Community run family fun days are starting up again this Sunday, the 15th of September, between 1pm-5pm. Royston Wardieburn Community Centre (the big black building on Pilton Drive North) is open with arts & crafts, soft play, cookery, dance, games, sports, computers, Scottish history and more. It costs 50p per person to get in. It’s a chance to meet other people in the community and to have fun. You can pop in any time between 1 and 5pm. If you can’t make it this week, don’t worry – it’s on for the next ten weeks! Everyone’s welcome, including kids.
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Get your thinking caps on
North Edinburgh Arts Board Quiz Evening
TICKETS AVAILABLE TO BUY at http://neaquiz.eventbrite.co.uk
20th September 2013
5.30 – 10.00pm
Dinner served 5.30pm-7pm Quiz begins 7pm
Variety of drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic, to buy
With Quiz Compere – Nick Gardner
And Quiz Assistant – Joanne Stewart
Team Prize for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place winners
Raffle Prizes
Teams 4-8 persons
ALSO karaoke with Kim Edgar & Lissa McIntyre
£7 per person
(includes hot meal – meat or vegetarian and dessert)
nea_board2013@yahoo.co.uk
North Edinburgh Arts
15a Pennywell Court
DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A COUNCILLOR?
The search is on for community-minded individuals who want to make a difference in their local area.
Nominations are now being sought for people to take up places on all of the Capital’s 42 Community Councils, which offer an opportunity for the City of Edinburgh Council and local communities to work together.
The first Community Councils were established in Edinburgh in 1980 in Merchiston and Longstone, and more than 500 people are now members.
They each receive a grant to cover running costs and training is available. They are represented on each of the city’s 12 Neighbourhood Partnerships and work alongside elected members, representatives from NHS Lothian, Police Scotland, the voluntary sector and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to improve local areas and to allocate local grants.
Anyone aged 16 years or older and registered to vote can join. Nomination forms are available here and the nomination period ends on September 23.
MUIRHOUSE COMMUNITY SHOP TO HOST BIGGEST COFFEE MORNING
Muirhouse community shop on Pennywell Road will be raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support on Friday the 27th September. Between 9am and 5pm our volunteers will selling a large selection of cakes, sweets, teas and coffee.
So why not pop this date in your diary and pop in for a cuppa and a piece of cake in aid of charity.
In 2012 over 115,000 people signed up to this annual fundraising event and raised an impressive £15 million.
If you wish to donate a cake for this event please drop us an email muirhouseresidents@hotmail.com
DO YOU CARE FOR SOMEONE?
If you live in Edinburgh and provide unpaid care to family, friends and neighbours, you can have your say on how public and voluntary organisations can provide you with better support.
The City of Edinburgh Council has launched a consultation on its draft Joint Carers’ Strategy, developed in partnership with NHS Lothian, the voluntary sector and carers themselves.
The Joint Carers’ Strategy, and consultation, covers six priorities:
- identifying carers – helping people who care for others realise they can get support
- information and advice – carer training, advice, help with finances and benefits
- health and wellbeing – emotional, social and practical support to improve health
- short breaks and respite – giving carers a break from caring
- young adult carers – supporting the transition to adulthood for carers
- personalising support for carers – support that meets the individual needs of carers
The Council offers a range of support to carers, including a pilot scheme to provide a one-off Carer Support Payment of £250, which was recently highlighted as an example of best practice by the Scottish Government. The payment was made available to unpaid carers, adult and young carers who met the criteria, allowing them to spend some time on themselves to improve their health and wellbeing.
Another successful scheme has been the Carer’s Emergency Card, which was launched in November 2012. These cards are designed to inform emergency services that the holder is a carer and that someone depends on them. It also provides the names of people who can be contacted in case of an emergency. To date 258 carer’s cards have been registered and these will continue to be promoted.
Both schemes received positive feedback in a newly published carers’ survey, designed to evaluate these and other initiatives. The Carer Support Payment proved to be particularly popular, with 738 payments made to adult and young carers. 84% of people in receipt of the fund said that it provided them with the support as they intended and 30% chose to spend the money on respite or a short break.
ARE YOU A SMALL BUSINESS IN NORTH EDINBURGH? READ ON.
A pilot has been launched to encourage Edinburgh’s growing small to medium sized business sector to connect to superfast broadband.
The scheme is part of the UK Government’s £150 million super connected cities programme and is being delivered locally through Business Gateway.
Vouchers will be awarded to businesses to help cover the installation costs of connecting to superfast broadband services up to the value of £3,000. Businesses will pay the VAT costs and the ongoing subscription. The pilot is open until the end of September with the application process taking a couple of weeks to complete, therefore businesses need to move quickly to take advantage of the opportunity.
To qualify for a voucher, applicants should be small to medium sized or be a third sector organisation located in the City of Edinburgh Council area, have fewer than 250 employees and a turnover of less than £40m. Further information and the application form can be found at www.connectionvouchers.co.uk/edinburgh.
Going for a spin
Sainsbury’s Blackhall have got their big bike ride under way. Last week a
spin bike arrived in store until Sunday. Colleagues will be taking turns
to cycle the distance from Nairn to Carlise in store whilst other
colleagues take to the road and cycle the route stopping in at
Sainsbury’s stores along the way to fundraise for Maggie’s.
Gail and Aidan cycling today in-store said ‘customers have been very generous and a lot of them have personal experience with Maggie’s’
s.
LEIPing for joy! Community funding for Leith youth project
LEITH COMMUNITY PROJECT AWARDED FUNDING
A Leith community project has been awarded nearly £72,000. Port of Leith Housing Association (PoLHA) secured funds for Leith Early Intervention Project (LEIP) from the Scottish Government’s People and Communities Fund.
The partnership project – between Pilmeny Development Project, YMCA Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders Police, PoLHA and local schools – will receive £71,258 over the next two years.
The funds will provide early intervention and capacity building to give support to at least 190 young people excluded from generic youth work provision, and who are at risk of offending or are already offending.
Anne Munro, Project Manager for Pilmeny Development Project, said: “We are delighted to have received this funding as it will go towards providing effective intervention for young people via a tailored programme of street work, weekly drop in youth work, a mentoring service and opportunities to use and develop skills and experience through volunteering.”
Keith Anderson, Chief Executive at PoLHA, said: “LEIP is a fantastic initiative and I am delighted we have been able to support them through access to the Scottish Government’s People and Communities Fund.”
Emma Thomson is new PASS patron
British superstar and Oscar award winning actress Emma Thompson has become the new face of Edinburgh College’s Performing Arts Studio of Scotland (PASS). 
The Nanny McPhee and Sense and Sensibility star (pictured above), who is also a screenwriter and well-known human rights activist, has shown her support towards the performing arts arm of Edinburgh College by accepting the honour of being its patron.
Emma Thompson said: “Edinburgh College’sPerforming Arts Studio of Scotlandis an exciting, high octane, cutting edge centre that will attract much of the wealth of talent in Scotland and beyond. I’m very proud to be patron.”
The much-admired British actress became familiar with PASS after meeting Edinburgh College acting and theatre performance lecturer John Naples-Campbell when he was training as a theatre student at the Scottish Youth Theatre in Glasgow.
John said: “I first met Emma when I was 18 years old at the Scottish Youth Theatre (SYT). She came along to the theatre to hold a Q&A session with SYT students and, after listening to her talk about her career in the industry, I felt driven to continue with my career in performing arts – which is why I am anacting and theatre performance lecturer today.”
“We are absolutely thrilled to have Emma Thompson as patron as this means that our training at Edinburgh College is truly recognised by the very best in the industry. We look forward to welcoming her to our productions in the college’s theatre wherever possible, and we hope to work around her schedule to hold workshops with our students.”
John added: “Emma is an inspirational person, not only because of her many Academy Awards, but also because of her work as a human rights ambassador. Her tremendous work on stage and screen gives hope to any young person wishing to pursue a career in the arts and I know that having her as our patron will motivate and inspire our students to reach their full creative potential.”
As one of the world’s most respected actresses, Emma Thompson is known for her versatility in acting as well as screenwriting and she most recently appeared in The Boat That Rocked, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and as the voice of Queen Elinor in the Pixar animation Brave. As well as her work on screen, Emma Thompson also works as an educational ambassador for a UK-based human rights organisation, the Helen Bamber Foundation, to help rebuild the lives of, and inspire a new self-esteem in, survivors of human rights violations.
Edinburgh College offers a selection of dance, acting, technical theatre, costume design, and make up artistry courses.Former graduates from performing arts courses include Scottish actress Karen Gillan, who starred in the BBC’s Doctor Who. Previous students from PASS have also performed live at the O2 Arena and collaborated with Jon Lord at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, and have also performed live on stage with Lady Gaga.
Channel Four news coming to Edinburgh
Channel 4 News is taking to the road this week with#c4newspopup – travelling from Cornwall to Edinburgh assessing how real the economic recovery actually is through the eyes of local people.
On Friday (23 August), Channel 4 News will be in Edinburgh where presenter Jackie Long (pictured below) will be anchoring the programme live.
Throughout the day Jackie and her#c4newspopup team will be meeting the public and interacting live online with workers, businesses and consumers from the region reporting their stories and views on the economy and how it is affecting them.
We want to hear from everyone … from inspirational local figures to complaints over bin strikes; from the hot new local arts centre to the shops which have closed on the high street – we will be reporting all their stories on the programme and across all digital platforms.
We are asking people to get in touch with us with their stories via:
Twitter:@channel4news using the hashtag #c4newspopup
Email:c4newspopup@itn.co.uk
More information:http://www.channel4.com/news/c4-news-pop-up-economic-recovery-economy-british-business-uk
