granton:hub is pleased to announce that our community is now included in the ‘Coastal Knowledge’ project funded by the RSE Young Academy Scotland and led by Dr Niki Vermeulen (University of Edinburgh) celebrating Scotland’s (prolonged) year of coast and waters.
As a coastal community, Granton plays a part in developing diverse forms of knowledge about the coast and experiences that people have living and working on the coast.
The Recycl-Age Art exhibition was selected as part of this Coastal Knowledge project and is included in the 2021 Edinburgh Science festival, offering artists a unique opportunity to showcase their work.
Recycl-Age Art 2021 includes painters, printmakers, collage artists, ceramicists, illustrators, photographers, textile artists, jewellers, composers, poets and makers. Many artworks incorporate recycled elements, indeed several are made of 100% recycled and repurposed materials. Some artists reflect on what recycling means to them, figuratively or conceptually.
A regional equality council covering Edinburgh and the Lothians has been given a £1,000 boost by one of the country’s leading housebuilders.
Edinburgh & Lothians Regional Equality Council (ELREC), based on Forth Street, is a charity that aims to support local communities and eliminate discrimination in all its forms through a range of projects.
ELREC, set up in 1971, applied to Persimmon Homes East Scotland to help to fund weekly sports sessions for disadvantaged children aged five-16 years of age. The free sessions would be available for the youngsters in parks across Edinburgh.
The charity is among the first to receive funds as part of the housebuilder’s Building Futures campaign for 2021, which runs until August and will donate more than £1m to good causes this year.
Parveen Ishaq, of Edinburgh & Lothians Regional Equality Council, said: “We are really excited to receive this support from Persimmon Homes.
“Our team work hard to promote equality and diversity across our region through a wide range of projects and in particular we are targeting young people in our communities living in poverty.
“The money will help us provide free outdoor sports sessions for children in and around Edinburgh and the Lothians. The sessions will not only get young people moving they will also help to support young people’s mental health and social interaction, which are so important after the lockdown restrictions.”
Building Futures aims to support community groups working with under-18s across three categories – education & arts, health and sport.
A total of 128 grants of £1,000 will be awarded across Persimmon’s 32 regional businesses to improve local facilities and the delivery of vital community projects.
Three initiatives will go on to win £100,000 each through a national online public vote. The winners will be named at a gala dinner for finalists in November.
In each sector – education & arts, health and sport – as well as the £100,000 first prize, there will be a £50,000 second prize and a £20,000 third prize, while a further 87 shortlisted projects will each receive £5,000.
Laura Still, sales director at Persimmon Homes East Scotland, said: “We’re delighted to help Edinburgh & Lothians Regional Equality Council and the truly inclusive work it is doing with young people in Edinburgh.
“The pandemic has had a huge impact on mental health across the board, not least amongst young people. It is important that charities like this are supported in the good work they are doing.
“Building Futures is all about helping young people and youth groups in our area. We’re accepting entries until mid-August so we’d urge more people to apply by visiting www.persimmonhomes.com/charity”
Persimmon is currently selling stunning new-build homes at sites across Edinburgh and the Lothians at developments including Lang Loan, The Willows, Kings Cove, Burgh Gate and Kings Meadow.
Founded in 1972, Persimmon Homes is one of the UK’s leading housebuilders. With headquarters in York, the Group operates from 31 regional offices throughout the UK, trading under the brand names of Persimmon Homes, Charles Church and Westbury Partnerships, building quality homes across England, Wales and Scotland. The company directly employs more than 5,000 people and supports around 86,000 jobs in the construction sector.
Scottish communities called on to join UK’s largest ever collaboration to reduce river litter
Keep Scotland Beautiful are delighted to be part of a the new Treasure Your River, campaign, wich launched this week. The campaign will help reduce the huge amount of litter entering the River Forth and subsequently the sea.
We are working with Hubbub to call for businesses, community groups, residents and other organisations situated along the River Forth and its estuary – from Stirling, down to Edinburgh and along the Fife and East Lothian coastline – to get involved.
The campaign will run over the next six months and the programme of activities includes visiting robot boats and a recycled fishing for litter punt, an exciting art installation and litter surveys and clean up activity.
Organisations across the UK, including the Angling Trust, Scottish Canals, Canal & River Trust, Keep Wales Tidy, Mersey Rivers Trust, Sustainable Hive, Thames 21, The Rivers Trust and companies like Coca-Cola and Costa have already pledged to do their bit. Now, in Scotland we are on the look-out for volunteers to support the campaign.
In 2019, Hubbub’s polling1 found that 75% of UK adults wanted to do more to help tackle marine litter. After a year of lockdown people’s appreciation of nature has risen further and Treasure Your River will provide more opportunities for people around the UK to get involved and help protect our rivers and seas.
Treasure Your River will engage the public on how they can make a difference through simple changes such as taking their rubbish home with them, providing tools and guidance for litter picks and responsible disposal of fishing tackle.
As well as tackling littering behaviour with eye-catching bins and activities, the campaign aims to create a legacy for each river, with an army of regular volunteers and litter-clearing infrastructure.
Barry Fisher, KSB CEOsaid: “We’re delighted to be working with Hubbub to bring ‘Treasure Your River’ to the communities along the River Forth. This exciting campaign complements our source-to-sea litter activity on other iconic Scottish rivers.
“Our data shows that we are facing a litter emergency in Scotland, and with 80% of marine litter coming from land, often via our waterways, we are looking forward to collaborating with others across the UK to tackle this global issue.
“Increasing awareness of lockdown litter levels have galvanised action across Scotland and we have seen an upsurge in positive activity as people pledge to litter pick the places they love – now we’re eager to build on this by supporting those living and working along the Forth to unite with others to take collective action to stop litter entering the sea via the river and its tributaries.”
Gavin Ellis, Director and Co-founder of Hubbubsaid: “As lockdown restrictionsare lifted there is increased concern about the amount of litter in our public and green spaces. Treasure Your River aims to make the connection between litter in our towns and cities and plastic in the oceans, and to offer people something positive they can do about it.
“The majority of plastics in the oceans are carried there by rivers; the River Mersey for example has proportionately higher levels of microplastic pollution than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. We invite any individual or organisations along these rivers to come together and help halt the flow of litter into the sea.
“There’s something for everyone, whether you’re a local business, a sailing club, a school, a charity or a resident.”
Treasure Your River aims to be the UK’s largest ever collaborative effort to prevent and reduce the amount of litter in our waterways, tackling six of the UK’s largest river systems: the Avon, Forth, Mersey, Severn, Thames and Trent and their tributaries.
The campaign is being run by environmental charity Hubbub with funding from the Coca-Cola Foundation. It will initially focus on preventing litter from entering the rivers and clean-up activities in seven major cities based on these rivers and the waterways that flow into them – Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Nottingham, which between them are home to 1 in 6 of the UK population.
Fresh Start, with the Edinburgh Health & Social Care Partnership, are running online events on 12th & 13th May to allow residents to discuss how our services can adapt to fit what matters to you, the people that live and work in the area!
Join the conversation on Wednesday 12th May, 1-2.30pm by registering here:
We have received funding from the management committee of Royston Wardieburn community centre to offer some one to one activities to local folk in North West Edinburgh, who might be struggling a bit as we ease out of lockdown.
The aim is to support people engage/re-engage with the many social and learning opportunities on offer in North Edinburgh.
As you know, it’s not going to be easy for many people to take the first step – it never is. However, the impact of lockdown is likely to have magnified people’s concerns and anxieties about getting involved in something new.
Many people may be feeling a bit anxious about what life is going to look like in the coming months and the challenges that lie ahead. Some people may struggle physically due to the loss of mobility during last year and might need a bit of support to get out and about safely again.
One to One Activities
We’ve put together a programme of one to one activities which we hope will address these issues and we will adapt the programme to reflect people’s interests. The programme includes supported local walks, visits to places of interests such as community gardens and galleries and museums.
We are also planning to offer individuals the opportunity to work on their digital, literacy or language skills in a local café once the restrictions are lifted. For some people just meeting up with someone in a public space for a coffee and a chat will be sufficient.
Working together
We would be really grateful for your help and support with this project.
1. Can you send us information about any activities you are planning?
2. Can you could let us know if you have a space that we might be able to use for meet ups (inside and outside)?
We would also be grateful if you could help to promote the project by displaying our leaflets (which will be dropped off next week) in a public space and if you could pass on the information to anyone you know who you think might benefit from the project.
We are aiming to work with people who have been particularly badly affected by lockdown, particularly those who might have been shielding due to health conditions but also people from the BAME community and people who might be struggling with their mental health or finding it difficult to get out due to mobility issues.
If you know someone who might be interested, please let us know how best to get in touch with them.
Please get in touch if you want to know more about the Time for Change Project or if you would like to become involved in some way.
As nominations close, Scottish Liberal Democrats have announced their list of candidates for Lothian and are pledging their commitment to make recovery from the pandemic their number one priority as MSPs.
Today the Scottish Liberal Democrats submitted their nomination papers for the upcoming Scottish parliament election to be held on the 6th May.
The Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Edinburgh Northern and Leith will be Rebecca Bell (above). She is also the mental health spokesperson for the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
Rebecca Bell said:“People are under huge pressure from the pandemic. There’s a lot of work to be done to recover from this crisis. It will not be easily done and we will need our complete focus on the project at hand.
“As an MSP, I want to focus on cutting mental health waits, a bounce back plan for education, creating jobs and tackling the climate emergency.
“After years of arguing about independence and Brexit, the last thing we need right now is another independence referendum.
“As the MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, I will put the recovery first.”
Willie Rennie said: “This election is about priorities. Liberal Democrats will put recovery first. After the dreadful year we have endured, people want a needle-sharp focus on jobs, mental health, our NHS, schools and the climate crisis.
“With ten years of experience as leader I have won support for areas like mental health, education and nursery education. For me it has always been about investing in people so they can do great things.
“For the next five years the divided nationalists will put independence first, dividing the country too.
“For the next five years I will put the recovery first, cut mental health waits, help pupils bounce back, create jobs and take action on the climate. The SNP will prioritise another independence referendum.
Forth and Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum meets tomorrow (Thursday 14 January) at 10:30am via Zoom.
We look forward to hearing updates from the group and also welcoming Jim O’Rorke from Ash Scotland who will do a short presentation on smoking and deprivation.
Also, forum member, Kate Wimpress of North Edinburgh Arts will give the group an update on the planned development of the MacMillan hub community space off Pennywell Road.
Following the latest coronavirus guidelines announced on Monday, Granton Information Centre staff are working from home and our office on West Granton Road will remain closed for the foreseeable future – BUT PLEASE BE ASSURED THAT WE ARE STILL OPERATING!
You can contact us by email at info@gic.org.uk or by calling 0131 551 2459 or 0131 552 0458.
Any messages left on our answering machine will be dealt with as soon as possible – please ensure you clearly leave your full name and telephone number when leaving a message.
Let’s all play our part in keeping each other safe, stopping this terrible virus and getting life back to normal!
