Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre comes of age

DNC – still the place to be!

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Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre celebrated a very special birthday at the weekend – the community hub off Groathill Road North is 21! Former staff, board members old and new and local politicians Edinburgh West MP Michelle Thomson and Inverleith councillors Nigel Bagshaw, Gavin Barrie and Lesley Hinds joined current community members and volunteers for a Friday night of memories and celebration.

Drylaw Community Association chair Alex Dale welcomed guests  and said: “It’s hard to believe we have been here for 21 years and I’d like to think that, despite the funding difficulties we’ve experienced this year, going forward we will be here for the community for another 21 years.”

Inverleith councillor Lesley Hinds has lived in Drylaw for nearly forty years and remembers the local campaign to get a dedicated community centre for the area. She told guests: “This Centre has been a great asset for both the young and old in our community and it’s great to see so many old friends here who were involved in the campaign here tonight.

“However as you will all know it’s been a difficult year financially and next year will be just as challenging for the council. If you don’t use it you lose it, so it’s up to you to keep pressure on us as councillors to try to get other resources in to keep the centre here at the heart of the community. Thanks to all the staff past and present and all the people who have supported and used the centre over the years and have made it such a success.”

more pictures to follow

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North Edinburgh Arts AGM date set

NORTH EDINBURGH ARTS

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Tuesday 25 October at 12 noon

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North Edinburgh Arts
Invites you to an
Annual General Meeting

To be held at North Edinburgh Arts
15a Pennywell Court
Edinburgh, EH4 4TZOn Tuesday 25th October at 12 noon
Soup and sandwiches will be served at 12.30pm

Creche available on requestCome and hear about the work of NEA, plans for the next three years, and have an opportunity to share your ideas for the organisation with us.

To RSVP and reserve a creche space call Sandra on 0131 315 2151 or email admin@northedinburgharts.co.uk by the 14th October.

Directions to the venue can be found here.

 

Living in Harmony: understanding hate crime

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The next Living in Harmony forum will be on Thursday 13th October, 10-12 at Pilton Community Health Project. There will be crèche available if booked in advance.

The theme of the session will be on understanding hate crime and we will have input from the police and from another project working with young people on hate crime in North Edinburgh. There will be an opportunity to explore what hate crime is, discuss how to raise awareness about it among our communities, and also to sign up your organisation to become a third party reporting centre.

It would be helpful if you could RSVP so that we have an idea of numbers.

Kind regards

Hannah Kitchen

Development Worker, Living in Harmony,

Pilton Community Health Project

0131 551 1671

hannahkitchen@pchp.org.uk

www.pchp.org.uk

Like us on Facebook for regular updates www.facebook.com/PiltonCommunityHealthProject

 

 

 

Parklife: Free parkour sessions at West Pilton Park

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There will be three days of Parkour workshops in West Pilton Park. For children age 12+. Spaces are limited – so book now!

Three days of Parkour in the park from 14:00 – 15:30 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday October 17th -21st.

Learn how to interact with the park and the local environment through the eyes of a Parkour practitioner – it is a free class! 

The workshops are run by Access Parkour supported by PCHP as part of the West Pilton Park project.

Supported by Pilton Community Health Project.

Booking is essential! 

Please spread the word! 

Go to https://bookwhen.com/accessparkour?tags

Lianne Pipskyj & Clare Symonds

Development workers – Physical Activity

Pilton Community Health Project

http://www.pchp.org.uk/

Brave@Heart: First Minister presents bravery awards

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Thirty-five people from blue-light services, voluntary sector rescue organisations and the public have been presented with Brave@Heart Awards recognising acts of bravery. The awards were presented by the First Minister at a special event held at Edinburgh Castle. Continue reading Brave@Heart: First Minister presents bravery awards

Walled Garden campaigners to state their case

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The Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden will be laying out their plans to landowners later today. Developers plan to build housing on the waterfront site, but the Friends group argues that the historic garden should be brought back to it’s former glory for the use of the local community.

A Friends group delegation will set out their vision for the restoration of the garden as a focus for community renewal in a presentation to  the EDI group’s management team this afternoon.

Granton Castle Walled Garden is currently owned by the EDI Group, an ‘arms-length’ development compnay wholly-owned by the city council, who previously submitted a planning application to build luxury houses on the garden site.

However The Friends group argue that the garden should be:

a garden for all to enjoy, with a range of learning growing and arts activities and a diverse events programme.

a restored market garden run by the local community, supplying organic produce directly to local people, businesses and schools, and

a living heritage garden, serving as a gateway to the waterfront development and a social hub for existing and future communities.

At the meeting, FoGCWG will stress that all local community groups share the aim of retaining the garden as open space.

The Friends prepared specific proposals for the development of the walled garden as a community asset after the EDI Group appointed architects to prepare a new masterplan for Granton Waterfront. FoGCWG are keen that their proposals for the garden should be incorporated in the new masterplan.

Specific features of the proposals include a visitor centre and cafe, a kitchen garden, a heritage orchard, a workshop and demonstration area, a sanctuary garden. a medicinal and pigment garden, a restored glasshouse and a polytunnel.

Friends chairperson Kirsty Sutherland said: “With these proposals, an important part of Granton’s heritage can become a catalyst for development and community renewal on Edinburgh’s Waterfront. They offer a wide range of benefits in terms of health and wellbeing, social cohesion, cross-cultural integration, community education and local capacity-building.

“The restoration of Granton Castle Walled Garden as a community asset is supported by a wide range of local stakeholders and national organisations.”

You can contact the Friends group by email at grantoncastlegardengroup@gmail.com

The group also has a website at https://grantoncastlewalledgarden.wordpress.com/

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Green space funding up for grabs

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A multi-million pound fund to develop green spaces in some of Scotland’s most deprived areas has been announced by Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Keith Brown. The money – which comes from EU funding – will support projects like new nature reserves and parks and green spaces in urban areas, benefiting communities across Scotland. Continue reading Green space funding up for grabs

Screen Education Edinburgh seeks talented youngsters for BFI Film Academy

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The BFI Film Academy and Screen Education Edinburgh are offering an intensive course in filmmaking for 16-19 year olds who live in the South East of Scotland. Continue reading Screen Education Edinburgh seeks talented youngsters for BFI Film Academy

Cash boost from Community Choices fund

Community cash for participatory budgeting initiatives

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Communities across Scotland are to benefit from £1.5 million funding which will give people more power to make decisions directly on spending in their local areas.

The Community Choices Fund is targeted at work in deprived areas, and for the first time community groups as well as public authorities, including local authorities, were able to apply for funding to organise their own Community Choices budgeting events.

The fund received well over 100 applications with 16 successful community projects and 12 public authorities spanning the breadth of Scotland. A full list of successful applicants is provided below.

The projects include:

  • The Joint Community Councils of Moray, £46,500 to use the Community Choices process to help tackle social isolation
  • Aberdeen City Council, £100,000 to target the 8 most deprived areas in the city to help reduce community isolation
  • Edinburgh City Council, £81,895 to support events on health and hate crime
  • North Carrick Community Benefit Company, £95,868 to recruit 8 community participation champions from underrepresented communities
  • Burnfoot Community Futures Housing, Hawick £39,000 to address social and community needs.

Leith Links Community Council was among the community projects to receive funding. The community council was awarded £20,869 to support their ‘CommUNITY links: Brightening Local Lives’ initiative.

Local Government and Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said: “It’s the commitment of this government to give communities more control to shape their futures. I am delighted to see communities applying for Community Choices funding and to read about the innovative and creative ways communities are working to address the issues that are important to the people in their community. It is also pleasing to see that we have engagement with Community Choices right across the country from Shetland to the Scottish Borders.

“The Community Choices Fund offers an opportunity for decisions to be made by people in their local communities who are best placed to know what their community needs.”

The Community Choices Fund builds on the Scottish Government investment in participatory budgeting over the last two years. More information about participatory budgeting is available at: http://pbscotland.scot