Royston Wardieburn Community Centre’s annual general meeting is taking place tomorrow evening (Wednesday 26 June) from 6.30 – 8.30pm.
Why not go along and find out about the exciting activities on offer for all the family at Royston Wardieburn? Support your local community centre!
The June NEN has been printed and is now dropping through letterboxes all across North Edinburgh.
For those of you who just can’t wait to see the paper (!), click on the link below:
Happy reading!
Edinburgh College Health and Social Care students will soon be guaranteed employment on successful completion of their course, thanks to a new partnership with NHS Lothian.
The NHS NC in Health and Social Care will be delivered at Edinburgh College, where students will learn a high standard of care to be job-ready for employment in the NHS and social care sectors.
The ground-breaking course is the first of its kind at the College to offer a guaranteed position for graduates who successfully complete the course, giving them a head start in the Health and Social Care industry. Course topics will include psychology and sociology as well as mental health, health promotion and understanding older people.
Mandy Exley, Edinburgh College Principal, says: “This course is yet another example of Edinburgh College’s commitment to producing students who, on completion of their studies, are well trained and highly employable. We are pleased to be working in partnership with NHS Lothian in training the healthcare professionals of the future.”
Melanie Hornett, Nurse Director, NHS Lothian, said: “We are committed to working with communities to support local people into employment. This innovative partnership provides individuals with the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills needed to compassionately care for the people of Lothian in our hospitals and communities.”
To apply for the course, applicants must have a minimum of four passes at SCQF Level 5 (SVQ2, Intermediate 2 or Credit Standard grade) including English. Adults without formal qualifications will also be considered however they will need to demonstrate their ability to work at Higher Level.
Students who complete the course successfully and have a satisfactory college reference are guaranteed entry level employment within NHS Lothian, as long as they meet the essential criteria of the post.
For further course information, please visit www.edinburghcollege.ac.uk.
19/06/2013
Pilton Community Health Project’s Anita Aggarwal gives an update on a key local initiative:
Since the closure of Community Organisation for Racial Equality (CORE), PCHP, Community Learning and Development (CLD) and Edinburgh Lothian Regional Equalities Council (ELREC) have been working together to try to minimise the impact of the loss of this important organisation.
The City of Edinburgh Council commissioned a report which examined the ongoing needs of BME communities in the area. This highlighted the difficulties people have integrating with the local population, as well as a host of other issues.
You’ll find that report here: Living in harmony 13
At this point it was felt important to involve other agencies and more local people in this process, and so we pulled together an action planning session on 31 May.
Over 30 people attended this event, representing a wide range of local people and organisations. At this event we identified actions to be taken and many committed to take these forward.
These actions are recorded in this document: action plan 31.5.13 final
If you weren’t able to be at the event and have ideas about how you or your organisations can contribute please add them in to the plan. This document is an aid to action, not a fixed strategy document to sit on a shelf and get dusty!
We agreed to come back to discuss next steps at another meeting, when we will look at what progress is being made and how we resource some of the ideas on the action plan.
The next meeting will take place at the
Spartans Community Football Academy on Friday 19 July from 10 – 12.
This meeting is open to anyone – please contact me on 0131 551 1671 if you need crèche.
Anita Aggarwal
Two free fun events are taking place in North Edinburgh today.
First up, Royston Wardieburn Community Centre in Pilton Drive North is holding a Fun Day from 11 – 2pm with lots of fun activities for all the family and an opportunity to see the fantastic facilities in the area’s newest community centre.
Then from 1 – 4pm MYadventure will launch Cyclone, Edinburgh’s newest mountain bike trail, at Gypsy Brae. Be among the first to come and try it out – there are prizes for age-specific races and lots of free fun side shows – a must attend event for mountain bikers and families alike!
So much fun, so little time … !
Spartans volunteers head out to Tanzania
A team of Spartans Community Football Academy volunteers head out to Africa on the journey of a lifetime next week. Three staff and a senior volunteer will join nine young people to spend two weeks working with a support project in Tanzania.
“Our patron Gordon Strachan hosted a very successful charity dinner last year (pictured above), which raised an incredible amount of money. That has enabled us to do a lot of things here at the Academy, including our extension, but it has also given us the opportunity to send a small group from Spartans to help in a project in Tanzania”, explained Kenny Cameron, who is Community Programme Manager at Spartans Community Football Academy.
“We have links with a very successful Edinburgh-based charity called YES (Youth Empowerment through Sport) Tanzania. Their aims and objectives are very similar to our own, and in the past we have sent footballs, strips and boots over there. But now, thanks to the support of some very generous supporters – and the brilliant fundraising efforts of the Spartan Army volunteers themselves – we can take a small group over there to help out.
“The guys will have a very full programme over the two weeks – delivering Young Leader training and a coaching education programme, visiting schools and an orphanage. They will also spend some time in a shanty town and will see first hand the grinding poverty of daily life in what is one of the poorest nations on earth. As you can imagine the facilities are not great in Arusha, where the pilot project is based, so in time we also hope to build a football pitch and fund their development worker post for a year – we can make a real difference.”
Although the Spartans team have a very busy schedule they won’t be working non-stop and they have a real treat to look forward to.
“We have built in an overnight safari as part of the trip. It’s our way of saying thanks to these young people – who all live locally – who have given up a lot of hours of their own time over two and three years to volunteer here with us. It will be an amazing experience, the adventure of a lifetime”, Kenny went on.
“Our motto this year is ‘Dream Big, Dream Fierce’ and the Tanzanian experience kind of sums that up – who would have thought that a wee group of young folk from North Edinburgh could travel halfway across the world and make a difference to peoples’ lives there? The message we are trying to convey to everyone who comes into contact with the Community Football Academy is: Believe – anything can be achieved.
“Tanzania will be an experience our volunteers will never forget, and the hope is that they will pass on what they learned there and share their experiences when they get back to North Edinburgh, inspiring the next generation of Spartan Army volunteers”.
If you’d like to support the Spartans Tanzania initiative visit
https://www.justgiving.com/SpartansTanzania-Appeal
Police Scotland Edinburgh Division is appealing for information in tracing a Russian student who has been missing from her address in the capital for over a week.
Yulia Solodyankina, (22), who has been studying Physics at Edinburgh University, was last seen at the Wee Red Bar in Lady Lawson Street on June 7 and was first reported missing last Wednesday (12 June).
Since her disappearance police have been carrying out extensive enquiries in order to trace her whereabouts, and continue to urge anyone with information to contact them. Her friends have also organised a social media campaign to track her down.
Yulia speaks fluent English with a strong Russian accent, and is described as being of medium build, with long dark brown hair. She is about 5ft 6ins tall, and has a small mole on her left cheek. Her ears are pierced and she wears a number of rings on her fingers, in particular a distinctive thumb ring, which is shaped like a small spoon.
When last seen Yulia was wearing a dark jacket, dark trousers, white trainers and carrying a large dark coloured rucksack which appeared to be full.
Chief Inspector Mark Patterson, of Police Scotland Edinburgh Division, said: “It has been a week since Yulia was first reported missing, and despite our enquiries and appeals for information from the public, we still have no information as to her current whereabouts.
“Yulia’s father had travelled to Edinburgh to visit his daughter and help plan her graduation celebrations, but instead he is distraught by her disappearance, and has left the Capital without ever making contact with her.
“We have been heartened by the level of interest in her disappearance, helped by her friends organising their own appeals through social media, and we remain keen for any information that can help us trace her whereabouts.
“I would urge anyone who has seen or heard from Yulia since she went missing, or who has any other information that can help us, to contact Police Scotland on 101, or the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
First books, now bin bags! Compostable food waste bin liners are now on sale at libraries across Edinburgh at a bargain price in a bid to boost recycling figures.
Rolls of the liners can be bought over the library counter for £1 in response to public feedback suggesting that they can be costly to buy in shops.
The majority of households in the Capital will have access to food waste recycling when the latest stage is rolled out by the end of this summer, which will help to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill.
Councillor Jim Orr, Transport and Environment Vice Convener, said: “Food waste recycling has been supported really well by residents, and if we want to encourage more to take it up, then it should be made as easy as possible to do. An average household bin contains around one third of food waste, which releases harmful greenhouse gases when it ends up on landfill sites. Recycling it, however, can generate electricity to power homes and businesses.
“Feedback from the public has suggested that some find the price of food bin liners prohibitive. Hopefully, by selling them in accessible libraries at a bargain price, I hope that this will be one less barrier to people who want to help the environment.”
The wealthiest households in Scotland are 273 times richer than the poorest – Oxfam
A new report by Oxfam Scotland says that instead of tackling inequality and poverty in Scotland, the existing economic model is making them worse and needs to change. Our Economy: Towards a New Prosperity says too much power and wealth is held by too few people.
The report challenges politicians, policymakers and businesses to focus on what is really good for the country rather increasing economic measures like Gross Domestic Product , and argues that for too many Scots work is no longer a route to a better life. Some 40% of those living in poverty in Scotland are in work – a figure that has risen substantially in recent years.
It also highlights the growing inequality at the heart of our economy, with the wealthiest households in Scotland 273 times richer than the poorest households.
Judith Robertson, Head of Oxfam Scotland, said: “The existing economic model is not working. Despite decades of economic growth, and a myriad of anti-poverty policies, the reality for too many Scots is a cocktail of high mortality, economic inactivity, mental and physical ill-health, poor educational attainment, and exclusion from the decisions that affect them.
“This is a structural problem caused by our economy. If we are serious about tackling these issues, then our politicians and policymakers need to make a fundamental change. Without that change, poverty and inequality will continue to shame us and drag all of us down for generations to come.”
paper outlines a series of policies which together challenge economic behaviours which damage Scotland’s collective prosperity, whilst promoting positive interventions.
The report is based on Oxfam’s work with local partners in Scotland. It shows that people in local communities have the appetite and ability to start building local economies that meet their needs, but need more help from government and greater recognition that their contribution goes beyond profit.
The proposals contained in Our Economy include:
Judith Robertson added: “We need to create a new prosperity that will benefit everyone in society.
“At the heart of this new prosperity would be community-led economies which focus on the quality and distribution of growth – creating livelihoods for the many, not profits for the few. Our Economy shows this is practical and achievable. We just need the will to work together to make it happen.”
Our Economy is being launched today at Oxfam partner The GalGael Trust, which provides training in traditional woodworking skills for people left without work for long periods of time.
Gehan Macleod of GalGael said: “The current economic structure simply doesn’t provide enough good jobs. Our experience shows it isn’t people from under-resourced communities that are deficient, it is the economy which is deficient in providing opportunities for all – opportunities that recognise people’s inner need to contribute to their communities as well as their outer need for a living wage.
“We’ve seen time and again how those who’ve been labelled work-shy or unemployable love to graft if there is respect and dignity in the work. That is what the work in Our Economy looks like.”
The report has won support from across Scottish civil society.
Grahame Smith, STUC General Secretary, said: “If Scotland is to rebuild a fairer, more equal and sustainable economic and social model it is essential that strong civic voices contribute to the debate. This report, covering key areas such as employment and tax, forms one such contribution. Policymakers at all levels should take note and act”.
Martin Stepek, Chief Executive of the Scottish Family Business Association, said: “I applaud Oxfam Scotland for producing the challenging and radical Our Economy report. The current situation is morally and socially unacceptable. We have to change some fundamentals to create a fairer, happier society for all.”
James Proctor, Strategic Relations Officer at Co-operatives UK, said: “Scotland was the birthplace of early co-operative enterprise and the principle of working together for shared benefit is a fresh and vital one for our times. We warmly welcome this call for a new model of wealth creation, based on co-operative values of openness and equality.”
Drylaw’s lonesome stone bench is moo-ving on to pastures new. The striking stone bench – which features the heads of a sheep and a bull (or maybe a ram and a cow!) to signify the area’s past use as farmland – will make the short journey east from Drylaw Field to a new home at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre after repeated attacks by vandals.
The stone bench was the centrepiece of an upgrade to Drylaw Field six years ago – the bench was unveiled by then Lord Provost George Grubb in September 2007 (pictured below).
Almost since it’s introduction, however, the sculpture has been the targeted by vandals. It’s been spray-painted, graffiti has been scrawled on it, attempts have been made to set it on fire and it’s been physically attacked with rocks and boulders – it now looks like it has gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson and it’s a sorry sight (below).
Given the punishment the animal seat has taken over the years, Drylaw Telford Community Council has reluctantly decided to find a safer new home for the beast.
“It’s sad that we’re having to do this, but the bench was being slowly but surely destroyed and the community council agreed that this was the only course of action we could take”, said Alex Dale, chair of Drylaw Telford Community Council. “I spoke to Roy Douglas, manager at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre and they are happy to take the bench there. The bench won’t be as visible as it was in Drylaw Park, but local residents will still be able to see it when they visit the Centre and at least it will be safer there – the Neighbourhood Centre has CCTV and other security measures so we hope there may be a good few years left yet in the Drylaw bench.”
Staff at the city council’s North Local Office will supervise the move later this month. It’s not known at this stage whether officers from the Scottish SPCA will also be in attendance.
