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As a Scran volunteer, you’ll be part of a welcoming, supportive family that’s committed to creating opportunities, empowering young people, and making a difference together.
An Army veteran from Melrose says that taking part in disability sports saved his life – and he wants to encourage others who live with life-changing health conditions, injuries and disabilities to try adaptive sports.
Neil Dewar, age 59, suffered devastating injuries in 2006, due to an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion, whilst on patrol in Iraq.
He has disabled limbs, spinal and neurological damage, which means that he now relies on a wheelchair; and he also has Combat PTSD. But introduction to adaptive sports through the veterans’ organisation Help for Heroes has changed his life. He’s now a passionate advocate for disability sports.
Neil said: “I want to encourage other veterans across Scotland, whatever their level of ability, to try adaptive sports. I’m about to attend my seventh Community Sports Series event, which is taking place in Edinburgh in July, and I can’t rate these events highly enough.
“You get to take part in sports taster sessions, in a safe and relaxed environment, meet some great people, and maybe find a new interest and make new friends. I know a lot of people who come along who go on to take up a sport with their local club, which helps them with mental health and physical challenges.
“Without sport I don’t think I’d be alive. It’s helped with my mental health and my physical wellbeing, and I’ve been able to compete all over the world.”
Neil is the current GB and European wheelchair champion for modern pentathlon. He’s on the Paralympic pathway for the GB wheelchair Curling team and is hoping to make the UK Invictus Games team for Birmingham 2027.
The Community Sports Series event is taking place on 11 and 12 July at the Oriam Sports Centre, Edinburgh. Participants will have the opportunity to try walking football, supported by the Heart of Midlothian community team, non-contact boxing, supported by Port O’Leith Boxing Club, wheelchair basketball supported by Edinburgh Giants, walking netball, para-darts, rowing, archery and non-contact martial arts.
The event is open to veterans and their family members and there is no charge for taking part.
Neil added: “You might be feeling isolated due to an on-going injury or illness – adaptive sports, and events like the Community Sports Series, can give you something to look forward to. Veterans’ family members can get involved as well. But it’s all in a very relaxed environment and the coaches are so supportive.”
Help for Heroes champions the Armed Forces community and helps people live well after service. The Charity supports veterans and their families with their physical and mental health, as well as welfare and social needs. It has already supported tens of thousands – and won’t stop until every veteran gets the support they deserve.
The Charity supports veterans and their families from any branch of the UK military, regulars and reserves, irrespective of length or place of service, and locally embedded civilians who worked under the command of UK Armed Forces.
Builds on five years of success engaging more than 20,562 visitors and 2,536 young people
Jupiter Artland Foundation has announced the launch of Jupiter+ Nation in Dumfries, the fifth iteration of its pioneering youth and community engagement programme and the culmination of five years of sustained investment in young people, artists, and communities across Scotland.
Beginning in Dumfries and designed to grow nationally, Jupiter+ Nation marks a significant evolution in Jupiter Artland’s commitment to widening access to contemporary art and creating meaningful pathways into creative careers.
Running in Dumfries at Loreburne Shopping Centre, High Street, Dumfries from 31 July, with an associated programme from 28 August, the project transforms a vacant former estate agent’s office inside the Loreburne Shopping Centre into a free-to-visit contemporary art space, anchoring an ambitious free learning programme expanding nationwide.
The exhibition and programme ends on 6 December 2026.
Since launching in Perth in 2022, Jupiter+ has transformed vacant high street spaces into sites for world-class contemporary art, creative learning, and youth engagement. Across Perth, Ayr, Paisley and Dundee, the programme has welcomed more than 20,500 visitors and engaged 2,536 learners through exhibitions, workshops, artist commissions, mentoring and youth development initiatives.
What began as a local experiment has become a nationally significant programme, demonstrating how contemporary art can create opportunity, confidence, and cultural participation in communities across Scotland.
Jupiter+ Nation now becomes the umbrella identity and long-term home for this work: a permanent national platform connecting young people, artists and communities through contemporary art.
After Dumfries, the programme will continue to create opportunities for participation, artist development and cultural engagement, building a growing national network across Scotland.
The exhibition in Dumfries this season features Growing Pains, a striking, site-specific multimedia installation by award-winning artist Lindsey Mendick.
Referencing her own teenage years in the early 2000s, Mendick transforms the former commercial office space into a haunting, humorous, and deeply immersive environment exploring the uncertainty, awkwardness, and social hierarchies of adolescence.
Using the metaphor of an estate agency, a business built entirely on peddling aspirational lifestyles, the installation features an intricate, spiralling office desk displaying eight Alice-in-Wonderland-style ceramic dollhouses bursting with teenage figures. The exhibition explores themes of social mobility, identity, and the transitional thresholds of youth, alongside an accompanying video piece.
Nicky Wilson, Director, Jupiter Artland, said: “The programme’s fifth year marks a major milestone. Through artist-inspired learning, youth leadership programmes, residencies and public commissions, Jupiter+ has worked with schools, colleges, universities, and community organisations across the country, helping young people develop creative skills, discover new pathways, and build confidence in their own voices.
“Independent evaluation across the programme shows strong evidence of impact.
“In Dundee, participants reported feeling more confident sharing their own experiences through creative work, and 73% of learners said they felt more inspired to use creativity to speak up about issues that matter to them after taking part.
“More than three quarters agreed that exhibitions like Jupiter+ create spaces where young people can ask big questions and imagine new futures.”
At the core of Jupiter+ Dumfries is a barrier-free educational outreach offer.
As in every iteration of Jupiter+, every secondary school, college, and community group in Dumfries and Galloway is invited to take part in fully funded, tailored learning sessions.
The launch of this national programme comes as the Milburn Review brings renewed national attention to the scale of youth disengagement across the UK.
Jupiter+ Nation stands as five years of working evidence that creative participation can open new pathways for young people, an approach aligned with Scotland’s Developing the Young Workforce strategy and the widening-access ambitions of A Blueprint for Fairness.
Participant feedback reflects the programme’s wider ambition. One young person commented after their experience: “I learned to not be afraid of stepping out of my comfort zone. Have confidence in myself.”
Another described the experience as “liberating and freeing”, highlighting the importance of creativity as a space for experimentation, expression and personal growth.
Exhibition Dates:
31 July – 6 December 2026 (Tuesday to Friday for booked sessions; extended public opening hours to coincide with holidays and regional events).
Location: Loreburne Shopping Centre, High Street, Dumfries, DG1 2BD. Jupiter Artland
Alongside its learning programme, JUPITER+Dumfries presents a public programme of free artist-led events that encourages creativity, dialogue and civic participation across the region. To be announced.
Goodbye Dandelion, a humorous, moving new work by award-winning writer and performer Maddie Rice and composer Marcus Rice, has been selected as the recipient of the inaugural Underbelly Futures Fund Award.
Created to support exceptional new work at and beyond the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Underbelly Futures Fund Award recognises productions that demonstrate outstanding artistic merit and strong future touring potential.
As the 2026 recipient, Goodbye Dandelion will receive a package of support designed to help the production thrive both during the festival and in its future development. This includes £5,000 in grant funding and £5,000 in investment to support the current and ongoing life of the show.
The company will also receive a favourable venue agreement, enhanced marketing support, in-kind rehearsal space, financial assistance to facilitate accessible performances and the opportunity to perform at Underbelly Soho’s Fringe Fix Season in September.
Goodbye Dandelion is told by real-life siblings Maddie (on the mic) and Marcus (on the keys), and was created with and directed by Katie Pesskin. The show follows the final years of 87-year-old Darcy through the eyes of an unlikely new friend. Blending storytelling and live piano, the piece explores friendship, mortality, and what it means to truly live.
The work marks Maddie Rice’s return to Underbelly following her acclaimed turn in Fleabag (2017), becoming the only actor other than Phoebe Waller-Bridge to play the role, and her award-winning solo show Pickle Jar (2018), also directed with and directed by Katie Pesskin.
Goodbye Dandelion was first presented in development at Underbelly’s scratch night Belly Scratch in November 2025, where it immediately stood out for the sensitivity and confidence of the work, the compelling onstage dynamic between the siblings, and the use of live music to heighten the storytelling.
The Futures Fund continues Underbelly’s history of championing daring new voices across theatre and live performance.
Marina Dixon, Head of Programming at Underbelly said:“We were all highly impressed with the beautiful and sensitive writing, the way the music is used to heighten the story, the clear on-stage familial dynamic between Marcus and Maddie, and the willingness to take on a controversial and relevant topic.
“We are proud to name Goodbye Dandelion as the recipient of the inaugural Underbelly Future Fund Award and look forward to supporting the show’s continued development and future journey.”
Maddie Rice said: ‘We’re so thrilled to be supported by the Underbelly Futures Fund! Goodbye Dandelion begun life at BellyScratch, and as a writer/ performer I’ve done most of my previous fringe shows at Underbelly- so this feels like a full circle moment.
“It’s my first time at the fringe for 7 years and feels extra special to have this support and to be working with Marcus and Katie. Thank you Underbelly!’
A family-run Edinburgh restaurant group has raised over £20,000 for Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS).
Howies, which operates venues across the capital including Howies Victoria Street, Howies Waterloo Place and Scotts Kitchen on Victoria Terrace, raised the impressive sum in just three months during a 12-week corporate partnership with the charity from March 1 to May 31.
Customers were invited to add £1 or more to their bill, with the donations helping CHAS provide vital care and support to children with life-shortening conditions and their families across Scotland.
Founded by David Howie Scott in 1990 and recently celebrating 36 years in business, Howies received overwhelming support from customers, raising £20,040 for the charity.
Suzanne O’Connor, Operations Manager, Howies Restaurants said: “As an independent, family-run business, it was important to us that this was a team decision. We shared information about several Scottish charities and asked everyone in our team to vote. CHAS was the clear choice across the group.
“We were incredibly proud to support CHAS. We know about the incredible work they do and the vital support they provide to families during their toughest times, and we very much hope that the funds we have raised will be of some help as they continue to deliver their incredibly valuable work.”
CHAS Senior Community Fundraiser, Sarah Dannfald said: “We were delighted to have been selected as the charity partner for Howies and are absolutely blown away by the amount raised in such a short space of time!
“The commitment of Howies staff to drive the initiative and actively talk to customers about CHAS has really shone through as well as the incredible generosity shown by so many of their customers adding the donation to their bills.
“This incredible support from Howies comes at such a crucial time for CHAS as we look to transform children’s hospice care in Scotland, through our £20million More Than a Hospice Appeal.
“Thank you so much to everyone who has made this incredible gift possible.”
More than 300,000 residents in supported housing and temporary accommodation will no longer face a drop in income when increasing their working hours, under new rules laid in Parliament yesterday.
Residents in supported housing and temporary accommodation previously faced a “cliff edge” loss of income when increasing their working hours
New changes to the welfare system which encourage work and ensure it always pays come into force in October
Measure to benefit around 300,000 vulnerable claimants living in supported housing and temporary accommodation
More than 300,000 residents in supported housing and temporary accommodation will no longer face a drop in income when increasing their working hours, under new rules laid in Parliament yesterday [Monday 6 July].
The system inherited by this Government left vulnerable people in supported housing having to choose between staying out of work, or risk losing their housing support, because the work allowance was higher for Universal Credit than it was for Housing Benefit.
The less generous rules for Housing Benefit created a cliff edge that trapped people on benefits rather than supporting them into work. Some landlords even discouraged residents from taking jobs to protect their own rental income.
As part of the Government’s commitment to move from a welfare state to a working state, the regulations change how Housing Benefit is calculated so it works in the same way as Universal Credit – a change that will incentivise work for 315,000 people when they come into force in October 2026.
Sir Stephen Timms, Minister for Social Security and Disability, said: “The system we inherited was actively pushing some of the most vulnerable residents away from work rather than towards it.
“These changes fix that – ensuring residents can keep more of what they earn, so that taking a job or increasing hours always pays better than benefits.
“This announcement delivers on a commitment made in our Autumn Budget, and forms part of the government’s wider plan to reform the welfare system – tearing out the barriers that have trapped people in dependency.
“We are replacing that system with one that rewards work and ensures people keep more of what they earn, while protecting those who need it most.”
Monday’s rules come alongside previous steps to help people on disability benefits that want to work, into work, says the government: ‘We have already rebalanced Universal Credit to tackle the perverse incentives that discouraged work and introduced Right to Try legislation, allowing sick or disabled people to try work without the immediate fear of reassessment.
‘These measures come alongside our Connect to Work programme, which delivers tailored, personalised, local support that will help 300,000 people into work, and the deployment of 1000 Pathways to Work advisers to help those written off by the previous Government’.
Additional Information
The Housing Benefit (Earned Income Disregards) Regulations 2026 laid before parliament on 6th July 2026, come into force on 5 October 2026.
Five new earned income disregards are being introduced for working-age Housing Benefit claimants in supported housing and temporary accommodation.
Disregard values will be updated annually. No group is made worse off by this change; any variation in the immediate financial gain reflects how existing Universal Credit and Housing Benefit tapers already operate.
The Boards of Edinburgh College and Forth Valley College have put forward a proposal to explore the value of deeper collaboration, as they try to find new opportunities and different ways of working to deliver improved outcomes and sustainable futures for both organisations.
The exploratory phase for an Outline Business Case (OBC), which is proposed to take place over the coming months, will specifically look at ‘linked but distinct’ models, such as a Federation Partnership. In this type of model, colleges retain their Board, Principal, curriculum and individual identity, while working together on agreed areas of collaboration.
The shared goal in this work is to find a partnership model that make both colleges stronger while fully retaining the individual identities and local community roots of each institution. During the process staff, students, and stakeholders will be asked for their views on how such a collaboration could work for them.
The principals of both Forth Valley College and Edinburgh College have written to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to seek support for this work. It comes after the Scottish Government identified reform of the wider tertiary system as a key priority.
Principal of Edinburgh College, Audrey Cumberford, said:“There’s no doubt that the coming years will see reform of the wider tertiary sector in Scotland. I’m keen to take a proactive approach to leading and shaping what that means and might look like for our colleges.
“The boards of both our colleges believe that working together more closely could deliver better outcomes and greater regional impact, while retaining strong local accountability and identity.
“While this is at an early stage, I’m excited to discover the outcome of this exploratory work and to demonstrate how this could deliver for our staff, students, local communities and the businesses we support.”
Principal of Forth Valley College, Kenny MacInnes, said:“We recognise the need for change and are committed to taking a proactive approach to addressing the challenges ahead.
“We believe that exploring closer partnership working can create new and exciting opportunities and deliver greater impact, while continuing to operate independently and reflecting the needs and priorities of our learners and local communities.
“We have a strong and well-established track record of collaboration with Edinburgh College, built on shared growth sectors, complementary strengths and connections across our regional economies. We will also value the input of staff, students and stakeholders as we explore this potential new partnership, ensuring their voices help shape both the process and its outcomes.
“While this work is at an early stage, we are fully committed to exploring its potential and leading meaningful transformation that delivers for our staff, students, communities and employers, while supporting long-term sustainability.”
Should the SFC support the request for exploratory work and an OBC, a report would be brought back to both boards in the coming months before any decisions are made on next steps.
Join the SABS and Hibernian Community Foundation monthly Pitch to Plate – Multicultural Meal, bringing together local residents, New Scots, people from all backgrounds, those experiencing difficult circumstances and members of our wider community for an evening of good food, friendship and connection.
Enjoy homemade curries, rice, salad, and naan bread
Fresh fruit kindly sponsored by the Association of Chinese Entrepreneurs in Scotland
Free Entry | All Welcome | No Booking Required
Everyone is warmly welcome to share a meal, meet new people, and celebrate the rich diversity of our community. Whether you are coming along for the food, the company, or simply to connect with others, we would be delighted to see you there.
We would be grateful if you could help spread the word to anyone who may benefit from a warm meal and a welcoming community atmosphere.
We’re looking for Academy support volunteers! 
Tuesday 7th July 2026
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Enjoy homemade curries, rice, salad, and naan bread
Fresh fruit kindly sponsored by the Association of Chinese Entrepreneurs in Scotland
