Autumn is really here now and we have a wide range of activities planned - including some to celebrate Coventry's annual Peace Festival.

The week of the "riots" in London and across the country, we reached out for and met with our neighbours of many communities - asking how were people being affected, and how could we bring our neighbourhood together for justice and peace.

Recently we delivered a joint training session for four voluntary sector organisations locally in "Welcoming People Well", one of our core skills.

Our "Step Up" schools project was a great success this year.

Below is some feedback from the Community Professionals that met the young people, from the school but most of all from the young people themselves.

2011 has been a busy and successful year so far: April will see us temporarily a little quieter. We have had many events, got beautiful new blinds made, and completed our "Step Up" schools project. The Telegraph wrote Heather and Mark up very kindly and took this picture.

Happy New Year to all of our friends and supporters

2010 was an eventful, exciting, challenging and successful year with great gains (Looch started with us as a men's health worker; while Earl, Saboor and Shell joined us on a six-month government scheme) and some sad losses (Aya and Mino moved back to Japan and Aman moved on to University – all positive moves for them but not so much for us).

Meanwhile Abdullah, Shazia and Uzma are all doing student placements here and each brings new enthusiasm, strengths, excitement and energy. Click here for news of what's ahead in 2011.

We have now broken up for the Christmas and New Year holiday period after a busy and sociable December and a lovely party to thank our volunteers.

2011 is going to be challenging for many, but we are optimistic that its going to be exciting and fun-filled too: and hopefully yours will be too.

We hope that you all keep warm and have a lovely couple of weeks whether or not you are celebrating Christmas - in the meantime, here are some photos from recent events to entertain you:

Today is World Aids Day - this year's theme is Universal Access and Human Rights. Click on the ribbon to hear from those living with HIV what you could do that would make a difference - or to make a suggestion if you're living with HIV yourself.

Meanwhile, Chag Hanukkah Sameach to all our Jewish friends and supporters - tonight is the first of the eight nights of Hanukkah - not the most important Jewish festival of the year, but the one nearest to Christmas! :)

Coventry University's MA in Peace and Reconciliation Studies attracts students from all over the world - recently we were pleased to invite 2010-11 students to visit 6 Paul Stacey and learn about our work.

It was a great afternoon - read more about it below ...

A few weeks ago, we held our first Community Iftari celebration, for Muslims and non-Muslims - Fatima has already written about organising that and how well it went.

Read on for more from me and some other non-Muslims about the experience.