Welcome to Birmingham

A new 'Welcome to Birmingham' website was formally launched on 23 February 2009 by the West Midlands Strategic Migration Partnership at their Regional 'Migration Matters' Conference.

Development of this website was a partnership project funded by Digital Birmingham and Birmingham Health and Wellbeing Partnership to bring together and develop the information available for new arrivals in Birmingham into one accessible online site.

The website is a guide to information, support and services in Birmingham for people new to the city. It can be accessed at www.welcometobirmingham.org.uk and contains over 100 pages of information in plain English as well as Welcome videos and scripts in 7 different languages. The site is targeted at all new arrivals and also useful to those who work with them. It can be navigated by migration status or by topic area. Links are provided to translated information and to other websites that provide information in more detail.

There are now three local Welcome websites in the West Midlands, in Birmingham, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Funding has now been secured through the Migration Impacts fund to develop a 'Welcome to the West Midlands' website, which will have a central information hub containg generic information for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and links to satellite sites from seven local areas in the West Midlands. It is hoped that the new website will go live by mid-2010.

For more information, contact Clare Daley at West Midlands Strategic Migration Partnership at c.daley@wmleadersboard.gov.uk or on 0121 678 1078.