Day: June 17, 2013

We’re really pleased to report the success of two local groups during adult learners’ week, an international event celebrating and promoting the benefits of adult learning (write CLD workers Sarah Low and Lynn McCabe).

The highlight of the week is the Adult Education Awards ceremony. Over thirty groups across the city were nominated in eight award categories. Forth councillors Vicki Redpath and Cammy Day were at the City Chambers last month to help present the awards. Of the eight successful groups, two were from North Edinburgh: the ‘Use Your Loaf’ (pictured above) bread making group and the North Edinburgh Social History Project.

The selection panel were ‘inspired’ by the bread making group, who won the ‘Health and Well Being’ award.  The ‘Use Your Loaf’ group is a Pilton Community Health Project (PCHP) supported group, in partnership with CLD and North Edinburgh Arts.

Every week, the group (and their children!) meet in the Arts Centre with Lisa Arnott from PCHP and Sarah Low from the local CLD team to make loaves of bread (or rolls, naans, pitas, pizzas and deli breads).  Whilst the dough was proving and baking, the group planned their own healthy community event: The Yummy Food Festival. The Festival took place in North Edinburgh Arts Centre in March this year and attracted 500 local people who enjoyed amongst many things, cooking demonstrations, workshops and a community ‘bake off’.

Learners from the group are being supported to develop a second bread making course which will run in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre in October, so watch out for more details!  Two members of the original group have gone on to volunteer in North Edinburgh Arts Centre café and others have taught bread making in the local nursery. The learners will also be sharing their skills with others during the PCHP supported Food for Thought Forum’s Summer Programme at Forthview’s summer gala and with PCHP’s Women Supporting Women project.

Like to get involved?  Call Lisa Arnott at PCHP on 551 1671 for details.

The North Edinburgh Social History Group began two years ago and was set up by community activists who wished to re-engage with the community and re-establish community participation and activism.  They meticulously researched the history of the North Edinburgh community, producing a brilliant booklet and exhibition called “Never Give Up”, a record of the community’s fight for social justice.

The social history group won the ‘Political and Social Education’ award.  Accepting the award, members of the group were keen to mention the longstanding history of protest in north Edinburgh, and dedicated their award to their friend and fellow activist Brian Robertson, a member of the group and committed community activist who sadly died just a few days before the Awards Ceremony.

Some members of the group are now part of a course called ‘Power to the People’, which meets in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre on Tuesday mornings. This ambitious course aims to cover the history of protest in Scotland over the past 300 years! In doing so, the group have been out and about on study visits to the National Gallery, the People’s Palace in Glasgow and the NationalMiningMuseum. If you’d like more information, please call local CLD worker Lynn McCabe, who runs the course, on 552 5700 (see Lynn’s piece on the group below).

The Outstanding Achievement Award went to the Bumpstart Pregnancy Café in Leith (pictured above). The Pregnancy Cafe is a relaxed group in which pregnant women and their partners meet other parents to be to talk about pregnancy and parenting. One learner described the tutors as always being there for her, and the other group members ‘like second mums’.  Pregnant women in north Edinburgh are welcome to come along to their very own Pregnancy Café, on Tuesdays from 11 till 12.30 at the Haven (in CraigroystonPrimary School, Muirhouse Place West). Just turn up, or call Jo Aitkenhead on 537 4230 for more details.

Congratulations to all the learners involved on their achievements!

Sarah Low

Award for Power to the People

Having completed their successful project called ‘Never Give Up’,  which documented the history of activism in North Edinburgh over the last 70 years, members of North Edinburgh Social History Group  came up with a proposal for a new project called   ‘Power to the People’.  The group were keen to continue their research into activism but this time widened the scope of their research to cover the history of protest in Scotland during the last 300 years!  To add to the challenge, the group decided that they wanted to use the arts to explore this hidden history.

The course began on 28 August last year and has proved very successful with fifteen people regularly attending each session in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre.  Some of the topics the group have studied so far include: the Jacobite Rebellion, The Scottish Enlightenment, the Friends of the People, the Radical War, Chartism, The Campaign for the Abolition of Slavery, the Campaign for Land Reform, the Suffragette Movement, the Scottish Hunger Marches and Red Clydeside.

The group’s learning has not been confined to the classroom.  They have been out and about and have been on study visits to the National Gallery of Scotland, the NationalMuseum in Chamber Street, the Portrait Gallery,  the People’s Palace in Glasgow and the NationalMiningMuseum.  During their studies, they also managed to fit in making a short film for the BBC’s learning site called ‘Paintings and Protest’ which is worth a wee look.  The course is due to finish at the end of  June but there are already plans underway for a new course on issues for the Referendum  in the  Autumn, a publication on the History of Protest similar to Never Give Up and a community event celebrating the group’s achievements in North Edinburgh Arts Centre.  Watch this space!

In recognition of their role in developing this very important course, the organisers of the event gave the award for Social and Political Education to North Edinburgh Social History Group.

Members of the group and participants involved in the Power to the People course have dedicated the award to their friend and fellow activist, Brian (Elvis) Robertson who died a few days before the award ceremony.

Lynn McCabe