Category: Forth

Operation Quarterlight: cracking down on car crime

Quarterlight update: six arrests last week

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Operation Quarterlight is a Police Scotland initiative aimed at tackling motor vehicle crime in hotspot areas. Since the start of the initiative in January 2015, local officers involved in the operation have made 24 arrests and solved 68 crimes related to motor vehicle offences.

In the last week officers in Edinburgh have arrested five men and one woman for various offences related to motor vehicles crimes. Of those arrested a 22-year-old man has been remanded in custody on multiple charges.

Additionally in the last week there has been 15 stop searches in hotspot areas and 41 bail curfew checks completed on some of Edinburgh’s most prolific offenders.

Police have also charged a 41-year-old woman with the theft of a pedal cycle. This had previously been advertised as for sale on a website. The bike has now been recovered and returned to its owner.

PS Tom Mallinson, who runs the Quarterlight team, said: “We have solved almost seventy crimes since Quarterlight began and well over half of these relate to vehicle crime. We are quite clear with offenders – we will continue to investigate all crimes linked to vehicles across the city.

“Many of these individuals will be involved in assaults, hate crimes, vandalisms and serious driving offences while in the commission of motor vehicle offences and our team has prioritised access to forensic services, CCTV and national vehicle crime experts to combat the challenge of autocrime.”

Chief Superintendent Mark Williams, who oversees Operation Quarterlight locally, pressed home the point about car security and improving results. He said: “We have seen a week on week increase in detection rates, as well as a driving down of car crime as the message gets out.

“We have increased preventative night time patrols in hot spot areas and officers have conducted over a hundred searches resulting in numerous arrests.

“We still want car owners to be careful – secure their vehicles, park in well-lit and overlooked spots and ensure valuable items are removed or at least not on show in their vehicles.”

#StrongerNorth update: Young people and our community

#Stronger North: working with our young people

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Work with primary aged children

As part of a new role created by Total Craigroyston Team, it was agreed that a youth worker would work in four of the local primary schools to deliver a programme called ‘Respect in the Community.’

The aim was to help primary aged children understand the importance of safety in the community, publicise all the activities that are available after school and help them make good choices about what they do with their time after school.

The youngsters make a map of their community in the first session, showing where many of the positive activities take place.  They look at what makes a safe community for everyone and think about they can keep themselves safe as well as looking out for others.

At a later stage they have the opportunity to identify where they feel safe themselves or not. We’ve found that many of our primary children are very well aware of and have experienced some of the issues that make them feel unsafe.

A big part of the programme is helping children develop the skills to make good decisions especially where they might feel tempted by friends to take part in behaviour that causes distress to others.  In small groups they think about developing a community campaign about combating anti-social behaviour and then present their ideas to their classmates.

The programme has gone down very well with P5, P6 and P7’s in Pirniehall and St David’s, has just started in Craigroyston Primary and will be starting very soon in Forthview.

Reward Scheme

We’ve developed a loyalty card so that youngsters who are positive participants in youth clubs and sports clubs can gather points and receive a reward. It will run until Easter to see if it will be successful.  So far Ainslie Park Leisure Centre and Craigroyston Community High School has offered free swims for individuals and families and each of the youth organisations involved has agreed to run a special reward night for those involved.

Teenagers

As well as all the youth clubs and sports opportunities that are available in the community , we have developed some out of hours sessions for teenagers – offering them the opportunity to get involved in activities later at night in an effort to combat the idea that there is nothing to do. If these sessions go well then more can be offered. These activities are taking place in Spartans and Pilton Youth and Children’s Project.

STRONGER towford

Face North (above) is a special project, working with some of the young people who are involved in anti-social behaviour and so far we have been able to involve these young people in working at Towford, the bothy owned by My Adventure. To help get the Bothy ready for use by local groups and organisations they have helped with  basic maintenance, cleared ground, laid paths, chopped down and replanted trees and completed some minor repairs. They have also painted the kitchen area in Pilton Youth and Children’s Project and will soon be doing some environmental work on the cycle path.

The Mentors in Violence Prevention Programme is being implemented in local High Schools as well as in the local community. This gives older young people the training and skills to work with younger ones and help them think through how they would handle a wide range of tricky incidents  giving young people and the community the confidence to speak up against and challenge issues such as bullying or other types of  anti-Social behaviour.

Sessions for parents will be run towards the end of February – look out for dates or contact Community Learning and Development worker Sarah Neal if you are interested in attending. Her number is 552 5700.

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STV Appeal supports Fresh Start

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North Edinburgh based community project Fresh Start has received £2,000 from the STV Appeal 2014.

Based on Ferry Road Drive, Fresh Start is an Edinburgh charity that helps people who have been homeless by providing starter packs of essential household items. For many people who have been homeless and have lost everything, the packs provide a real lifeline in the early days of a new tenancy. Last year the charity created 10,973 packs to help over 2000 new households, helping to make a huge difference to the quality of people’s lives in their new home. The grant from the STV Appeal will be used to help Fresh Start increase the number of packs it produces and delivers in 2015.

Keith Robertson, managing director at Fresh Start, said: “These packs help to relieve the financial burden and initial stress that many new tenants face, especially when providing for households with children.”

Sir Tom Hunter, trustee of the STV Appeal, said: “Yet again the people of Scotland have cast their vote – end child poverty. Through the STV Appeal we are attempting to deliver sustainable solutions to do just that. It is simply unacceptable in modern Scotland to still have young people debilitated by poverty, through this project and many more the people of Scotland are doing their level best to combat poverty.”

This year’s STV Appeal is now well underway with an exciting line-up of fundraising activities planned for 2015.

Spartans: be the twelfth man!

spartansLocal club The Spartans play Berwick Rangers this Saturday (7 February) at Ainslie Park in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup.  If we win we will make history as the first non-league team to play in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup for 55 years! 

This Cross-Border clash sees the Lowland League title holders take on their third SPFL opponents on the Road to Hampden. We have already beaten Clyde and Morton and in both games the bumper home support has made all the difference.

Can you be the twelfth man on 7 February?  We are making a big plea for everyone in the North Edinburgh community to come along and back their local team as we aim to make history! 

The TV cameras will be along, “Pulse of the Place” our local Samba band will provide the pre match entertainment and hundreds of local youngsters will be bringing a real family atmosphere.  It promises to be a magical afternoon.

Our Ainslie Park arena holds 3500 people, with 500 seats in our covered stand.  Kick-off is at 3pm so please come down early if you want a seat. 

Admission is £12 for adults, £8 for concessions and Under 12 s are free (pay at gate) – continuing our commitment to offer affordable football for all.  With a bumper crowd expected, we have entrances open on both Pilton Drive and Pilton Avenue.

You can keep up to date with the pre-match news, previews and interviews on our hat-trick of social media sources:

website: www.spartansfc.com,

twitter: @spartansfc and Facebook: Spartans FC

The Spartans Football Club

| Live together, Play together, Win together

Safer Internet seminar

Last chance to book – you do not have to be working online to make use of this session, or be an ‘expert’ in social media!

SaferAs in previous years, as part of Safer Internet Day 2015 we will be hosting a seminar especially for youth workers on Tuesday 10 February at Gilmerton Community Centre from 6– 8pm.

Booking is essential for this event as there are only limited spaces at the centre. The seminar is open to all youth workers across the City, Council or voluntary sector, paid staff or volunteers.

For the seminar, Liz Ely from Zero Tolerance will present their research on young people’s attitudes and then take us through some of the useful approaches that they have developed for youth workers in their ‘Under Pressure’ resource.

http://zerotolerance.org.uk/sites/all/files/Peer%20Research_1.pdf
http://zerotolerance.org.uk/UnderPressure

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This promises to be an engaging seminar in an area of concern for many young people, parents and workers. To book your place, please email:

gavin.crosby@edinburgh.gov.uk

with your name, email address and organisation.

Places will be limited to one per centre in the first instance, any spare places will be offered up to others nearer the event.

Places may be available to non-youth work agencies (e.g. housing, social workers or teachers) but priority will be given to youth work staff.

Total Craigroyston update

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We are continuing to work towards improving outcomes for children and families in the Craigroyston cluster area (writes Total Craigroyston manager Christine Mackay).

Achievements in education

North Edinburgh News has covered the great reports that Craigroyston Community High School and the Community Learning provision in the area have achieved. As well as those, Craigroyston Early Years Centre has achieved the measure of excellent across all five areas that the Care Commission look at – for the second year in a row! This is a brilliant achievement!

Working with local landlords

We have been doing some work with private landlords. We are hoping to strengthen their role in the regeneration of the area by sharing information and to encourage them listen to residents views about the condition of area. So far, the landlords we have spoken to have been very keen to become involved.

Community Leadership College

One of the most exciting things we’ve been developing over recent months is the Community Leadership College. This is an idea that has been put together by Total Craigroyston, Muirhouse Linkup and Circle Scotland. The STV foundation has funded our idea, which will us to help build on the biggest asset the community has – it’s people.

Many local people have become involved in community activities and volunteering through Linkup, The North Edinburgh Time Bank and many other community projects. The Community Leadership College will give us the opportunity take that involvement to the next level by providing training, support and other types of activities so that more leaders are created within the community.

The development of the college will be directed by local residents themselves, initially through a series of ‘Conversation Cafes’ , so that we can gather their ideas and develop the programme.

We expect that the impact will be that local people have a bigger influence on the development of services, gain skills to take up jobs, develop their ideas about making improvements to the area and the skills to turn those ideas into reality.

A cheque was presented at the Community Shop on Thursday 29 January (pictured above).

Coming up

In the next few months we will be working with North Edinburgh Young People’s Form to involve the areas young people in assessing the quality of services that they use, using the Youth Talk approach first developed in South Edinburgh. Watch this space for information about how that is going!

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Third Sector: talk BOLD today

Just in case you missed this …

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The City of Edinburgh Council is planning major changes to the way that it delivers services at a local level and how it collaborates with partners. TODAY (3 February), the Council is holding an engagement session to brief the third sector on the proposed changes and provide an opportunity to influence them.  There are still some places available, but spaces are limited so please contact Tasha on email below as soon as possible.

A summary of the Council proposals can be found in the Better Outcomes Leaner Delivery (BOLD) Business Cases paper and the Organise to Deliver paper.

The meeting will take place at 2pm in the European Room at the City Chambers. If you would like to book one of the places, please email Tasha MacKenzie who works in the BOLD team in the Council: Tasha.MacKenzie@edinburgh.gov.uk.

Voluntary Sector Forum dates set

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Get your diaries out … Forth and Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum meetings have been set for the rest of the year … and the first one of 2016 has been scheduled in too!

22 APRIL

22 JULY

21 OCTOBER

20 JANUARY 2016

The meetings will be held on Wednesday mornings from 10am – 12 noon at venues to be confirmed.

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Let’s talk about Dementia

DementiaSTARTING this month, Alzheimer Scotland – Action on Dementia is launching a Let’s Talk about Dementia campaign. The campaign aims to open up more discussion on the subject of dementia and to raise awareness of the importance of early diagnosis.

Stigma, negative perceptions of people with dementia and perceptions that there is little or no help available are some of the reasons which prevent people from seeking help sooner rather than later. The negative perceptions also create fear and worry meaning that many families avoid talking about dementia.

The worry that you or someone close to you may have dementia is one of the most difficult conversations we may have. The Let’s Talk about Dementia campaign hopes to raise awareness and get families talking to each other and medical professionals so that more people living with dementia can get the help and support they need in place to ensure they have the best quality of life possible.

Alzheimer Scotland’s Let’s Talk about Dementia campaign will offer detailed information, support on the organisation’s website (www.alzscot.org/conversation) and via the Dementia Helpline (0808 808 3000) which is free to call and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Alzheimer Scotland will be promoting the campaign on radio, in print and through social media (Facebook and Twitter). Social media is particularly important, as these difficult conversations are often intergenerational; involving partners, adult children, grandchildren, other family members and beyond. We want people to share their own experiences of these often difficult conversations and if, in hindsight, they would have handled things differently. Alzheimer Scotland will also be sharing real life case studies, information and advice via its Facebook page and Twitter feed.

www.facebook.com/AlzheimerScotland

www.twitter.com/alzscot

“I wish I’d trusted my instincts about dad earlier. Got us to sit down as a family and discuss it. If I had the chance again, that’s what I’d do.” Ian

“I knew there was something wrong with me and I kept asking questions until I found out what it was. My family and friends have been wonderful – they support me in so many ways and I’m glad I can talk openly to them. Nobody should have to face dementia alone. Never be afraid to ask: ask people, ask questions and ask for help.” Anne

“Nobody’s happy to get a diagnosis of dementia, but it was so much better than the not-knowing. It gave mum, and me, a way of dealing with the changes that were happening in her life.” Donna