Uncategorized – Page 245 – The NEN

Community Shares roadshow to hit the capital

Event to highlight new ways to generate funding

The Community Shares Scotland (CSS) team are holding the next roadshow in their pan-Scotland series at the Melting Pot in Rose Street this Friday (1 May).

The aim of the event is to show local communities how they can utilise an alternative funding method to develop their own projects and invest in their own futures.

It also offers groups a chance to meet and mingle with other community groups who are interested in setting up a share offer or learn from those who have had success already.

CSS programme manager, Kelly McIntyre, said: “We launched our roadshow programme last year with the aim of growing the community enterprise market through practical application and help people progress their own community projects.

“We are now beginning to see a network of like-minded enterprises grow across Scotland using community shares to generate income for their communities – from Fort William to Dunbar, Aberdeen to Harris and throughout Scotland.

“People have asked us for case studies and examples of other enterprises whom have been successful in getting their projects, big and small off the ground.

“For example, the Sunart renewable energy hydro scheme in Lochaber is real example of community spirit and effort to make an ambitious project a reality.

“And right on our door-step we have local greengrocer, Dig-In Bruntsfield Community Greengrocers Ltd, who will be giving a talk on the day about their experience of setting up a community greengrocer business through their community share offer.

Dig-In’s Catherine Francis said: “We are a community-owned and supported, not-for-profit greengrocer in Edinburgh who supply locally-sourced produce and foster community spirit.

“Thanks to our incredible volunteers, community shareholders and committee membership, we are now a thriving enterprise.

“We function along the lines of a community enterprise model, offering community shares which keeps us rooted in the community. We’re looking forward to participating in the Community Shares Roadshow on 1 May– coincidentally, also the first anniversary of our shop opening!”

Kelly McIntyre added: “Fair Trade is another area where community share schemes have been used to provide a different model for developing a live project.

“For example, Glasgow-based Bala Sport are a new co-operatively-led venture that plans to take Fairtrade Sports balls to the same level of awareness and sales as other popular Fairtrade products, such as bananas, coffee, tea, sugar and chocolate.”

Angus Coull, marketing and communications director of Bala Sport, explained: “As a start-up community benefit society, selling high-quality Fairtrade-certified sports balls, the help and support we received from Kelly at Community Shares Scotland was invaluable.

“With no previous experience and little knowledge of how community share offers work, so it was like having our own account manager with personal one-to-one advice and a lot of social media back-up.

“I was surprised at the amount of input from CSS – you can tell they really do want your business to succeed and they naturally know their stuff.”

He added: “As a tiny co-op competing with big brand sports balls companies, we need to raise £150,000 to help us buy in sufficient levels of stock in our early stages and we wanted to make a big impact at our launch event.

“We booked Hampden Stadium and, with the financial support from Community Shares Scotland, we were able to produce high impact promotional materials to reinforce the message and help convince the potential investors at the event.

“When Kelly thinks we’re easing off on the awareness raising, she’ll let us know – and the CSS tweets will start coming thick and fast – very welcome motivation and a pleasure to deal with.”

Bala Sports balls come from Fairtrade accredited factories in Sialkot, Pakistan, where both workers and the wider community benefit from the Fairtrade premium that is paid.

The current share offer closes on 31 May 2015 and people are encouraged to invest as little as £50 to meet the target of £150,000.

Check out the offer at http://www.microgenius.org.uk/project/fair-trade-sports-balls-limited-30

Free roadshow event but booking essential:

Friday, 1 May 10:0am to 3:0pm

The Melting Pot, 5 Rose Street, EH2 2PR

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/community-shares-scotland-edinburgh-roadshow-tickets-16015653250

Any questions? Give us a call on 0131 220 3777

CSS is made up of a consortium of partners, DTAS, Co-operatives UK, Locality, Plunkett Foundation and Rocket Science.

A cut above: Granton hosts Xposure heat

Edinburgh College hosted the Scottish regional heat of the Wella Xposure competition to find the UK’s top young hair stylists, with 20 students competing for a place in the final.

Students from colleges across Scotland came to Edinburgh College’s Hair and Beauty Academy for the competition, carrying out cut and colours on models using Wella products. Three expert judges from leading hairdressers watched the students work and, after the models took to the catwalk, selected their winners.

The judges were drawn from top Scottish salons – Jamie McDonald, from Cheynes Hairdressing, Khaliegh Sullivan from Patterson SA Hairdressing and Sammy Galloway from McIntyre’s Salons – chose five winners to go forward to the UK final.

The final will take place in Wella’s London studio in June, where a prize of £1,000 of Wella vouchers and a salon toolkit worth £500 will be won.

The students chosen to compete in the final (pictured above) were: Marisa Sonkur, Borders College; Laura Bowman, Fife College; Hayley Rollo, Fife College; Zoe Coull, Moray College UHI; Shannon Devenney, South Lanarkshire College.

Judge Jamie McDonald said: “The competition was really good. The standard of work is just awesome. It’s great to see the college supporting these kids and giving them a chance to be exposed to the bigger hairdressing world. Competitions like this let students see where they can actually go out in the world when they finish college.”

Jamie was also impressed by the Hair and Beauty Academy facilities on offer at the college’s Granton Campus, adding: “The college is phenomenal. Last time I was here two years ago I thought it was amazing, and the work the college has done in the salons since is really brilliant. Again, it gives the students the chance to see what it’s really like to work in a salon environment as opposed to the training room through the back and gives them a real experience of hairdressing.”

Edinburgh College students Debbie Sloey and Zara Brown (above) were among the 20 competitors, with Debbie (top) following up a recent gold medal at the Association of Hairdressers and Therapists’ annual UK-wide competition.

Frances Bain, curriculum manager for hair, beauty and complementary therapies at Edinburgh College, said: “Wella Xposure is a fiercely contested competition and we are very proud of Debbie and Zara getting through to the Scottish heats as this reflects the high standard of work they both produced.”

The college’s Hair & Beauty Academy at Granton is split into a beauty salon, spa and the college’s Wella Centre of Excellence salon, and includes Scotland’s first college ‘eco’ hair and beauty academy. The new academy is the first of its kind to provide a range of environmental features, including a ceramic fuel cell that uses hydrogen to convert gas to electricity and produce hot water as a by-product.

The academies are open to staff, students and the general public and offer a professional quality service for good-value prices.

Edinburgh College offers a wide range of hair, beauty and complementary therapy courses. Applications are currently invited for these courses and more than 900 other courses across the curriculum offered by Edinburgh College and starting in August on its four campuses. See www.edinburghcollege.ac.uk for more information on how to apply.

Book your seat at PCHP exercise training course

This weekend (Sat 18th & Sun 19th April) Pilton Community Health Project (PCHP) are very excited to be piloting a brand new ‘Seated Exercise Training Course’.

This has been developed by PCHP’s Physical Activity Development Worker in partnership with Specialist Instructors and Physiotherapists, in response to long term local need in North Edinburgh (and beyond).

For a number of years the physical activity development work at the PCHP has identified (and attempted to fill) a gap in the provision of regular physical activity for older people in residential homes, sheltered housing and lunch clubs. We strongly believe that every older person should have access to regular and FREE activity sessions that will maintain functionality and improve quality of life.

Please share this around your networks, there are still 3 or 4 spaces available on the training and it would be a real shame to see them go to waste!

Furthermore, since this is the first pilot it is FREE OF CHARGE!

Do you or someone you know work with (or would like to work with) older adults in North Edinburgh?

Do you or someone you know have an interest in and appreciation of the importance of keeping active in later life?

Are you interested in learning about the effects of ageing on the body and how this impacts health?

Would you like to gain new skills and knowledge around leading activity sessions for specialist groups?

Would you like to volunteer to deliver seated exercise sessions in North Edinburgh that might improve the health of older people?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions then this training might be just what you are looking for!

The training will be taking place at Pilton Community Health Project as follows:

Sat 18^th April 9.30am-3.45pm

Sun 19^th Apr 10.00am-3.15pm

If you are interested in taking part then please get in touch with liannepipskyj@pchp.org.uk or call 0131 551 1671 asap to secure your place!

Healthy regards

Lianne Pipskyj (Development Worker – Physical Activity)

Pilton Community Health Project

73 Boswall Parkway Edinburgh, EH5 2PW

0131 551 1671

liannepipskyj@pchp.org.uk

www.pchp.org.uk

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A monkey or a lizard?

No more squabbles over the remote control?

Avoiding family arguments over the remote control or mobile phone use could become a reality with the launch today of a new resource to help people learn more about the science of their brain and the role it plays in household conflict.

Science Festival audiences will be the first to try out a new way to learn how to better manage family arguments this evening, as leading professionals join forces to promote a newly designed online resource to ‘mainstream’ conflict resolution and mediation tools.

The new resource challenges people to learn more about the way their brain works and how deeply-engrained early experiences can shape the way they deal with conflict at home.

The new ‘Monkey v Lizard’ quiz – which can be found at http://bit.ly/TestMyBrain – has received the backing of doctor and medical advisor, Dr Sara Watkin.

It was designed by Scotland’s first-ever national mediation resource centre, the Cyrenians Scottish Centre for Conflict Resolution (SCCR), which marks its first year in operation this month.

A SCCR spokesperson explained: “The development of the resource comes off the back of successful training sessions run by the SCCR to help parents, young people and professionals across Scotland to better manage conflict.

“In its first year, the charity has run 53 sessions, with 730 attendees, and 83 per cent of those say they felt more confident in dealing with family conflict resolution.

“And the initiative it is part of the SCCR’s national campaign to raise awareness of conflict at home and the impact on young people and their families. Every year in Scotland, 5,000 young people become homeless because of family relationship breakdown.”

The new resource will be launched at the Science Festival event – Because You Know…It’s All About That Brain – which will look at the causes and effects of conflict and the role the brain plays in it.

Users will be led on a journey to discover what part of their brain they use when arguing, before being provided with more serious tools and tips on how to better resolve differences and access new ways of thinking.

Key areas of our brains are The Old Brain (lizard) and The New Brian (monkey). The Old Brain, determines our reactions and protects us from danger (our ‘fight or flight’), while our New Brain is what allows us to reflect, be aware and assess our reactions.

The new online quiz shows that, while important to keep us safe in certain circumstance, too much lizard (Old Brain) can lead to conflict escalating. By learning to access our monkey (New Brain) we are more able to do things to reduce conflict, for example, listen, reflect, empathise and communicate.

Diane Marr, network development manager at the SCCR, explained the thinking behind the resource: “We all have a drugs cabinet in our brains.

“Conflict releases the fight or flight hormones, adrenaline and cortisol. That’s great if we’re a solider at war, or a football player going for the winning goal. But not when we’re trying to decide which programmes to watch on TV, for example.

“We can try to change the way we deal with arguments. We can learn to cuddle our inner monkey and care for our lizard better. We can reduce the stress and anxiety we feel when experiencing conflict and do things in a new and different way.”

She added: “Every year thousands of young people become homeless because their relationship with their family breaks down – but they are just the tip of the iceberg of those struggling to deal with conflict.

“Through this resource, website and our national campaign we want to find ways to engage young people and families to take a look at how they can stop, talk and listen to each other better.”

“Professional and those working in conflict resolution have known about phrases and tools like de-escalation but what that’s about is learning how to breathe, take a break, go for a walk and learn to listen. We want to try to mainstream these tools to help families. By leaning ways to be more Monkey, we can learn more about ourselves, our emotions, responses and relationships.”

Medical advisor, Dr Sara Watkin, has given her backing to the SCCR’s newest resource. At tonight’s Science Festival event she will be joining SCCR onstage to talk through the physical and emotional impact of conflict and how it connects to the brain.

Dr Watkin said: “Most of us want to live amongst calm people, not hot heads. But to produce generations of sorted-out individuals, the people caring for infants must be able to open up to those babies and infants.

“Parents and babies share rhythms. The delight heard in the giggles that emerge at around three months corresponds to structural brain developments. This ‘you delight in me’ conversation nurtures confidence. It is the basis for forming relationships that matter.

“Get this wrong (or don’t get it at all) and you are on a path to producing people who don’t feel safe. It may seem as though there is no quick fix for resolving conflict. But we need to try.”

The ‘Monkey v Lizard’ initiative is part of the SCCR’s wider ‘Stop. Talk. Listen’ campaign, which aims to get people thinking about how they can stop, talk and listen to avoid longer term resentments and fall-outs.

The campaign aims to put conflict resolution and mediation on the agenda, similar to the changes in attitudes to mental health, and give families and practitioners working with young people the tools to help deal with arguments in the home.

Edinburgh writers awarded RLS Fellowship

well, one’s a Leither!

Edinburgh-based writer Lynsey May (32) and poet and playwright Michael Pedersen (30) have been named by Scottish Book Trust as two of four recipients of a 2015 Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, involving a month-long writing residency in France (above).

Lynsey, a previous Scottish Book Trust New Writer Awardee, lives in Leith and will attend the residency in June. She has placed fiction in a variety of journals and publications and has read at a number of literary festivals across the country. During the residency she will work on a new novel set in Leith. Lynsey has lived in and around Edinburgh her whole life, attending university and starting a career in the city.

Lynsey said: “I couldn’t be more grateful for the wonderful gift of time, space and inspiration the RLS Fellowship offers -and plan to make the most of every minute! I’m particularly looking forward to briefly disengaging with all of the stresses and distractions of everyday life and completely immersing myself in the novel I’m working on.”

Michael, who will attend the residency in November, has published two celebrated chapbooks, and a debut collection Play with Me with Polygon. He is a Canongate Future 40, a 2010 Callum McDonald Memorial Award finalist, the John Mather’s Charitable Trust Rising Star of Literature 2014; as well as a budding playwright and lyricist, and co-founder of the Neu! Reekie! collective. During the residency he’ll work towards a second collection of poetry and on sculpting a feature film script – a collaboration with Scottish Director Robert McKillop.

Michael said: “I’ve had my lasers set on the RLS Fellowship for a couple of years now but 2015 (for a veritable swarm of reasons) is the paragoning point for it – there’s something more tectonic at play.

“As well as my poetry taking on fresh shapes and forms, I’m exploring a new medium in script writing. Sequel collections and inaugural scripts are both formidable endeavours and what more inspiring a place to tackle such literary behemoths than Grez-sur-Loing. Not only to tackle but to have an arsenal of anointments behind you – those being the RLS Fellowship and its history of lustrous literary and artistic visitants – steam to the engine and then some.

“I was elated to receive the call. There may have been a jump and some sort of rhythmical shimmy that resembled a cumbersome dance-move from decades beyond.”

The Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship was initiated in 1994 by Franki Fewkes, a Scottish RLS enthusiast, and is supported by Creative Scotland. Intended to give writers a chance to escape the hustle and bustle of their everyday lives to devote time to their writing, it provides residencies for four writers at the Hôtel Chevillon International Arts Centre at Grez-sur-Loing. Travel and accommodation are paid for, and there is a grant of £300 per week to cover living expenses.

Grez-sur-Loing is situated at the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau (top), and was chosen because of its connections with Robert Louis Stevenson who first visited in 1875. It was there, at the Hôtel Chevillon, that he met his future wife Fanny Osbourne. Stevenson found both the place, and its community of writers and artists, highly attractive and he returned to Grez-sur-Loing for three successive summers.

Caitrin Armstrong, Head of Writer Development at Scottish Book Trust, said: “We’re delighted to offer this fantastic opportunity to such talented, engaging writers. These residencies are a great opportunity for writers to spend time on their work without the distractions of everyday life. I look forward to reading the work Lynsey and Michael produce in such inspirational surroundings.”

The two other successful 2015 Fellows are writer, director and translator Alan McKendrick and debut author Malachy Tallack.

Best behaviour warning ahead of Edinburgh derby

Police are reminding football fans that a ‘robust policing operation’ will be in place at this weekend’s derby match to identify anyone in possession of alcohol, fireworks or flares.

Over 15,000 spectators are expected to attend Easter Road Stadium for Sunday’s Hibs v Hearts clash, and fans are being warned that anti-social drinking in the surrounding streets will not be tolerated and the relevant by-law will be enforced.

Police will also assist stewards to carry out searches outside the stadium to prevent illegal or prohibited items being brought into the ground.

Superintendent Liz McAinsh said: “Like any derby day, this Sunday promises to be a great atmosphere with thousands within the city coming along to the match or watching it in the city’s pubs.

“The vast majority of supporters demonstrate exemplary behaviour and are a credit to their clubs – however, we will have a number of resources in place to target the minority of individuals whose behaviour can put both themselves and others at risk. This includes officers visiting local pubs and areas where groups gather.

“Officers and stewards will be carrying out searches of fans entering Easter Road and anyone found with illicit or illegal materials will be prohibited from entering and may face further police action.”

Hampden hat-trick for Edinburgh College students!

Anti-racism treble for city students

Edinburgh College students came out top in the Show Racism the Red Card Scotland design competition, taking the top three spots in the Further Education category at an awards ceremony at Hampden Park last week.

Jennifer Grieve won the category, with fellow students Liam Philip and William Blake being highly commended for their designs. They are all studying NC Graphic Design at the college, and impressed judges with their poster designs interpreting the competition theme ‘Celebrating Diversity’.

Show Racism the Red Card Scotland runs an annual competition challenging young people to come up with a creative way of promoting their messages of anti-racism and anti-sectarianism.

The students were presented with their prizes by Liam Craig, the club captain of Hibernian FC, and Rangers FC’s Bilel Mohsni.

More than 4,000 young people across Scotland took part in this year’s competition with entrants coming from as far as the Isle of Skye and Dunoon as well as schools in the central belt. The competition sends a clear message that young people want Scotland to be a welcoming and multi-cultural society.

The students’ lecturer, Helena Good, said: “I am delighted that our three talented students were recognised with awards by Show Racism the Red Card Scotland. I was very impressed by the quality of the poster designs they produced, which really captured the core of the campaign’s anti-racism message using exciting well-thought-out visuals.”

Vicki Burns, campaign manager for Show Racism the Red Card, said: “I am amazed at how creative our young people can be in finding ways to get the anti-racism and anti-sectarianism messages across. Everyone participating in the competition should be congratulated for their inspirational work. The 4,000 young people who took part in the competition are giving Scotland a clear message – the country they want to live in has no room for racism and sectarianism.”

Art and Design students at Edinburgh College are given a range of opportunities to develop their practical design skills through entering design competitions and taking part in design challenges. HND Visual Communication: Graphic Design students take part in a yearly one week design challenge with design briefs set by high profile organisations such as Innis & Gunn, Cutty Sark Whisky and Edinburgh Zoo.

Edinburgh College offers a range of art and design courses, from entry level courses for students with additional needs to HND level courses in illustration, graphic design and 3D animation. Applications are currently invited for these courses and more than 900 other courses across the curriculum offered by Edinburgh College and starting in August on its four campuses.

See www.edinburghcollege.ac.uk for more information on how to apply.

Babies will receive Meningitis B vaccine ‘as quickly as possible’

Vaccine to be part of Scottish childhood immunisation programme

All infants in the UK are to be offered a vaccination against meningitis B following a deal struck between the Westminster government and drug manufacturing giant GlaxoSmithKline. The agreement was also reached on behalf of the Scottish Government and Scotland’s health secretary Shona Robison said the vaccine will be offered here ‘as quickly as possible’.

The NHS will now introduce the vaccine, Bexsero, to the immunisation programme for infants. Vaccination will prevent the life-threatening strain of meningitis to all infants – around 1,200 people, mainly babies and children, get meningitis caused by the meningococcal group B bacteria each year in the UK, with around one in 10 dying from the infection.

The vaccination will be given in three doses at two, four and 12 months, with all babies in Scotland aged two months at the point of introduction being eligible. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has also advised that when the programme starts there should be a one-off, catch-up programme for babies aged three and four months of age.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “The Scottish Government has been consistent in its support for the introduction of the Meningitis B vaccine, Bexsero. We will now work to roll out the vaccination programme as quickly as possible.

“The Meningitis B vaccine will now form part of the routine childhood immunisation programme in Scotland, underlining our commitment to ensuring the health and wellbeing of our children.

“Meningitis B is life-threatening and can affect people of any age, but is most common in babies and young children. By offering this vaccine as part of the routine programme we will be able prevent this and save lives. This disease can be devastating for children and their families and I’m very pleased we can now take the necessary steps to tackle its effects.”

Scotland leads the world with lifesaving strategy

Strategy aims to save 1,000 lives from cardiac arrest by 2020

A new strategy has been launched which aims to save 1,000 lives from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) over the next five years. Scotland’s Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy is the first such comprehensive document produced on a national scale anywhere in the world.

Maureen Watt, Minister for Public Health, introduced the strategy at the Scottish Cardiac Arrest Symposium, an international gathering of leading experts, in Edinburgh yesterday. She also confirmed that £100,000 of health consequential spending resulting from last week’s budget will be used to support delivery of the strategy and improve access to defibrillators.

The strategy sets a goal of increasing survival rates from OHCA by 10 per cent at the end of the five year strategy. This would mean around 1,000 lives being saved by 2020.

Some of the aims include:

• Equipping a further 500,000 people with CPR skills by 2020
• Improved mapping of defibrillators so that emergency call handlers can quickly direct members of the public to them
• Ensure that patients are always taken to a place with appropriate post cardiac arrest care
• To provide better support to survivors and their families and ensure that any any bystanders and others impacted by OHCA are given support after the event
• To reduce inequalities in survival
• To increase people’s confidence to attempt CPR if they witness a cardiac arrest

When a person goes into cardiac arrest their heart and breathing stops, meaning they will die in minutes. Prompt resuscitation, by CPR or if needed, a defibrillator, is essential to improve chances of survival. CPR delivered quickly can increase chances of survival threefold.

The strategy has been jointly produced by a range of stakeholders including the Scottish Government, British Heart Foundation, Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland, Scottish Ambulance Service, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Police Scotland

A key element of the strategy is for all these stakeholders to work together to improve the crucial ‘chain of survival’ from the moment of cardiac arrest, through to hospital admission and into aftercare.

Maureen Watt, Minister for Public Health, said: “Currently around one in 20 people survive cardiac arrest. We want to greatly increase that number, and that is what this strategy is all about.

“The best way to ensure that more people survive out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is to increase the number of people who have CPR skills, and crucially, to make sure they are confident enough to attempt resuscitation if the need arises.

“If we succeed in our aims, there will be 1,000 lives saved by 2020. That is an ambitious target, but it is one that we believe is achievable and well worth aiming for. I am also pleased to be able to confirm that a further £100,000 of investment to support this strategy.”

Simon Gillespie, British Heart Foundation Chief Executive, said: “Scotland has already embraced the concept of creating a nation of lifesavers, and we’re now supporting around three quarters of secondary schools in teaching their pupils vital CPR skills.

“And today, we’re delighted to see the launch of the Scottish Government’s Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest strategy. This is a real commitment to ensuring Scotland leads the way in creating a nation of lifesavers, and improving outcomes for people who suffer a cardiac arrest.”

Jim Ward, Medical Director, Scottish Ambulance Service, said: “Ambulance staff play a pivotal role in saving lives and the focus on continuously developing and improving resuscitation efforts is key to this.

“Our 3RU initiative that specifically targets cardiac arrests with the most appropriate paramedic response has increased survival rates. Our ambulance teams provide bystander CPR advice and our community resilience teams deliver a wide range of initiatives around the country, including First Responder programmes, community CPR training and provision of public access defibrillators.

“The Scottish Ambulance Service will continue to develop partnerships with allied organisations and communities, saving lives across Scotland.”

Wendy Armitage, Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland Cardiac Manager, said: “We know that there is much more to be done for people who survive cardiac arrest. Survivors often have specific needs such as social and psychological, however these needs are not being identified and addressed. Family and peer support is crucial for these patients, so the charity supports a network of affiliated heart groups across Scotland where people can speak to other people in similar circumstances.”

Fred Lippet, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Chief Executive of the Ambulance Service in Denmark, and one of the world’s leading experts in OHCA, said: “This is a fantastic strategy and, although it is stretching, I believe Scotland will achieve its goals due to the commitments made in the strategy.”

Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Strategy for Scotland can be found here:

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/7484