All together now

‘Inspirational’ new course coming to North Edinburgh

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Big changes are happening in Scotland about how families who need support are offered it. This is called Self Directed Support. The idea is that families and communities can have more say and control over the types of support they are offered. 

Total Craigroyston and Muirhouse Link Up are working with Diversity Matters to run ‘Everyone Together’, a  course for everyone involved with children and families in Pilton and Muirhouse – social workers, community workers, support workers,  people who need support, families, friends, neighbours, local community leaders and others.

We know that there is a huge variety of skills amongst us: families, communities and workers. By sharing skills and working together we can help families live well. Come and find out how the new changes can help us do things better.

The course will run from 9.30am to 2pm  in

North Edinburgh Arts Centre on the following dates:

Wednesday 29 April – Building the right kind of relationships 

Wednesday 6 May – What do we need? Identifying local services

Wednesday 13 May – Creating local networks to help us work together.

Interested? Contact Tracey Devenney at Total Craigroyston for more info and to book a place:call 529 5073 or email tracey.devenney@edinburgh.gov.uk 

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Everyone Together has been developed by Diversity Matters and is funded by the Scottish Government to help develop the use of Self Directed Support.

We have run 12 events in the last year in different parts of Scotland – read more at everyone-together.org

May Day! East meets West in derby derby!

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The British Roller Derby Championships are Europe’s largest Roller Derby Tournament, with 72 leagues from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland going head to head over the course of 2015.

Auld Reekie Roller Girls (ARRG) are in the Premier Division of the competition and have already travelled to Cardiff to take on Middlesbrough Milk Rollers in the first round of the tournament. That nail-biting game between two closely-matched teams resulted in a 114-108 win for the Edinburgh women.

Round two of the tournament will be hosted by ARRG at Meadowbank Sports Centre on Saturday 2 May, where Edinburgh’s finest will take on two of the UK’s strongest teams: Manchester’s Rainy City Roller Girls (RCRG), and – in what is guaranteed to be a very exciting game – ARRG face their closest neighbours and deadliest rivals in the Edinburgh v Glasgow Derby Derby!

ARRG are currently ranked number 1 in the UK rankings, but Glasgow are close behind at number 2. Will the mighty ARRG be able to hold on to their top spot, or will the Glaswegians opposition be too strong?

The day will also host games between Birmingham’s Central City Roller Girls (CCR), Middlesbrough Milk Rollers (MMR) and Cardiff’s powerful Tiger Bay Brawlers (TBB): it’s sure to be a day of fiercely-fought battles between the highest-ranking teams in the UK.

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This is an incredible chance to see the country’s best teams play at the bargain rate of only £12 for the entire day – come and see why people are getting so excited about the fastest-growing women’s sport in the world!

British Roller Derby Championships: Premier Tier – Round 2
9am – 7pm, Saturday 2 May: Meadowbank Sports Centre, Edinburgh

Tickets: Tickets available from: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1353385
Full-day tickets: £12.00
ARRG vs. Glasgow tickets: £5.00
Free for children aged 14 and under.

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What is modern roller derby?

Roller derby is an all-female sport that involves teams competing on an oval track in a series of ‘jams’ – two minute periods that see teams of five players each battling to score points.

During each jam, one player on each team is designated as the ‘jammer’ who scores a point for every member of the opposing team she passes.

The sport requires a punishing array of agile and athletic skills, from zig-zag blocking moves to body slams to all-out speed-skating.

To perfect these manoeuvres, skaters commit to several hours of practice every week, paying for gear and practice space out of their own pockets. While it has its roots in sports-entertainment-style exhibition games going back as far as the 1930s, modern roller derby has reinvigorated the game with a grass-roots DIY ethos that puts the passion for athleticism front-and-centre.

The trend finally reached Edinburgh in 2008, when a small group of women founded the Auld Reekie Roller Girls. The Edinburgh league now averages over 100 skaters, and is run purely on the volunteer efforts of its members.

ARRG became full members of the Womens Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) in 2011. ARRG’s All Stars are currently ranked number 1 in Europe and number 60 in the world.

For further info go to www.arrg.co.uk.

Putting the boot in for Fresh Start

Customised Doc Martens raise over £1000 in raffle for local charity Fresh Start 

Customised boots by Dr. Martens' Cobbs Lane Apprentice FrankieThe Dr. Martens Edinburgh team demonstrated its ongoing support for the local art and charity scene when they attended the fifth annual Scottish Tattoo Convention recently. 

The global footwear brand set-up shop alongside some of the world’s most renowned artists and entertainers at the Corn Exchange, in aid of the homelessness charity Fresh Start.

An impressive line-up of tattooists from the convention set to work in customising Dr. Martens’ product with an inked-based twist.

Making use of mixed-mediums, products were embellished with hand-drawn or painted designs as well as leather tattooing or etching, raising over £1,000 as part of a charity raffle – the proceeds from which will support people who have been homeless to resettle successfully.

Jenni, Jenny & FrankieDr. Martens Edinburgh store manager, Jenni Birrell said: “After a huge success last year, we are so pleased that this year has been equally as triumphant. The team are big fans of tattoo culture – myself included – so being a part of the convention is a perfect fit.

“We selected Fresh Start as our chosen charity for the second year running because of the close work they do in helping the city’s community and it’s important to us to do our bit on a local level.”

Keith Robertson, Managing Director of Fresh Start, said: “We are delighted that Dr. Martens has chosen to support Fresh Start once again at such a well-attended international event. Each year we provide goods and support to over 2,000 of the most vulnerable households in Edinburgh and this is only possible due to the support we receive from the wider community.

“Dr. Martens’ support will enable us to help people who are moving into an empty tenancy with the goods they need to make their house a home.”

Fresh Start

 

A monkey or a lizard?

No more squabbles over the remote control? 

50-50-Credit-Hannah-Foley-Owling-AboutAvoiding family arguments over the remote control or mobile phone use could become a reality with the launch today of a new resource to help people learn more about the science of their brain and the role it plays in household conflict.

Science Festival audiences will be the first to try out a new way to learn how to better manage family arguments this evening, as leading professionals join forces to promote a newly designed online resource to ‘mainstream’ conflict resolution and mediation tools.

The new resource challenges people to learn more about the way their brain works and how deeply-engrained early experiences can shape the way they deal with conflict at home.

The new ‘Monkey v Lizard’ quiz – which can be found at http://bit.ly/TestMyBrain – has received the backing of doctor and medical advisor, Dr Sara Watkin.

It was designed by Scotland’s first-ever national mediation resource centre, the Cyrenians Scottish Centre for Conflict Resolution (SCCR), which marks its first year in operation this month.

A SCCR spokesperson explained: “The development of the resource comes off the back of successful training sessions run by the SCCR to help parents, young people and professionals across Scotland to better manage conflict.

“In its first year, the charity has run 53 sessions, with 730 attendees, and 83 per cent of those say they felt more confident in dealing with family conflict resolution.

“And the initiative it is part of the SCCR’s national campaign to raise awareness of conflict at home and the impact on young people and their families. Every year in Scotland, 5,000 young people become homeless because of family relationship breakdown.”

The new resource will be launched at the Science Festival event – Because You Know…It’s All About That Brain – which will look at the causes and effects of conflict and the role the brain plays in it.

Users will be led on a journey to discover what part of their brain they use when arguing, before being provided with more serious tools and tips on how to better resolve differences and access new ways of thinking.

Key areas of our brains are The Old Brain (lizard) and The New Brian (monkey). The Old Brain, determines our reactions and protects us from danger (our ‘fight or flight’), while our New Brain is what allows us to reflect, be aware and assess our reactions.

The new online quiz shows that, while important to keep us safe in certain circumstance, too much lizard (Old Brain) can lead to conflict escalating. By learning to access our monkey (New Brain) we are more able to do things to reduce conflict, for example, listen, reflect, empathise and communicate.

Diane Marr, network development manager at the SCCR, explained the thinking behind the resource: “We all have a drugs cabinet in our brains.

“Conflict releases the fight or flight hormones, adrenaline and cortisol. That’s great if we’re a solider at war, or a football player going for the winning goal. But not when we’re trying to decide which programmes to watch on TV, for example.

“We can try to change the way we deal with arguments. We can learn to cuddle our inner monkey and care for our lizard better. We can reduce the stress and anxiety we feel when experiencing conflict and do things in a new and different way.”

She added: “Every year thousands of young people become homeless because their relationship with their family breaks down – but they are just the tip of the iceberg of those struggling to deal with conflict.

“Through this resource, website and our national campaign we want to find ways to engage young people and families to take a look at how they can stop, talk and listen to each other better.”

“Professional and those working in conflict resolution have known about phrases and tools like de-escalation but what that’s about is learning how to breathe, take a break, go for a walk and learn to listen. We want to try to mainstream these tools to help families. By leaning ways to be more Monkey, we can learn more about ourselves, our emotions, responses and relationships.”

Medical advisor, Dr Sara Watkin, has given her backing to the SCCR’s newest resource. At tonight’s Science Festival event she will be joining SCCR onstage to talk through the physical and emotional impact of conflict and how it connects to the brain.

Dr Watkin said: “Most of us want to live amongst calm people, not hot heads. But to produce generations of sorted-out individuals, the people caring for infants must be able to open up to those babies and infants.

“Parents and babies share rhythms. The delight heard in the giggles that emerge at around three months corresponds to structural brain developments. This ‘you delight in me’ conversation nurtures confidence. It is the basis for forming relationships that matter.

“Get this wrong (or don’t get it at all) and you are on a path to producing people who don’t feel safe. It may seem as though there is no quick fix for resolving conflict. But we need to try.”

The ‘Monkey v Lizard’ initiative is part of the SCCR’s wider ‘Stop. Talk. Listen’ campaign, which aims to get people thinking about how they can stop, talk and listen to avoid longer term resentments and fall-outs.

The campaign aims to put conflict resolution and mediation on the agenda, similar to the changes in attitudes to mental health, and give families and practitioners working with young people the tools to help deal with arguments in the home.

Your community needs YOU!

Coming soon – the Community Leadership College!

needsyouGroundwork is now underway to establish a new Community Leadership College in North Edinburgh. The initiative will build on the skills of local residents and will be designed by the community itself.

Total Craigroyston works in partnership with others to strengthen services across Pilton and Muirhouse; strengthening support for families and building on the strength of the community.

The organisation, with partners Circle Scotland and Muirhouse Link Up, recently secured funding from the STV Foundation to develop a Community Leadership College.

What’s a community college?

“Many local people have become involved in community activities and volunteering through Link Up, The North Edinburgh Time Bank and many other community projects,” explained Total Craigroyston manager Christine Mackay. “The Community Leadership College will give us the opportunity to take that involvement to the next level by providing training, support and other types of activities so that more leaders are created within the community. The development of the college will be directed by local residents themselves, initially through a series of ‘Conversation Cafes’, so that we can gather their ideas and develop the programme.”

The College will be led by the community, ensuring that local needs and aspirations are central to the college’s development.

Over the coming weeks a series of ‘community conversation cafe’ events on the subject of community leadership will be held across the area.

It’s hoped that these informal sessions will attract the widest possible range of local residents of all ages, and the ideas and suggestions generated at the conversation cafes will then be used to develop the community leadership college plan.

Look out for more information coming soon – and get involved! Be part of shaping your community!

Letter: Disruptive Neighbours

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Dear NEN

Disruptive Neighbours

For a year now the tenants upstairs have been making excessive noise, from three to ten hours daily. Having spoken with the mother, she assured me the kids went to bed 6 and 7pm – sadly she is not telling the truth.

We have spoken a few times, nothing has changed and they have refused mediation three times which I thought might be helpful. This has been, and is, affecting my health very badly (many visits to GP) and four times in the last few weeks I have eaten a meal in a bedroom to get away from it.

They have put rubbish in my assisted uplift wheelie bin so no room for mine and lot of unnecessary communications with the council’s Refuse Department to sort it out. The Council, Scottish Police, their landlord and my MSP are aware of the situation and the Council appear to be able to do little to help. The father has been verbally abusive to me twice. What kind of neighbours are they?

Unfortunately there seems to be little consideration for others living in a block of flats. Their language to their kids is foul and also towards each other. I first heard these words on the football terracing in Glasgow.

Often I can’t hear TV so record programmes (at my expense) and sometimes can’t hear the playback the next day. Of course, kids have to play but it is the excessive noise that is unbearable.

There has been damage to a light fitting which rattles often with the force of the banging. Their behaviour means that I am a victim in my own home and I am sure there are lots of others in the same position.

Hopefully the law can be changed to assist those who have these problems in the future.

Name and address withheld 

Blackhall talk on Mary Seacole

Blackhall LibraryBlackhall Library, in partnership with Surgeons Hall, is hosting a talk about Mary Seacole on Wednesday 15 April at 3pm. The event is free.

Click on link (below) for more info about this remarkable woman:

www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/seacole_mary.shtml

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Drylaw Skatepark: final consultation event

Last chance to have your say on Drylaw Skatepark

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Drylaw Community Association and Edinburgh and Lothian Greenspace Trust will be holding a final consultation event on the new skatepark this Wednesday (15 April) from 5.30 – 6.30pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre.

Go along, have a look at what’s being planned and have your say – the organisers are particularly keen to hear the views of young people.

North Edinburgh Arts AGM next week

NEA

NORTH EDINBURGH ARTS

Annual General Meeting

To be held at North Edinburgh Arts, 15a Pennywell Court

Wednesday 22 April at 12 noon

Soup and sandwiches will be served at 12.30

Creche available on request

Come and hear about the work of NEA and plans for the next three years, followed by the opportunity to put your ideas forward.

To RSVP and reserve a creche space call Sandra on 315 2151 or email admin@northedinburgharts.co.uk by Wednesday 15 April.