Tag: LIFT

Tomorrow: Winter Warmer at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre

COMMUNITY EVENT – WEDNESDAY 29 NOVEMBER from 9.30am

Local charities shortlisted to receive share of £25,000 Scotmid funding

LIFT @ Millenium Centre and the Living Memory Association are two of three good causes across the East of Scotland to have been shortlisted to receive a share of a £25,000 funding pot, thanks to Scotmid’s Community Connect initiative.

The funding will be announced next April, following a vote by Scotmid members.

LIFT @ Millenium Centre offers support to families living in the most deprived areas of Edinburgh or those that are socially or financially vulnerable. The funding from Scotmid will be used to deliver ‘Family Teatime’ sessions, which will provide families an opportunity to eat, play and learn together in a safe and welcoming environment.

The Living Memory Association brings together people that are socially isolated or living with dementia. From their base in Ocean Terminal, the charity offers exhibitions, including The Wee Museum of Memory, as well as recording podcasts and videos. The funding from Scotmid will be used to employ a part-time sessional worker and cover materials needed for their workshops.

Pauline Nicol-Bowie, CEO/Founder of LIFT, said: “We are incredibly thankful to be part of Scotmid’s Community Connect initiative, which will help us expand our ‘Family Teatime’ programme.

“This is a vital part of local communities in North Edinburgh and we look forward to being able to expand our services to support more people.”

Heather Robertson, Service Co-ordinator at Living Memory Association, said: “The Living Memory Association is delighted to be shortlisted for Scotmid’s Community Connect initiative.

“The funding will allow us to develop new projects for older people to celebrate lived experience and combat the loneliness and isolation the community can often face.”

The other charity shortlisted in the East of Scotland is Children’s Clothing Bank Dunfermline, which provides pre-loved good quality and new clothes in a dignified manner for children aged 0-18 years in the local community.

Keen to support local good causes? Pop into your local Scotmid and pay £1 to become a member.

LIFT Open Day

SASSY SAVINGS at MUIRHOUSE MILLENNIUM CENTRE

LIFT are having our opening day on Wednesday 23rd August

Come along for a cuppa and roll in the base

We will have the Bag sale, home baking, a car boot sale without the cars lol

And our official opening of “Sassy Savings” which is a community initiative supported by the parents who attend SASS. It was suggested, we listened and acted.

Keep your eyes peeled or come along for the official opening on Wednesday.

For every £50 made we will purchase shopping vouchers for the Xmas jammie appeal

This is the start of fundraising for Xmas Hampers.

LIFT’s Haunted House

This year we are doing something a little different, we are hosting our own Haunted House!

This even will run over the course of two nights, Thursday 27th and Friday 28th October! The event will start at 5pm but spaces will be limited!

If you would like to come along it is £2 per family, all kids must be accompanied by an adult! Feel free to get the kids all dressed up

£97,000 Lottery LIFT for Muirhouse Millennium Centre

Muirhouse Millennium Centre is among twenty-seven community groups across 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 £5,752,948 today. 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. 

Get Active! NEAT community events to enjoy this weekend

North Edinburgh Active Travel Network are hosting a number of events this weekend to promote active travel.

See poster for more information – we hope you find an activity to take part in.

North Edinburgh Arts are hosting a Dr Bike Session on Saturday either in MacMillan Square or in the Shed if the weather is poor.

We hope to see you at one of these events!

Urban Union and Muirhouse Housing Association support Millennium Centre with £15,000 donation

Urban Union, as part of their community benefit programmes for the City of Edinburgh Council, and Muirhouse Housing Association (MHA) have together provided over £15,000 in ongoing support to the Muirhouse Millennium Centre in the north of Edinburgh since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.

Muirhouse Millennium Centre, run in partnership with Low Income Families Together (LIFT), aims to relieve poverty among the residents of the surrounding areas, provide recreational and leisure facilities, and promote education and training in skills of all kinds.

During the first wave of the pandemic, from March to October, the cash boosts from MHA and the developer behind Pennywell Living helped the Millennium Centre become a major player in food distribution in the north of Edinburgh.

Since then and throughout the two lockdowns, the money has helped fund over 5,000 food parcels, 22,000 packed lunches, 6,000 ready meals, as well as baby formula and nappies for local families and homeless accommodation.

Adapting their recreational support service, the Millennium Centre also delivered over 500 play packs and activity resources, allowing children to continue taking part in the Centre’s homework and youth clubs through Zoom.  In October, once children were allowed to be welcomed back, the Centre used the funding to deliver five sessions a week to reduce isolation and strengthen social skills after being at home for the duration of the first lockdown.

As part of their community benefits mission, Urban Union has previously also supported Muirhouse Library’s Breakfast Club to ensure local children had a nutritious start to their day as well as helping Pennywell School build their STEM curriculum, recently launching a STEM-based learning project.

Neil McKay, Managing Director of Urban Union, said: “Our focus at Urban Union is to not only regenerate a physical landscape, but to create strong relationships and support the communities in which our developments are based. We are ecstatic to have been able to support the Millennium Centre and LIFT throughout a very challenging period for many families.

“We are always happy to give something back to the Muirhouse community and we will continue to offer opportunities for local people and support for the most vulnerable in the area.”

Iain Strachan, Chair of the Muirhouse Housing Association added: “Muirhouse Housing Association is dedicated to supporting our tenants and local community.

“This last year has been one of the most challenging in our near 30 years of being part of the Muirhouse community. We are glad that we can work with Muirhouse Millennium Centre and LIFT in supporting local people and families during a very difficult time and will continue to do so in the future.”

Pauline Bowie, Managing Director of Low Income Families Together said: “We are very grateful for this generous donation from Urban Union and MHA which has made a real tangible difference to children and families alike across Edinburgh during an extremely difficult time.

“The Centre relies on funding to deliver our programmes and reach those who need it the most. Everyone deserves a chance in life, and donations like this allow for local people in challenging situations to access different forms of support.”

City of Edinburgh Council’s Convener of Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work, Councillor Kate Campbell said: “During this crisis, we’ve worked together to put our most vulnerable residents first and making sure people can access the right support when and where they need it has been an absolute priority.

“It’s great to see our development partner Urban Union and Muirhouse Housing Association providing this much needed funding for Muirhouse Millennium Centre’s invaluable work, and the positive impact it’s had on the community’s families and children since the beginning of the pandemic.”

Pennywell Living is the centre of an exciting 8-year regeneration project as part of the City of Edinburgh Council’s house-building programme.

Now in phase three, the development offers an exceptional range of 315 one to four bedroom flats and houses designed for modern living. Over half of these will be for affordable rent.

Urban Union regenerates areas across Scotland to create revitalised communities through building new, high quality, affordable homes.

Across each of its developments, Urban Union aims to deliver sustainable long-term benefits to the new and surrounding neighbourhoods, with job and training opportunities, ensuring the community will benefit from the projects for years to come.

To find out more about Urban Union, visit: https://www.urbanunionltd.co.uk/

To find out more about the Millennium Centre, visit: https://www.lift-edinburgh.com/muirhouse-millennium