It isn’t only groups and organisations from North Edinburgh – the old Greater Pilton area – who are facing bleak futures following funding cuts.
Some citywide organisations like Volunteer Edinburgh’s LOOPS support programme for older people received no funding and organisations in Craigmillar, the city centre and Northfield Willowbrae were all unsuccessful in their funding bids.
Projects supporting services for older people came out of the funding process particularly badly – including one in nearby Cramond (an area, incidentally, that is now part of North West Locality alongside communities like West Pilton and Muirhouse).
There are precious few community facilities in Cramond – and now it seems likely that there could be one fewer.
You may not have heard of it, but The Almond Mains Initiative has been running for twenty years. It formed in Davidson’s Mains and moved to Parkgrove before settling in it’s current home at Cramond Kirk’s Millennium Hall.
The Almond Mains initiative runs lunch clubs and day services catering for older people over 65 who are frail, have difficulty with mobility or a disability or health condition which limits their access to social opportunities.
The club is unable to meet the needs of people with dementia or those who require specific personal care, but is a real lifeline for those older people who would otherwise be isolated.
The club meets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Cramond Kirk’s Millennium Hall, supporting twelve people per day.
Almond Mains had applied to Edinburgh Integration Joint Board’s Health & Social Care fund for a grant of £43,000 to support two part-time staff and project activities over the next three years, but heard last month that they had been unsuccessful – and will receive nothing.
Gena Wylie is chairperson of the Almond Mains Initiative. Formerly of Pilton Youth & Children’s Project and an active member of Forth Voluntary Sector Forum before her retirement, Gena is no stranger to funding challenges and it must seem like deja vu for the Almond chair.
Gena explained: “The application process was particularly unforgiving and we were hugely disappointed to hear that our funding bid had been rejected – and this in a short email that gave no detail of why we were rejected.
“That explanation may come later but it will be no consolation to either the staff or the people who use the service. Our worry is that there is absolutely nothing else to offer the people who currently attend the Almond Mains Initiative.
“Where will they go? We know other organisations are already operating waiting lists and no-one has spare capacity, so the fear is that our older people won’t have any opportunities to meet and socialise. It’s a real concern and at this time no-one seems to have an answer.”
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