Lovely skies this evening …
Day: November 6, 2012
Thinking caps on for Blackhall gardeners’ quiz
Blackhall Horticultural Society, which meets at Blackhall St Columba’s Parish Church on Hillhouse Road, is West Edinburgh’s foremost gardening association – the evergreen organisation celebrate their Diamond Jubilee this session!
Blackhall Horticultural Society hold monthly meetings from October to May on the second Monday of the month in the Small Hall at 7:45pm, with a programme that caters for all tastes in gardening and suggestions always welcome.
BHS’ November 12 meeting is Gardening Quiz Night – so thinking caps on!
For further information about Blackhall Horticultural Society contact John MacLennan on 539 6543 or e-mail johnthegardener@aol.com.
SAHELIYA – a friend indeed
BME womens group Saheliya celebrate their twentieth birthday later this month. Saheliya is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘women friends’, and the project has been a true friend to many hundreds of women since it was established in July 1992.
Manager Alison Davis explains that, although some issues being encountered are changing, the need for the support service remains as great as it ever did:
“Since 1992 Saheliya has been providing support to BME women in Edinburgh who have mental well-being issues – mainly women who are not accessing mainstream services. During these twenty years the profile of our service users has changed: now our average service user has moderate to severe rather than mild to moderate mental well-being problems. Their problems relate mainly to experiences such as racism, Islamaphobia, honour violence, in-law abuse, forced marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), trafficking, torture and other organised violence. Compared to only 1% five years ago, presently 38% of our service users are from refugee communities. For eighteen years, we had only one case of FGM; we now have FGM survivors on waiting lists for our services.
“We provide a wide range of learning activities to sustain recovery and to maximize social and economic integration; this includes accredited childcare training with the potential of work experience placements in our childcare service.
“Through our therapeutic and case work support and because of our organisational focus, we are able to identify changes in the local demographic profile and in needs for specialist services that are not easily identified by mainstream agencies or generally acknowledged by BME community organisations. Our organisational statistics and our specially devised database and monitoring and evaluation systems enable us to map mental health support needs, prevalence of harmful cultural practices, and effective support packages. Saheliya is an important resource for mainstream policy makers and service providers in planning responses to population changes and for service delivery.
“We believe that our wrap-around services, move-on opportunities, and collection of statistics makes us an important organisation for Edinburgh and for Scotland as a whole if we are to ensure inclusive services and achieve integration.”
The organisation is holding a
20th Anniversary Celebration Stakeholders Event
on Thursday 15 November from 9.30am to 1.30pm
an opportunity to meet staff, learn about Saheliya’s work and participate in workshops.
For further information about the anniversary event, or about Saheliya’s range of services, telephone 556 9302 or email info@saheliya.co.uk
Working it Out with Tomorrow’s People
A free training programme in Muirhouse is looking for new participants.
If you are aged 16 – 24, unemployed, not in education or training and keen to learn new skills, meet new people and gain new experiences then please get in touch.
The Working It Out programme runs for 16 weeks and offers a range of activities and challenges that allow you to develop personal skills, volunteer in your own community, improve your job prospects and offer information and access to further education and training. Participants are supported throughout the programme and for up to 12 months after and all expenses are paid for the duration of the 16 week course.
Working it Out is run by Tomorrow’s People, based in North Edinburgh Arts Centre. If you are interested in making a positive change in your life, increasing your skills to help you get a job, or interested in getting back into education, then please contact Andrew or Heather on 07989669019 or e-mail aaldous@tomorrows-people.co.uk
Fireworks night passes off peacefully
It’s the busiest time of year for the emergency services, but last night’s 5 November celebrations passed off relatively peacefully in Edinburgh and the Lothians.
Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service received around 400 calls over 24 hours, a figure slightly down on previous years. Crews attended 140 bonfires across the force area and extinguished 78 of these.
Sadly, police had to come to the rescue of firefighters who came under attack while carrying out their duties at two separate incidents.
