Cyrenians achieves living wage status

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Cyrenians, the charity committed to supporting those excluded from family, home, work or community, has been awarded living wage status.

The charity has 110 staff who deliver services in seven local authority areas as well as providing training across the country through their Scottish Centre for Conflict Resolution. Cyrenians were able to finally achieve Living Wage status by moving a Community Job Scotland trainee and a Youth Employment Scotland trainee into employment directly with Cyrenians.

CEO Ewan Aitken said: “We are delighted to have achieved Living Wage accreditation and to put our shoulder to this vital anti-poverty campaign. As part of our employability work, we have helped over 500 people into jobs this year so we know the difficulties that low wage economy causes. This achievement is a sign of our commitment to live out what we want our many partner employers to do also.”

He went on: “We know that austerity politics is going to bite even harder and those in poverty will continue to get the blame. The Living Wage is one way of helping people out of poverty whilst challenging the many myths perpetrated by those who want to deny the reality that poverty is a symptom of a broken system and not a lifestyle choice as some would have us believe.”

The Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually, currently set at £7.85 per hour. It is calculated according to the basic cost of living in the UK. Living Wage accreditation enables employers to be recognised for paying their staff a fair, decent wage.

Peter Hunter, Director of the Poverty Alliance, congratulated Cyrenians on becoming an accredited Living Wage Employer. “Cyrenians have shown fantastic leadership in becoming a Living Wage Employer,” he said. “The continual rise of in-work poverty in Scotland is an issue that needs to be addressed as a priority. The response requires cooperation from private, public and third sector employers. The fastest way to tackle in-work poverty is to curtail the acceptance of the minimum wage and put an onus on paying the Living Wage.”

Sport in the sun at Spartans

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More than 250 children from six local primary schools descended on Ainslie Park yesterday for Spartans School Sports Day.

Pupils from Blackhall, Craigroyston, Flora Stevenson’s, Forthview, Pirniehall and St David’s took the opportunity to take part in a range of sports – from triathlon, boxing and mountain bike relays to judo, fencing and football.

The sun shone, the day was a great success and the happy kids all left Spartans with a medal!

Spartans Community Football Academy youth worker Jamie Tomkinson, who organised the sporting festival, said: “It was good to see so many children enjoying the different activities and having fun. Many of them were trying out some of these sports for the first time and it was great to see their energy and enthusiasm.”

Big events like this take a lot of organising, and among those involved in making the Sports Day such a success were Edinburgh Leisure, Spartans CFA volunteers, Edinburgh Judo, Nike volunteers, FetLor, Granton Youth Centre, MY Adventure, Fencing Fun’s Keith Cook and Kabo.

Some pictures:

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More pictures of the Sports Day on our Facebook Page

 

Drylaw Telford in membership drive

Community Council looks to recruit new members

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Drylaw Telford Community Council is urging local residents to support their neighbourhood by joining the community council. Community councillors are currently leafletting the area to encourage new people to get involved.

The leaflet drop also advertises the community council’s Annual General Meeting, which takes place next Wednesday (27 May) at 6.30pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre.

Established in 1981, Drylaw Telford CC was one of Edinburgh’s original community councils. Local community councillors led the successful campaign for a purpose-built community centre for the area in the 1990s and the community council has met at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre on the last Wednesday of the month ever  since.

Why not go along next Wednesday, meet current members and find out about how you can help make Drylaw Telford a better place to be?

For further information email DTCC secretary Andrew Barnett at andrew@abarnett.net