All together now: Making a difference at Royston Wardieburn

Making a song and dance at community event!

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Around fifty local people took part in the latest ‘Getting Together, Making a Difference’ event at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre last week. Taking place on ‘Living Life’ Day, the gathering offered an opportunity for people from diverse backgrounds to get to know their neighbours better, make new friends, learn new skills and create new artworks.

Workshop sessions followed introductions and the official opening of the Getting Together, Making a Difference’ photography exhibition.

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The workshop aims:
Provide an opportunity for participants to get to know each other
through an activity
Introduce participants to songs, poems, art work which focus theme of
diversity and solidarity
Provide an opportunity for partiipants to create poetry, music and art
work which can be shared with other workshop groups after lunch
Create an opportunity to send a positve message on diversity, difference
and solidarity to the wider community
Workshop 1 : Poetry
Workshop led by Jim Aitken
Supported by Lynn McCabe and Fiona Manson
Workshop 2: Music
Workshop led by Jed Milroy
Supported by Hannah Kitchen
Workshop 3: Arts
Workshop led Mo Brand
Supported by Anna Baran and Lydia Markham


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The event proved to be a great success and a lot of fun: creating new friendships, developing relationships, fostering greater understanding and producing some impressive artwork, a poem and a brand new song, too!

The poem:

Getting Together
Getting together, making a difference
Getting together, making a difference
For future families, and our community
Solidarity
Binding you and me
From wartime to Thatcher
The taxes, the cuts
We fought against it
For a better place for us
We’re getting together
For ceilidhs and meals
For visits and trips
It’s turning the wheels
Into the future
Our community
Our children, their children
Will be running free.
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And the song? Well, It goes something like this … :

 

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PICTURES: Lynn McCabe

Getting out and about: a Natural Health Service?

Older people could benefit from ‘green’ prescriptions

walkers

Green prescribing by doctors and other health professionals could be a valuable way of helping older people reap the benefits of outdoor recreation, according to new research. The idea is among a number of recommendations contained in a new report commissioned by the Scottish Government to examine the barriers older people face getting out and about.

Outdoor activity has been shown to be beneficial for physical and mental health and wellbeing, but older people are less likely to take part. Continue reading Getting out and about: a Natural Health Service?

School run no more?

walking to school

A pilot scheme to ban parking outside city primary schools has led to an increase in the number of pupils walking to school, according to a report to the city council’s Transport & Environment Committee. The evaluation of the School Streets scheme also showed lower vehicle speeds on surrounding roads and a reduction in the number of cars around schools. Continue reading School run no more?

We love our charity shops!

Britain is a nation of charity shop lovers – but 97% of Scots will use a charity during their lifetime
charityshop
  • More than eight out of ten of us (86%) have bought an item from a charity shop
  • Older people, women and people living in more affluent areas are the most likely to have bought something from a charity shop
  • Nearly every household (98 %) in the UK has used a charity at some point

The UK is a nation of charity shop lovers with more than eight out of ten of us (86%) having bought an item from a charity shop, according to the latest research by the Charities Aid Foundation.

Older people, women and people living in more affluent areas are the most likely to have bought something from a charity shop. People living in rural areas are also more likely to have bought something from a charity shop than their urban counterparts.

The research reveals that those in the  East of England are the biggest charity shoppers with Londoners being the least likely to have ever bought something.

The figures form part of a wide-reaching report, Charity Street II, which examines the way people use charitable services and their awareness of the scope of charitable services.

The figures show that nearly every household (98 %) in the UK has used a charity at some point and on average people have used about six charitable services in the past year.

But awareness of which services are provided by charities is surprisingly poor.

Around a quarter (23%) of the population are unaware that the charity services that they or someone in their household used were, in fact, run by charities. Given a list of 16 services provided by charities, less than one in ten people were aware they were all provided by the voluntary sector.

The report shows:

  • Charity shopping is more popular among those living in the UK’s most affluent areas, where 90% reported having ever bought an item compared to 82% of people living in the most deprived areas;
  • More than seven in ten people (71%) aged 65 or over bought something from a charity shop last year. This compares to 53% of 18-24 year olds, with people becoming more likely to buy from charity shops as they get older;
  • In rural areas 91% of people have ever bought something from a charity shop; in urban areas the figure in 84%;
  • 93% of people living in East England have bought something from a charity shop compared to 80% of Londoners.
  • Women buy things from charity shops more than men, with seven out of ten (70%) having bought an item in the past year, compared with just 54% of men;
  • The other most common ways people have used charity services are visiting a charity run gallery, museum, garden or stately home (69%); visiting a church or religious institution run by a charity (46%) getting advice or information from a charity website (45%) and attending a university (44%)

Susan Pinkney, Head of Research at the Charities Aid Foundation, said: “Gone are the days when there was a stigma attached to charity shopping with our figures showing that people in more affluent areas are on average more likely to be charity shoppers.

“Charity shops can be high street treasure troves, selling cheaper, second hand goods and often promoting ethically produced and ‘fair trade’ items.

“But crucially, charity shops do not just rely on the shoppers. Their success is built on many different acts of altruism, from those who donate goods to the tens of thousands of volunteers who help to work to run them.

“Our research also highlighted how much we all rely on charities without necessarily realising it. A huge amount of British public life is supported by generosity. And a lot of us are unaware of the scope of charities in the UK.”

The UK has more than 10,200 charity shops and 85% of goods sold in charity shops are from donations, according to the Charity Retail Association.

The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) is one of Europe’s largest charitable foundations, providing advice, financial services and research to help people and companies give to causes they care about.

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charity shop