Category: Drylaw Telford

Stop the evictions!

CRISIS: campaigners demand an end to the eviction of families

Campaigners resisting the evictions of families due to the Benefits Cap are protesting at the full meeting of City of Edinburgh Council thios morning.  Deputations from North Edinburgh’s All About Me and Power to the People groups will demand the council take action on the crisis.  Last month the campaigners occupied both Council offices and Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson’s constituency office to demand housing for homeless families. Continue reading Stop the evictions!

Could you represent your community?

Become a member of Muirhouse Salvesen Community Council, but hurry – nominations close on Friday!

Community councils have been part of our democratic structures for over forty years, speaking out as a local voices on issues of concern – and you can play your part if you live in Muirhouse or Salvesen by becoming a community councillor.  Continue reading Could you represent your community?

Spartans celebrate Women’s Sport Week with Girls Football Festival

Up to 300 local schoolgirls are set to take part in Spartans Community Football Academy’s Girls Football Festival tomorrow at Spartans’ Ainslie Park home.

Continue reading Spartans celebrate Women’s Sport Week with Girls Football Festival

Robot Games at Leonardo … and a Wookie came too!

More than a hundred school children and air cadets – and a Wookie ! – gathered at Leonardo aerospace engineering company at Crewe Toll to compete in the Scottish Robotic Games on Satuday. The competitors were joined by special guest Professor Sethu Vijayakumar, a Professor of Robotics at the University of Edinburgh and a Judge on BBC2’s Robot Wars, who judged the robot entries and presented prizes.

The games were the brainchild of former employee Peter Bennett, Director of the Rampaging Chariots Guild, and a former winner of the ‘Robot Wars’ competition. Peter designed the event to provide a simple, colourful introduction to the excitement of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects. The children acquire valuable skills by creating customised hand-built robots, whose capabilities are then tested in a number of challenges which Most Usedinclude robot football, robotic ‘tug of war’ and robot sumo wrestling.

Leonardo organised the event to increase young people’s enjoyment and interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) subjects, so that they might consider careers in this field in the future. They were particularly delighted to welcome many girls to the event – currently only 9% of engineers in the UK are women.

Research produced by Engineering UK this year confirms that only 35% of STEM teachers feel confident about giving engineering careers advice, so the industry has an important role to play in drawing young people to this field by providing enjoyable early experiences of STEM. Events like the Robotic Games encourage young people to imagine a creative, bright future for themselves in engineering and science.

Sethu Vijayakumar, Professor of Robotics at Edinburgh University, was particularly impressed with the childrens’ creativity. He said: “I think the main thing is their willingness to understand and formalise a problem, and then solve it by taking an existing piece of kit, and putting their own ideas into it.

“I always tell people that starting is the hardest thing, so I think this initiative is great because you have a kit which lowers the barrier to entry, and once you have that then people can feel more confident that they can do stuff on their own, and build on their capabilities. It is literally giving them their first ladder up to their first step, and I think this is great for that.”

 

 

 

All About Me: local women celebrate Making it Work achievements

A day of celebration but serious challenges lie ahead 

Local women have just completed a lottery-funded Making It Work employability course and they celebrated their success with a special event at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre last week. The highlight of the event was the premiere of a film made to document the young mothers’ experiences, and while there were smiles and laughs there were tears and no little anger too.

Film maker George Williamson worked alongside the women during their experience of getting ready to return to the world of work and he recorded the difficulties the young mums have faced along the way. From juggling household finances and getting kids to and from school to finding affordable, flexible childcare is challenging enough – but then to be hit with changes to the benefits system that could see you lose your home adds a whole new series of anxieties.

Some of the women have been faced with as a result of welfare reforms, exacerbated by cuts to Discretionary Housing Payments. Some don’t know where they will be living from one day to the next – yet they are still expected to look for work.

This sudden change in circumstances has seen the women add another string to their bow: lobbying and campaigning. The women have lobbied councillors at the City Chambers and last week held a peaceful protest at Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson’s constituency office in Roseburn.

The film sparked a debate about the implications of welfare reforms and benefits at the packed Royston Wardieburn event which was attended by MSPs Alison Johnstone and Ben Macpherson, North and Leith prospective MP Diedre Brock and new Forth Councillor Ellie Bird.

“We want to work, but it’s not easy”, said Johan. “There are a lot of barriers.”

“Not knowing where your kids will be sleeping is heartbreaking. It’s the not knowing that’s most upsetting – that’s the hardest part” said Rachel, one of the victims of the welfare reforms.

“Mums work all day, every day and even when the kids reach school age there are very few jobs that fit around the school day”, said Heather. “Single mums do want to work, but not just any job at any cost.”

Yvonne was lucky enough to be offered her ‘dream job’ – only to have to turn it down when childcare arrangements fell through. “It’s a nightmare to try to plan work commitments around childcare. There needs to be much more flexibility” she said.

All About Me mums organised and ran the whole event with the help of their support worker Pauline Nicol-Bowie, who also wrote a poem for the occasion. The Benefit Cap was read by group member Jade Ashley-Parker (below).

The poem, The Benefit Cap, reads:

Oh look, here they come

Scrounging their benefits

and away they run.

Make-up, eyebrows, brand new phones,

Dinnae bother paying their loans.

Bairns in designer gear

Jog on, pal!

We live in fear.

Sanctions, PIP, ESA

I cannae pay my bills

What am I tae dae?

Benefits caps, foodbanks,

Homelessness to name a few.

Ignore us, Councillors,

‘Cos it’s no’ happening to you.

Another week, another meeting,

Get a job is all I hear,

I’m trying!!

Sick of greetin’,

I’m never gettting a career.

Kids are fed, homework done,

Oh,today wasnae fun!

Kids tucked up nice and cosy,

One more thing, their kiss and story.

Kids asleep, it;s time for ma tea

Oh, shit!

There’s nowt for me

It’s okay, I’ll eat tomorrow,

It just means I’ll have to borrow.

Even with my daily struggles

My kids will always get lots of cuddles.

All my worries are so depressing

Thank God for my kids

THEY ARE MY BLESSING!

Capital City Partnership’s Irene Thomson (below), who leads the Making it Work project, said: “This was a Big Lottery funded initiative to support lone parents into work. Over the four-year duration we have supported 100 people into work and eighty into training, far exceeding the targets set at the outset so it has been a great success.

“It will be really sad to leave behind such a great bunch of very inspirational women, but we hope that we are leaving them in a better place.”

The funding for the group ends in September, but the women plan to continue to meet regularly. They also have a Facebook page.

Congratulations Tasha, Ashleigh, Heather, Rachael, Michelle, Johan, Jade, Deborah and Siobhan who made the event such a success – and congratulations too to everyone else who took part in the group but who couldn’t be there on the day.

There will be two further opportunities to see the film and meet the women this month.

On Friday 23 June, the Making it Work team will hold an event at Central Hall, Tollcross from 1.30 – 3.30pm. As well as an opportunity to meet the parents and see the film there will be face-painting and balloon modelling activities with free creche.

The group will also present their film at North Edinburgh Arts on Friday 23 June at 4.30pm.