Heart of Newhaven’s on the box!

An STV item about our plans went out on the 6 O’Clock news bulletin on Friday (11th September).  It included an on-site interview filmed outside Victoria primary School and was very upbeat.

Please pass the word around so that those who haven’t seen it can watch it on whatever catch-up services they have available.

We need you! Now the Hard Work Begins !

Anyone under the impression that it’s all over bar the shouting must think again. We’ve barely started!

In my last Update I was delighted to confirm that the City of Edinburgh Council had agreed to our request for the Community Asset Transfer of Victoria Primary School. But that word request is crucial. Without the Council’s agreement under the Community Empowerment (2015) Scotland Act no one could do anything.

Now no one can prevent us succeeding unless we ourselves fail – and we certainly don’t intend to fail. The important word here is WE because that includes YOU.

Why has the Council granted our request? The official statement on their website says:The community benefit is substantial compared to the value of the asset.The request will make a significant positive contribution to The City of Edinburgh Council’s aspirations and values.

We can now reveal “the value of the asset” – £785,000. But the Council can’t give it away. They need money from its sale to build the new school in Western Harbour. However, before they could put it on the open market they were required by the 2015 Act to offer it first to “the community”.

If we could show we would use it to meet their aims they would give us a discount. So they reduced the price by £85,000. 

The £700,000 we will pay will help build the best Primary School in the Edinburgh whilst we go on to create Scotland’s first specifically dedicated Multigenerational Community Hub. That should make YOU feel very proudand very determined to succeed in the huge challenge ahead. 
We’ve already started fundraising. We had to begin our Business Plan long before we succeeded in our CAT application – and before the challenge of a global pandemic.

Our charity, The Heart of Newhaven Community SCIO, has already applied to the Scottish Land Fund for the entire cost of purchase and fees. This Fund is provided by the Scottish Government to make grants for exactly the kind of thing we are doing.

But it is not a bottomless purse and there are many applications. We will know the degree of our success before the end of November but in addition to buying the site we need money for changes – including a lift to make the imaginative Heritage Suite more accessible. 

We are working NOW so that if by next March the purchase is complete, an arrangement can be made for the children to continue to use it until their new school is ready.

Every stage needs planning, so we are preparing ways for the Heart of Newhaven Community to grow together, supporting each other to create that Better Normal that is going to characterise life after Covid19.

You will shortly receive a personal invitation to become closely associated as a MEMBER of our dedicated SCIO SC04419.  But you needn’t even wait for that.
A growing number of people are volunteering and asking “Is there anything I can do now?” You won’t be left waiting for long for an answer!

In fact, you could answer the question for yourself and tell us what you would like to do. Look at our developing website heartofnewhaven.co.uk to get a bright idea and tell us what you think.

Rodney Matthews

Chair and Vision Facilitator, The Heart of Newhaven Community

Edinburgh Direct Aid leads relief effort by Syrian refugees in Beirut

The small Scottish charity Edinburgh Direct Aid has deployed a team of carpenters and other construction workers, trained in their vocational training depot in Arsal, Lebanon, to repair windows and doors destroyed by the recent blast in Beirut port.

Maggie Tookey, EDA’s international aid director, has arrived in Beirut to lead and plan the work. EDA is one of the very few NGO’s, so far, to begin actual repair work.

For over 6 years Edinburgh Direct Aid has been helping 50,000 Syrian refugees in Arsal, a small Lebanese town high above the Bekaa valley, near the Syrian border. All this aid has been passing through Beirut.

Now EDA has brought a team of Syrian refugees from Arsal to Beirut to carry out emergency repairs after the explosion at the port on August 4th. The team is drawn from graduates of construction courses at EDA’s vocational training centre in Arsal, which are run in partnership with the German “Green Helmets” organisation.

EDA and Green Helmets, are working together in Karantina, a poor residential area of Beirut near the port. Many living in this area have lost not only friends & family, but also their jobs at the port, & have suffered heavy damage to their houses.  

While many NGOs in Beirut are providing food & medical supplies, or carrying out damage assessment, the EDA – Green Helmets team is one of very few (so far) actually working to shore up & repair houses.

The team brought with them woodworking & other machinery from Arsal, now set up in a marquee on some nearby waste ground, & is using its specialised skills to make & replace doors & windows & their frames as needed, & to carry out other repairs to ensure the traumatised local people have shelter.

Working conditions are grim. The need for precautions against coronavirus is ever prevalent; the midsummer heat is relentless; access to supplies & communications in the city is erratic.

MAGGIE TOOKEY, Edinburgh Direct Aid’s international projects director, is leading the team in Beirut. OnWednesday, she wrote from the scene: 

“Beirut is complete chaos. It feels to have lost all its spirit but the strength of the continuing protests seem to belie that. Maybe it’s the depth of anger that everyone seems to hold, apparent in everyone I speak to about how the explosion and the economic collapse came to pass. The city seems to have no guidance and no authority to control anything. It’s almost lawless despite the state of emergency and the presence of the Lebanese army on the streets.

Traffic congestion is the worst I’ve ever known. It takes me almost 2 hours to get to our work site near the port – a distance of 6 kilometres. I’ve now measured it. The army closes roads at random. Inside the city, thousands of volunteers are sweeping up glass and masonry and endless streams of small trucks come to take it away, choking up the narrow streets even more. Much of it gets left – swept into big piles in any corner behind houses and kiosks, probably destined to remain there for months/years.

Maggie’s ‘office’

The port area which I pass every day, is a sort of Ground Zero. Nothing is recognisable in the blast area. A desert of twisted metal overlooked by huge and ruined silo towers, still standing but spilling out their contents to form a grain mountain.

People come to stare in the evening when it’s cooler. They come from all over Lebanon taking selfies and endless pictures of the disaster. They come in big 4 wheel drive cars, blocking the roads and preventing those of us trying to get to work. It’s very hard not to get out and yell at them when stuck at a chaotic road intersection for 20 minutes unable to move. The police are useless. They do nothing. They’ve given up.

The blast was terrifying. 50% of the force went out to sea towards Cyprus. The other 50% went deep into the city. God only knows what would have happened had the blast not been on a small peninsula by the sea.

Karantina is an area of roughly 1 sq km, the nearest part being less then 500 meters from the epicentre of the blast. The community is mostly poor Lebanese and a few Syrian families. EDA, along with our partners, the Green Helmets, have set up a carpentry workshop with machinery brought from our base in Arsal and a team of EDA refugees trained in setting up shelters and repairing housing in Arsal.

The workshop is on a patch of rough land by several blocks of 3/4 storey flats which have all suffered damage. As with many buildings the explosion blasted out windows and doors.

There’s also some structural damage: we have an engineer in our team to check possible problems. Many men in these families are port workers; some were killed or injured and most have lost friends in the explosion.

The team is making window frames, door frames on site in the makeshift workshop and every night, 2 of the team take turns in sleeping there to guard the valuable, rented machinery. We have a target of 200 windows but of course the need is endless. We will see how the project plays out in terms of funding. Right now it’s hot, hard, noisy work but the residents are delighted to get our help.

Meanwhile in Beirut the protests continue; sometimes the army fires off their guns to clear the streets which causes alarm when it’s close by.”

Edinburgh Direct Aid initial target is to repair 100 apartments at a cost of around $10,000. With more cash we could do much more, to help out not only with repairs in Beirut, but also in mitigation of the terrible effects of the hyper-inflation & lock down in Arsal.

To help pay for this work by refugees making some repayment for the sanctuary they have received from a desperately beleaguered country, donations can be made, please, at:

https://www.edinburghdirectaid.org

or by cheque to: EDA, 29 Starbank Rd., Edinburgh EH5 3BY

or by ringing 0131 552 1545.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Support in North Edinburgh

Local organisations have put together a booklet listing mental health & wellbeing support services in North Edinburgh (see below).

If you need support call the new Community Wellbeing Helpline on 0131 332 8773.

North Edinburgh Covid-19 Foodshare Group – UPDATED INFORMATION

HELP AND SUPPORT AVAILABLE IN NORTH EDINBURGH

Final 2 North Edinburgh Food Network Info UPDATED 16 APRIL v3

We LOVE our community!

Scottish groups receive special National Lottery 25th birthday funding to bring their great community ideas to life 

  • Scottish projects are among the lucky recipients of The National Lottery’s special 25th birthday fund
  • Minishant Social and Leisure Club in AyrshireKinellar Community Hall in Aberdeenshire and Friends of Starbank Park in Edinburgh are amongst the groups spreading love in their communities and bringing people together
  • #CelebrateNationalLottery25 invited applications from anyone with a great idea to make a difference in their local community

last year’s event at Starbank Park

The National Lottery is using Valentine’s Day to reveal some of the local champions who love their community so much that they applied for a special grant to do something positive locally – and were successful.

Over 200 projects in Scotland will receive money from the fund – called #CelebrateNationalLottery25 – after they applied to the £2 million pot last December. Among them is local group Friends of Starbank Park.

The fund, which has now closed, invited applications from anyone with a great idea to make a difference in their local community. Up to £1,000 was available to them, showing that no individual or idea is too small to make a big difference and bring people together across the Scotland.

An award of £250 means that the Friends of Starbank Park will be able to organise a very special Cherry Blossom Picnic at the picturesque community park in North Edinburgh.

Graham Buckley said; “This brilliant funding from The National Lottery means that this year in May we can open up this even further by inviting groups of disadvantaged people from surrounding areas to join our annual Cherry Blossom picnic events.

“We hope that this will lead to these groups and individuals, especially the children, start using this unique park on a regular basis in the future.” 

An award of £1,000 to Minishant Social and Leisure Group means that the small village in South Ayrshire is able to host its first community gala for 20 years. 

Jackie Murray said: “This is amazing, we have little amenities here and we are extremely grateful to have received this money from The National Lottery to help us organise our Gala Day in June this year.

“As many of us who live here will remember this used to be such a highlight that everyone looked forward to each summer.  The money will be used to lease the grounds and buildings required, hire inflatables and the carriage for the king and queen.   Our Gala Day will see neighbours of all ages coming together to socialise and I can’t think of a better way to pull community spirits back together.”

In Aberdeenshire, Kinellar Community Hall receives £1,000 to organise a very special party for the local community which will celebrate the hall’s 15th birthday.

Kirsty Quin said: “What a wonderful way to celebrate our community hall’s birthday. We are having an afternoon tea party on 29 February with lots of entertainment and a performance from the local school choir.

“The hall is in the heart of our village and this event will be a very special way for the whole community to get together. Thanks so much from all the Kinellar Community Hall staff and board.”

The National Lottery Community Fund Scotland Director, Neil Ritch, said: “It’s fantastic to see people’s love for their communities inspiring them to use National Lottery funding to make great things happen – we’ve been blown away by all the great ideas.

“#CelebrateNationalLottery25 is supporting a wide variety of projects across Scotland this year, all bringing people together to show the impact that small grants can make.”

Thanks to National Lottery players, more than £40 billion has been raised for good causes in the areas of arts, sport, heritage and community over the last 25 years.

#CelebrateNationalLottery25 is funded and delivered by The National lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

The #CelebrateNationalLottery25 fund marked the culmination of a major campaign by The National Lottery celebrating its impact over the past 25 years and thanking players for contributing £30 million to good causes every week.

The National Lottery Community Fund is responsible for giving out money raised by National Lottery players for good causes.  Last year it gave out over £36m of National Lottery funding to community projects across Scotland. Over 1291 projects benefitted from this, enabling people and communities to bring their ideas to life.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk   

Labour launch North & Leith general election campaign

Scottish Labour and Co-operative party candidate for Edinburgh North and Leith, Gordon Munro, launched his campaign at The Prentice Centre in Granton Mains Avenue yesterday. 

The launch was attended by members, activists and supporters who then started out on the campaign trail, canvassing and speaking to local people about the issues that matter in this election (see below).   Continue reading Labour launch North & Leith general election campaign