training, consultancy or East Birmingham partnership work involves regular delivery outside Bromford, Firs and Hodge Hill.
- A current list of partner-delivered activities showing which are led or delivered by Open Door and their locations.
Areas of work
- Education/training
- General Charitable Purposes
- Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity
- Recreation
- The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
Who they help
- Elderly/old People
- Other Defined Groups
- People With Disabilities
How they help
- Provides Advocacy/advice/information
- Provides Human Resources
- Provides Services
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
Community building is the organisation’s primary operating model
The available evidence suggests that Open Door uses practical support as an entry point, but aims ultimately to increase residents’ confidence, connections and capacity to initiate activity themselves.
Why it matters
This distinguishes Open Door from organisations whose main role is transactional advice or crisis provision. Its potential contribution lies in building longer-term local capability and relationships.
Show evidence
“It works by unlocking and connecting local people’s passions and skills and supporting confident contributions within the neighbourhood.”
Source:Organisation“Its work uses the principles and practices of Asset-Based Community Development.”
Source:Organisation“Its core values describe its approach as bottom-up, asset-based, relational, mutual and co-produced.”
Source:Organisation
It bridges immediate hardship and collective civic participation
Open Door appears to hold two roles in tension: helping people navigate acute problems such as debt, benefits and job seeking, while resisting definitions of residents based only on need.
Why it matters
This may enable the organisation to reach people during difficult periods and create routes from receiving support to volunteering, sharing skills and shaping neighbourhood life.
Show evidence
“Open Door offers support with finding work, CVs, money management, internet access, childcare, advice and turning ideas into reality.”
Source:Organisation“It reported increasing numbers of people presenting with food shortages, benefit sanctions and threatening debt letters.”
Source:Organisation“It welcomes people as human beings with skills, knowledge and passions that they can unlock and share.”
Source:Organisation
Its influence appears to depend on a locally embedded partnership network
The evidence suggests that Open Door is positioned as one contributor within a wider neighbourhood ecosystem, combining church roots, resident leadership, youth work, schools and legal advice partnerships.
Why it matters
Its effectiveness may depend less on operating alone than on connecting institutions and resident-led activity that usually sit apart.
Show evidence
“Open Door grew from the commitment of Hodge Hill Church.”
Source:Organisation“Together We Can! was a partnership between Firs & Bromford Neighbours Together, Worth Unlimited and Open Door Community Foundation.”
Source:Organisation“It delivered legal advice sessions with Birmingham Community Law Centre and worked with Firs Primary School and Tame Valley Academy.”
Source:Organisation
- Whether the activities described on the website remain active after 2020.
- How many residents move from receiving support into sustained participation or leadership.
- Whether its partnership model reaches groups least connected to existing neighbourhood networks.
Remaining uncertainties
- Recent annual reports, accounts and outcome data showing current activity, reach and change over time.
- Resident feedback and examples of groups or initiatives that continued independently after Open Door’s involvement.
- Current partnership agreements or accounts from partners describing Open Door’s distinct contribution.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
We seek the wellbeing of people in our neighbourhood through: Unlocking and connecting local people?s passions and skills, working with people to help them overcome barriers to them making confident contributions within their neighbourhood, and being a ?seedbed? for innovative forms of local, associational life. We work using the principles and practices of Asset-Based Community Development.
Charity objects
3.1 THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE OF HODGE HILL AND THE SURROUNDING AREA. 3.2 TO DEVELOP THE CAPACITY AND SKILLS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITY OF HODGE HILL AND THE SURROUNDING AREA IN SUCH A WAY THAT THEY ARE BETTER ABLE TO IDENTIFY AND HELP MEET THEIR NEEDS AND PARTICIPATE MORE FULLY IN SOCIETY. 3.3 TO PROMOTE SOCIAL INCLUSION FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT BY PREVENTING PEOPLE FROM BECOMING SOCIALLY EXCLUDED, RELIEVING THE NEEDS OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO ARE SOCIALLY EXCLUDED AND ASSISTING THEM TO INTEGRATE INTO SOCIETY. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS OBJECT "SOCIALLY EXCLUDED" MEANS BEING EXCLUDED FROM SOCIETY, OR PARTS OF SOCIETY, AS A RESULT OF ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: YOUTH, AGE, DISABILITY, FINANCIAL HARDSHIP, ILL HEALTH, UNEMPLOYMENT, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, DISCRIMINATION ON THE GROUNDS OF ETHNICITY, GENDER, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, RELIGION OR POOR EDUCATIONAL OR SKILLS ATTAINMENT; 3.4 THE RELIEF OF SICKNESS AND THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH AMONG THE PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY RESIDENTS OF HODGE HILL AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS; 3.5 TO PROMOTE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PEOPLE OF HODGE HILL AND THE SURROUNDING AREA THE PROVISION OF ACTIVITIES AND FACILITIES FOR RECREATION OR OTHER LEISURE TIME OCCUPATION OF INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE NEED OF SUCH ACTIVITIES OR FACILITIES BY REASON OF THEIR YOUTH, AGE, INFIRMITY OR DISABLEMENT, FINANCIAL HARDSHIP OR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CIRCUMSTANCES OR FOR THE PUBLIC AT LARGE IN THE INTERESTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE AND WITH THE OBJECT OF IMPROVING THE HEALTH, WELL-BEING AND GENERAL CONDITION OF LIFE OF THE SAID INHABITANTS. THE ABOVE OBJECTS SHALL BE DELIVERED AT ALL TIMES WITH CONSIDERATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF SEX, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, RACE OR OF POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS OR OTHER OPINIONS.