Welcome to our Meet The Team page! Our dedicated team is passionate about preserving and enhancing Birmingham’s parks and open spaces through community involvement and innovative projects.
Each member brings unique skills and experiences to BOSF, working together to support our mission and empower local volunteers:
Mary Kennedy
Operations Director
“Hi all, I’m Mary Kennedy and I’m the Operations Director for BOSF. In essence, it’s my role to ensure that as a charitable organisation, we are able to fulfil our charitable objectives effectively, efficiently and to the best of our abilities bearing in mind our resources. In practise this means ensuring that our finances are robust, our team are happy and understand what they’re doing and why, and our trustees are informed as to opportunities for development. My role is to ensure the stability and future of BOSF and whilst this is frequently challenging, it is always rewarding particularly when I see at first hand the passion, insight and commitment of our members. It’s rewarding to know that the work we do as a team makes a positive impact on so many levels.”
Contact: [email protected]
Sarah Royal
Community Open Spaces Development Manager
“I have been with BOSF from the beginning and have seen us grow from a cluster of passionate Friends Groups into a force to reckoned with! We are now a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with a brilliant team of staff and Trustees, ready to help Birmingham’s open spaces volunteers to work together in a strong network.
My main roles are to help new groups set up, attend many partnership networking meetings, answer queries, questions and sign-post to other organisations and skills. I send out regular newsletters, organise our variety of socials and help spread the word of our success nationally. As part of this, I attend the National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces (NFPGS) meetings as a Trustee and also attend the Midlands Park Forum so Birmingham has a strong voice across the country.
I love to meet up with our member groups, as over the years I have met and become friends with so many passionate people with the same drive I have. I now work part time 3.5 days a week from Monday to Thursday lunchtime.”
Contact: [email protected]
Helen Harvey
Volunteer Development Officer
“Working with new and establishing groups to help guide them getting set up, with regards to formalising a committee, constitution and bank account. Also working to encourage community engagement within inner city green spaces, to the benefit of all. I currently have a focus in Highgate and Bordesley with regard to the Birmingham City of Nature work, but I also support Hay Mills, Cole Valley, Tile Cross, Spark Brook – as and when requests come in.”
Contact: [email protected]
Rebecca Kibbler
Volunteer Development Officer
“I work for BOSF mainly in Balsall Heath and the surrounding areas, and am currently running the regular weekly walking group which runs every Monday morning. The walk started in Calthorpe Park back in March and we have now also introduced another walk in Cannon Hill Park on the first Monday of the month, with the walk in Calthorpe Park walk now taking place on the second, third and fourth Monday. I am always eager to hear from anyone who would like to get involved, especially residents of Balsall Heath and community organisations interested in supporting their local green spaces or learning how parks can benefit them.”
Contact: [email protected]
Yvonne Wagner
Volunteer Development Officer
“I work on the North side of Birmingham to encourage a diverse range of community participants and partners to get involved with volunteering is green spaces. It’s a unique role as each week brings along exciting opportunities ranging from assisting a new community garden group to taking part in partnership activities such as the Big Green Week Community Fun Day event held in Norman Street Green Space.”
Contact: [email protected]
Denise Thomson
Administration
“My role at BOSF originally started with collating volunteer hours, also processing a huge backlog of hours and payments as the work that BOSF do was getting too big a task for the existing small team. I have continued to streamline what I do and have helped many Friends Groups get better at reporting the wonderful work that they do. Once collated, I report all of the hours back to the Council who are always very impressed at these figures. Various other tasks have been assigned to me since, such as the group’s insurances and Tai Chi & Qigong, along with a myriad of other admin related tasks. I have always thoroughly enjoyed being a part of BOSF, and all that they do for Birmingham, along with every member of our team.”
Contact: [email protected]
Mat Barber
Communications
“With over 10 years of experience in IT and social media, I manage the BOSF social media accounts, website, and communications as well as other areas of support. I really enjoy working closely with BOSF Friends Groups and partnering organisations, supporting their efforts and promoting events and activities in parks and open spaces across Birmingham.
I’ve also had the pleasure of hosting several social media workshops for BOSF’s Friends Groups and I’m always happy to provide training on request.
In addition to my work with BOSF, I’m a qualified PRINCE2 project manager with a background in the arts sector. In 2019, I was the project manager for the BOSF pilot project ‘Inspire with Art – Stop Litter in Parks!’ This initiative encouraged young people to get involved in their local community and raised awareness about the global issue of single-use plastic pollution and the local litter problem in Birmingham’s parks through fun and creative activities.”
Contact: [email protected]
Connect with us
@BOSFonline