Tuesday marked the point where the London 2012 Games were exactly two years away. All very exciting stuff with the national papers producing colour pullouts of our prospective champions, including the Leicester Mercury. But did you know that Monday marked four years to the opening ceremony of Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games 2014? Two major sporting events on our tiny island in the space of two years. Perhaps I should look at making this my next goal and extending the blog for an additional 104 weeks!

Walking past the BBC Big Screen, as I said in my first blog, acts as a constant reminder of the amount still to be done. The most important being to find the 2,012 Community Reporters I want to recruit and train over the next two years and equipping them with the simple skills that allow them to capture their experiences, and the experiences of those around them.

So, this week I want to talk about the Community News Cafe we’ve set up at Kona Blue Coffees, in the Highcross Shopping Centre. This relationship, with this local independent retailer, has enabled us to use a fantastic location that is fully accessible every Tuesday. Initially there was the morning slot from 9.30am-10.30am but demand was so great for a session after normal office hours, that the evening time of 6pm-7.30pm was made available.

I’ll be setting a theme for these evening sessions to coincide with events or celebrations taking place locally and so far include Older Persons Month (September), Black History Month (October), Local Democracy Week (October) and of course my Community Media Week (8-13th November).

The sessions are meant to be informal and relaxed, with the chance to find out answers to the questions you really want to ask.

The Leicester Mercury’s Laura Elvin has already dropped by and BBC Radio Leicester’s Dave Thompson should be in soon. This demonstrates to me the important role that Community Reporters play in the collection of locally generated news that has a natural home on Citizens’ Eye. Here, it is viewed by people looking to find out about their local community and is easily identified by professional reporters and journalists, enabling developing stories to be followed up.

So, if you find yourself at a loose end on a Tuesday morning or evening, why not drop by and see how you can get involved? I’m already planning a Community News Cafe tour, so local community groups and individuals can request a visit from our Community Reporters and they will be left with a toolkit containing posters and flyers so they can continue to run the meetings themselves and begin to send content into us. On top of all the excitement of the Community News Cafe adding an evening session, this week also saw my first ever First Person column in the Leicester Mercury. It took me about ten seconds to decide the first topic. It had to be the Big Society and the role Citizens’ Eye can play in it, alongside our partners at the Leicester Mercury. Helping to give people a voice. It is easy to write ‘At the heart of all things local’ on your building. It’s as easy as saying “I love you” or “I’m alright.” We don’t always mean things we say but I think the first one is true. Citizens’ Eye focuses on local communities in the city and county only.

If you’re part of a group or an individual of faith or no faith, from a demographic group or geographic area, then Citizens’ Eye is there for you. The new partnership with the Leicester Mercury ensures greater reach into our communities both online and in print and the Wave young people’s newspaper has certainly paved the way for other sections of society to follow.

I’ve often said that community cohesion is easy and I still believe that. It’s about communication. When you engage with people from other communities, as I do on a daily basis, you begin to realise all of us have the same issues, needs and wants. Even dreams. Sport is still a great bridge builder bringing people together.

So whether it’s the Olympics, Paralympics, the Commonwealth Games, Sky Ride or our three teams of rugby, football and cricket players, the power to engage people is real.

For me, it’s about what the Games represent as the Olympic values, not just the sport. I’m very lucky to have been asked to run the media centre at the Phoenix for Sky Ride Leicester on August 29th. There are nine other cities taking part over the summer and Sky actually offers up Leicester as the model for delivery – the ‘Leicester Effect’ they call it. Is that in fact Community Cohesion? I’ll let you decide.

Sorry nearly forgot…729 days to go. Add a further 730 days if you’re following me to Glasgow!

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