A Crash Course in Cloudspotting comes to our streets

Coventry citizens with visible and invisible disabilities, and those without, joined artist Raquel Meseguer Zafe on a journey around the city – experiencing lying down in public spaces and starting conversations about making Coventry a more restful place. An invitation to pause. To rest. To listen. To explore the subversive act of lying down when […]

SOCIAL JUSTICE | Coventry Youth Activists take on social media giant

When it comes to Social Justice, there is no more inspiring Grapevine story than that of Coventry Youth Activists (CYA). And that’s why we’re putting them forward for today’s Coventry City of Culture ‘energy’. A group of young disabled people, their reason for being is to campaign for the right to a good life for […]

Facebook is failing disabled people

Young activists in Coventry call out Facebook’s Nick Clegg! Marking Zero Discrimination Day today (1 March), Coventry Youth Activists (CYA) – a campaign group changing young people’s lives – will host a Facebook Takeover featuring stories and evidence of the harrowing reality of the unsafe online world for those with disabilities. This follows months of […]

Tourettes Hero is on the sofa this week

This week’s episode of CYA on Your Sofa has landed and it’s an out of this world experience with real-life superhero Jess Thom. Jess (aka Tourettes Hero) is an artist, writer and co-founder of a creative organisation called Tourettes Hero which celebrates the humour and creativity of Tourettes syndrome. Jess knows all about Tourettes because […]

Young activists’ campaign up for national award

A colourful campaign triggered by a startling statistic and created by a group of young activists from Coventry, is in the running for a national award. CYA Saturdays by Coventry Youth Activists (aka CYA) has been nominated for the Young Person’s Award at the SMK National Campaigners Awards 2020, hosted online for the first time […]

For some of us, this is just our ordinary

Joey from Coventry Youth Activists (CYA) is beaming. He’s shared his experience of being a young person under lockdown on a national platform. His individual voice is being heard and he has the opportunity to make change for himself and others. His interview for The Guardian newspaper on 9 May, gathered the perspectives of several […]

Young people remaining united during lockdown

“One thing’s for sure, CYA certainly know how to deal with a challenge and… if we can bring one positive from this time we’d like people who are now faced with living and seeing things from our perspective to take this time to really understand the feelings that some of us experience every day.” Young […]

We’ve never needed our communities as much as we do now

At Grapevine we’ve been helping people and communities work together to solve their problems for over 25 years.  We know what can happen when local citizens have the skills and confidence to act on what they care about, when they connect through their shared humanity and take power into their own hands to transform their […]

Act for Change Fund award for our young activists!

A new year is starting to mean one thing at Grapevine – news of more money coming our way to reduce loneliness in Coventry and increase the resilience of local people and communities! This time the grant is from Act for Change fund – a £3.6 million partnership between Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Esmée Fairbairn […]