The Scottish Youth Parliament election results 2021 were announced on Monday 22 November. Eleven new Members of the SYP will now represent young people in Edinburgh.
Ten of those elected are from state schools in the city, seven are young women and three are from a Black and Minority Ethnic background.
One remaining seat, in Northern and Leith, will be contested in the new year.
Edinburgh registered the highest number of expressions of interest in Scotland from potential candidates and fielded the most candidates (26) of any local authority.
We also achieved the highest voter turnout in Edinburgh since 2015, despite many of the usual campaigning activities being curtailed because of the pandemic.
Councillor Ellie Bird, Young People’s Champion, said: “I want to commend the astonishing achievements and contributions of all 26 candidates that stood across Edinburgh in the Scottish Youth Parliament election, and warmly welcome the eleven new MSYPs into our city’s elected member family.
“The success of this year’s election is a testament to the commitment and passion of everyone involved in prioritising the voice of young people, at a time when it’s never been more important.
“Due to the restricted access to schools, youth clubs and community centres, candidates have had to rely on their own ingenuity, creativity and sheer dogged persistence to get their message, and their vote, out.
“The determination that these young people have demonstrated in standing up for what they believe in by putting themselves forward for election and to be accountable to their electorate, especially during such a challenging period for young people, is nothing short of inspirational.
“I know they all have a lot to offer their communities and the causes they care about most, and I can’t wait to see what they do next and look forward to working with Edinburgh’s newest group of elected representatives to place young people at the heart of policy and decision making.”
For more information about the election and the successful candidates, please see @edinburghMSYPs
Muirhouse Millennium Centre is among twenty-seven community groupsacross Edinburgh are sharing in a £717,108 cash boost from The National Lottery Community Fund today.
The Millennium Centre receives £97,000 to ‘provide a range of community activities within Muirhouse Millennium Centre engaging approximately 150 local community members and four volunteers.’
Muirhouse Millennium Centre is also the base of LIFT (Low Income Families Together), who run a range of services from the Millennium Centre.
Thanks to an award of £53,463, Leith-based Fast Forward (Positive Lifestyles) Ltd will be able to continue their ‘Ask Dad’ project – a health education and training programme for dads and male carers across Edinburgh and the Lothians -for another three years.
Mark Hunter, Project Officer, Ask Dad, said: “Thanks to this support from The National Lottery Community Fund our ‘Ask Dad’ programme will be able to continue to support dads whose families are going through a period of difficulty.
“We’re looking forward to developing our work to date, including our Good Conversations programme, supporting parents to have what they perceive as awkward, difficult, or embarrassing conversations with their children.
“We are looking forward to working on our new programme, ‘Dad: The Invisible Parent’ which will support better awareness and understanding by practitioners of the challenges faced by dads, to improve their engagement and communication with dads, towards better outcomes for their children.
“In addition, by working with parents who feel ignored or unwelcome by service providers, we aim to improve their ability to communicate with services and to understand a service provider’s role and their limitations.”
Better informed, more confident dads improve the wellbeing of the whole family. They also improve their children’s educational attainment. These impacts are even more profound in the communities affected by poverty and inequality.
An award of £114,344 means that Craigmillar Literacy Trust will continue to provide their support to local families with babies and children up to nine years of age for the next three years.
They will also be able to run their new ‘Express Yourself’ programme for older children and young people aged up to the age of sixteen using digital media and performance to support them to connect with literacy in a way that is more relevant to them.
Kara Whelan, Project Manager, Craigmillar Literacy Trust, said: “This grant will support our work with babies, children, young people, and families in Craigmillar though our early literacy, family literacy and young people’s projects.
“Our work is relationship based and embedded in our community. We are looking forward to building on the strengths we have and to developing new and innovating approaches to supporting literacy in our community.”
Edinburgh Tool Library receives £9,500 to help with the costs of a Volunteer Co-ordinator who will deliver a bespoke training programme for volunteers as well as making links with other third sector organisations in Edinburgh and will help the group engage with new communities and neighbourhoods across the city.
Chris Hellawell, Founder and Director, Edinburgh Tool Library, said: “This support will allow us to reach communities that we haven’t yet spoken to before, help us enhance the support we give to our community and to produce materials to share with other organisations like ours across Scotland so we can amplify the impart of all the hard work or our volunteers in Edinburgh. Thank you so much.”
More Edinburgh projects celebrating today include Ama-zing Harmonies, Big Hearts Community Trust, Leith Community Centre, LifeCare and St Columba’s Hospice.
Across Scotland 179 projects are sharing in£5,752,948today.Announcing the funding, The National Lottery Community Fund’s Scotland Chair, Kate Still, said: “Local community groups bring people together to support one another through difficult times.
“Sometimes this is as simple as providing a listening ear and other times it can be a real lifeline connecting people who might otherwise be lonely and isolated. Each of the projects receiving funding today in Edinburgh remind us of the power of social connections and the difference that community projects can make to people’s lives.
“National Lottery players can be proud to know that the money they raise is helping to support this vital work.”
The National Lottery Community Fund distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and more than £30 million a week is raised for good causes across the UK.
Thanks to National Lottery players, last year we awarded over half a billion pounds (£588.2 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK. Over eight in ten (83%) of our grants are for under £10,000 – going to grassroots groups and charities across the UK that are bringing to life amazing ideas that matter to their communities.
This year two Dispersal Zones are being set up in North West Edinburgh to combat antisocial behaviour and disorder over the bonfire period. The zones will be in operation between 2pm and midnight from Thursday 4th to Saturday 6th November.
Under the Antisocial Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004, police have a Power of Dispersal within the designated zones authorised by Superintendent David Robertson.
This means that Police can instruct any people in groups of two or more who are congregating and behaving in an antisocial manner to disperse, and if they do not live there to leave the zones, and then not to return for up to 24 hours.
If they do return, they can be arrested.
Nine dispersal zones will be set up across the city in known ‘hot spots’. As well as West Pilton and Muirhouse, zones will be established in Portobello, Loganlea, Gilmerton, Moredun, Southhouse, Gorgie and Saughton.
News of the establishment of Dispersal Zones will come as no surprise to local residents – the real surprise is that these dispersal zones will be in place over one weekend only.
Create Community Wealth is looking for two (2) Lead Creative people to join the project!
Create Community Wealth is an exciting long-term collaborative project that aims to develop micro-enterprises across the communities in Wester Hailes and Muirhouse.
Inspired by the grassroots movement of the Granby Four Streets in Liverpool and other Community Wealth Building initiatives around the world, this project aims to tackle social exclusion and improve wellbeing and local economic prospects through creativity.
An exhibition of contemporary art responding to the themes evoked by Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters 20/21
Travelling Gallery has announced the relaunch of its Spring 2020 exhibition, Shapes of Water, which was paused due to the pandemic. The new autumn tour will take place from 2 September to November across Scotland.
The Travelling Gallery will be stopping off at North Edinburgh Arts in Muirhouse on 15th September.
Travelling Gallery, an exciting event supported by EventScotland through Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters 20/21 and Scotland’s Events Recovery Fund, has invited three thought-provoking and exciting young artists to produce new work reflecting their individual perspectives on our relationship with coasts and waters.
The mobile art gallery – which drives contemporary art to all corners of the country – will feature an exhibition of drawings, riso prints, audio and film work from the three artists when it takes to the road later this week.
Its Autumn tour will begins outside Edinburgh’s City Art Centre today (Thursday 2 September) before visiting venues across the country.
The three exhibiting artists are:
Suzie Eggins works across drawing, printmaking and sculpture and uses her imagination as a microscope to examine the cells and structures of our natural environment to create beautiful geometric drawings and installations. For Shapes of Water, Eggins turns her attention to Scotland’s water and explores the idea that our thoughts and emotions can affect our environment.
Amy Gear is a mixed media artist based in Shetland and characteristically uses her Shetland dialect to outline her artistic practice, using local words to describe the coast and landscape.
Her drawings and paintings go beyond the traditional ideals of a beautiful landscape and instead explore the connections between body and land. For Shapes of Water, Amy departs from a piece of writing inspired by her Shetland Grandparents describing the comfort in witnessing steely storms and angry waves; knowing that the unrest will benefit the buoyant sea life. The resulting artwork is a playful and cherished tribute to family and the sea.
Rhona Mühlebach is a Swiss filmmaker based in Glasgow and her films capture the atmospheric Scottish landscape placing intriguing narratives into the natural environment. For Shapes of Water, Mühlebach is making a stylish crime thriller set in Galloway Forest Park and investigating Sudden Oak Death which can be transmitted by rainwater and carried via rivers and streams.
Speaking of the exhibition, David Patterson, Curatorial and Conservation Manager, said: “We’re thrilled to be back on tour again, and to be able to showcase new work by three exciting young artists, all based in Scotland.
“We greatly appreciate the ongoing support of EventScotland through the Year of Coasts and Waters 20/21 and Scotland’s Event Recovery Fund.”
Convener of Culture and Communities at the City of Edinburgh Council, Councillor Donald Wilson, said: I’m delighted that the Travelling Gallery will be hitting the road, picking up where it left off last year and taking this fantastic exhibition to audiences around Scotland.
“Once again, the Travelling Gallery has devised a fascinating and varied exhibition which I’m sure will appeal to visitors across the country.”
Vice Convener of Culture and Communities at the City of Edinburgh Council, Councillor Amy McNeese-Mechan, added: “As a Council we are committed to making art and culture as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.
“This is the ethos of the gallery itself and through supporting this mobile gallery, art is brought straight into the hearts of town centres. I hope everyone takes the opportunity to pay the exhibition a visit.
Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events at VisitScotland, said: “We are pleased to be supporting Travelling Gallery’s Shapes of Water exhibition as part of Year of Coasts and Waters 20/21.
“Scotland offers the perfect stage to celebrate our coasts and waterways and this unique exhibition will give audiences an opportunity to experience these inspirational artworks as the mobile art gallery tours Scotland.”
The current Scottish Government Covid 19 guidance will be adhered to throughout the tour. In order to keep staff and visitors safe currently 2 visitors or 1 household can visit the gallery at a time, and all visitors will need to leave contact details.
The gallery door will be open and the fan running to increase ventilation, and staff will clean touchpoints regularly between visitors.
Tour dates Exhibition Launch – Thursday 2 September – City Art Centre Edinburgh Saturday 4 September – Portobello High Street ( Porty Art Walk) Monday 6 September – The Ripple Project, Restalrig Road South, Edinburgh Saturday 11 September – Portobello High Street ( Porty Art Walk) Tuesday 15 September – North Edinburgh Arts Friday 17 September – WHALE, Wester Hailes, Edinburgh Thursday 14 – Mon 18 October – Summerlee Museum, Coatbridge Friday 22nd October – Queen Margaret University, Musselburgh Monday 1/2 November – East Renfrewshire
