The NEN – North Edinburgh News – Page 3633 – The community media resource for north Edinburgh

Gruffalo enjoys a Big Lunch in Stockbridge!

Edinburgh City Libraries and The Big Lunch organised a special Gruffalo-themed storytime event for parents and children in Stockbridge Library yesterday. The event was launched by Councillor Richard Lewis, City of Edinburgh’s Convener for Culture and Sport.

Toddlers were treated to a Gruffalo themed Big Lunch and Bookbug session. Bookbug sessions are regular free events for babies, toddlers, pre-schoolers and their families to enjoy together and meet others in the local area. The children joined in with a reading of the popular story and then enjoyed some songs, rhymes and party treats.

The Big Lunch – the UK’s annual get-together for neighbours – is funded by The Big Lottery Fund and partnered by Halifax and ASDA. Now in its seventh year, the simple idea from the Eden Project aims to provide neighbours with an opportunity to get to know one another better. The Big Lunch takes place on the first Sunday in June each year – this year it’s 7 June.

The Gruffalo is The Big Lunch’s animated ambassador this year and The Big Lunch in Scotland has partnered with the Scottish Book Trust and Bookbug to help encourage more Scottish communities to take part.Councillor Richard Lewis said: “We wanted to tie in with The Big Lunch this year as there is a shared community ethos between the campaign and the work we do in our libraries. Libraries are a community hub and an important local resource. We know that Bookbug sessions are popular with young families acoss the city. This is especially important as being a new parent can be an isolating time and having additional support within the community can really help.”

“Initiatives like The Big Lunch are encouraging people to break the ice with their neighbours in a fun and easy way. We’ve loved supporting the campaign and hope to hear of lots of lunching going on in Edinburgh this June on Big Lunch day!”

Edinburgh neighbours are being encouraged to host Big Lunch events to help build community spirit and connect with those they live beside.

Anyone who is interested in getting involved can get started by requesting a free Big Lunch pack from www.thebiglunch.com. Packs contain invitations and posters to adapt for your community, Gruffalo stickers as well as seeds, recipes and activity ideas.

All pack materials are undated so communities can have a Big Lunch when best suits them if they can’t join in on Sunday 7 June. For more information, please contact Emma at The Big Lunch in Scotland on emma.smith@thebiglunch.com or 0141 559 5066.

A new future for historic Madelvic House?

Open Day: Saturday 9 May @11am.

Madelvic House, Granton Park Avenue,

Edinburgh, EH5 1HS

OPEN DAY POSTER 9TH MAY

We are a community group in Granton looking for people to attend an open day in Madelvic House.

The building dates back to 1898 as the offices of the Madelvic Motor company; the first custom built car factory in Britain. We are developing ideas for the building to offer the local community somewhere to relax and come together.

The current plan is to develop a creative hub with resident artists on the upper and gallery/event space on the ground as well as a café and craft area where we can offer activities for the community.

Come support us to make this happen! Or if you can’t make the event but would like to know more about what we are trying to do, please contact Wendy Wager, chair of the group at

email: madelviccommunity@gmail.com

Local project’s films to premiere at Filmhouse

Films produced by local young people screening at the Filmhouse this Saturday

Screen Education Edinburgh has announced that five short films -produced by an innovative new North Edinburgh partnership and made entirely by young people – will receive their premieres at the Edinburgh Filmhouse this Saturday (2 May).

The films will be shown with ten other shorts from their wider BFI Film Academy and CashBack for Creativity projects.

The North Edinburgh partnership, a joint initiative involving Screen Education Edinburgh and Total Craigroyston, with funding from CashBack for Creativity, encourages young people to get involved in filmmaking rather than crime. Five of the films to be shown during the special two hour event were made by young people who are at risk of offending or reoffending.

Irvine Welsh, Patron of Screen Education Edinburgh, said: “If you come from a disadvantaged area, the world can often seem to conspire against you, constraining your vision to the streets around you and the urgent here and now of simply getting by. Cinema is a wonderful tool in combating that horrible malaise, opening up windows into different worlds, and helping us to understand our own ones better through the broadening of our horizons. The skills you learn through being part of a committed team, working on a task that can create a little bit of magic are transferable to other areas of our life.”

The partnership works with groups of 11-19 year olds from the city’s Pilton and Muirhouse area – currently ranked the worst for crime in the whole south east of Scotland – teaching young people film making skills in the evenings. The initiative was set up to improve the lives of families living around Craigroyston Community High School and is a co-ordinated effort to encourage and stimulate young people’s interest in film when they might otherwise be out on the streets.

The short films were all written, directed, filmed and acted in by the youngsters. These films explore issues through drama and music videos including motorcycle theft, the feeling of being alienated, first love and peer pressure.

Graham Fitzpatrick, Creative Manager at Screen Education Edinburgh, said: “The Pilton and Muirhouse area experienced serious issues of crime involving youths, and sometimes children, throughout 2014.

“The aim of this scheme is to help young people engage and deal with their offending issues, whilst giving them positive activities throughout the week, particularly late evenings.”

James Riordan, Lead Youth Development Worker with the Alternative to Crime Project added; “Through being involved in diversionary activities and projects such as the film programme with Screen Education Edinburgh, Young People, who have been involved in anti-social/offending behaviour in North Edinburgh, have the opportunity to be part of something positive and to get a taste of new activities and skills they wouldn’t normally have access to.

“Through working with Screen Education Edinburgh the Group have learned to adapt to different scenarios which in turn has led to them increasing their levels of self-esteem, allowing them to develop as confident Young People”.

Screen Education Edinburgh (formerly Pilton Video) was founded in 2010 to help young people develop and express themselves through film making. Edinburgh born novelist, playwright, storyteller and screenwriter, Irvine Welsh became patron of Screen Education Edinburgh in March last year.

Screen Education Edinburgh is currently running three separate local projects. One, based at FACE North (Focussing on Alternative’s to Crime Edinburgh North) and POP (Preventative Opportunities Programme), is making film drama with groups of 14 to 19 year old males, whilst another focuses on music video production with 10-12 years olds in four local primary schools.

The third supports children and youth workers based out of the Muirhouse Millennium Centre, providing film skills training to the workers, helping them to support large groups of young people in their first forays into film production.

This partnership was funded through the CashBack for Creativity scheme, part of a wider £45 million Scottish Government initiative which reinvests the proceeds recovered from criminals for the benefit of young people.

Saturday’s event at the Filmhouse will showcase the films to parents, friends, the community, councillors and guests.

The screening will also incorporate films from all Screen Education Edinburgh’s CashBack for Creativity projects, including; Score Scotland, Panmure School, MYPAS Dalkeith, Bridges Project Musselburgh, Edinburgh Young Carers and from the advanced BFI Film Academy South East of Scotland initiative.

Edinburgh College students to launch Let’s Glow festival

Edinburgh College invites you to join students and staff from our Creative Industries courses as they launch this year’s Let’s Glow festival!

The launch event takes place at La Belle Angele off Guthrie Street this Thursday evening at 6.30pm

Let’s Glow is a two-month celebration of the dazzling creative talents of Edinburgh College students, with a programme of performances and exhibitions around the city.

The launch event at La Belle Angele will feature performances by student musicians, actors and dancers.

The Let’s Glow festival will give Edinburgh the chance to enjoy performances and exhibitions from college students covering everything from music, theatre and dance to photography, film, art, animation, textiles and design. The programme of events will showcase the skills and talents of the students, demonstrating the work they have been undertaking at college over the last year.

Let’s Glow runs from 4 May to 22 June, with events taking place at venues across Edinburgh – including the college’s campuses and the likes of Summerhall and The Queen’s Hall.

www.edinburghcollege.ac.uk/letsglow

#letsglow

Small grants available in Inverleith

Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership’s small community grants fund is available again this year to support small, one-off projects. Proposed projects should show how they help progress one of our four key priorities and any group that is constituted and has a bank account can apply.

We have £26301 to allocated this year and welcome applications now for our meeting on 25 May. Other applications can be assessed and decided at future meetings.

Please click here for guidance and application form.

Sharp rise in applications for welfare

New figures show 135,000 households have received help

The number of applications to councils for welfare assistance rose by 13 per cent in the last year, according to the latest statistics.

Scottish Welfare Fund statistics to 31 December 2014 show that during the most recent quarter (October to December 2014):

23,715 Crisis Grants were awarded, 10 per cent more than the same quarter last year. These were predominantly for food, heating costs and other living expenses, with an average award value of just over £70;
12,290 Community Care Grants were awarded, 15 per cent more than the same quarter last year. These were predominantly for home furnishings and white goods, with an average value of just under £600.

Welfare Minister Margaret Burgess said: “Scottish Welfare Fund grants are a vital lifeline for people in crisis. Since the Fund launched in April 2013, 135,000 households have received help to buy everyday items and with basic living costs including eating and heating. It’s so important that we continue to reach out and that’s why we are making £33 million available this year to the Scottish Welfare Fund to help low income households.”

In April 2013, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) abolished two elements of the Social Fund – Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans – and transferred funds previously spent on them to Scottish Ministers. In its place, the Scottish Government established the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF). The Scottish Welfare Fund is a national scheme run by local authorities, based on guidance from Scottish Ministers. The guidance has been developed in partnership with COSLA, local authorities and other stakeholders.

Since the scheme began in April 2013 nearly 135,000 households have received at least one award from the Scottish Welfare Fund. Around 55 per cent of households in receipt of funds were single person households with no children. Around one third were households containing children. During the first nine months of 2014/15, 72 per cent of Scottish Welfare Fund budget has been awarded.

City’s lost treasures to be revealed

‘For us, this is a true lost treasure’ – David Patterson

Original architectural drawings of the Usher Hall, not seen in public since 1910, are to be displayed for the first time in the concert hall between 12 May and 1 September.

Vintage drawings of the Edwardian venue were recently discovered by an architect in Leicester that traced its roots to Stockdale Harrison & Sons, the architectural practice that won the competition to design the hall.

The folder of drawings only recently came to staff at the Usher Hall’s attention when the architect in Leicester contacted the venue. The archive contains over 200 items including early sketches of the venue, water colour impressions, detailed competition drawings, exquisitely coloured drawings of lighting and sculptural designs, blueprints for heating layouts, ironmongery and terrazzo floors.

The Usher Hall is owned and managed by the City of Edinburgh Council. Councillor Richard Lewis, Edinburgh’s Convenor for Culture & Sport said: “It has been well documented that a competition took place to design the Usher Hall and that the winning idea was built thanks to funding from whisky distiller Andrew Usher, but the architects who worked on the building and their designs have remained a bit of a mystery.

“The design’s backlash against gothic buildings of the time and the venue’s unusual curved walls are as stunning today as they were 100 years ago. To rediscover these vintage drawings is one thing but to have them in our archives and put on public display is extra special.”

David Patterson, Collections Manager at the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “For us, this is true lost treasure. I knew as soon as I saw the drawings how important they were, not just for the Usher Hall, but for Edinburgh. They represent a piece of the jigsaw of the capital’s history and we are delighted to be able to put them on show for the first time.”

In 1896 Andrew Usher gifted £100,000 to The City of Edinburgh Council. The purpose of the money was to provide a City Hall, to be used for concerts and recitals and in 1910 architects were invited to design a hall to the cost of £65,000. In total, 133 designs were considered and all were exhibited in the hall of the New Corn Market in Gorgie. The designs were voted on anonymously and the winners were announced on 22 July 1910. The preferred design was a joint entry from Stockdale Harrison & Son and Howard H Thomson of Leicester.

In addition to the architect’s drawings, a watercolour by Shirley Harrison, the architect’s son, will be displayed (above). The watercolour shows the building in 1914 and the venue’s first audience arriving in Edwardian dress.

Entry to the exhibition will be free of charge.

Demonstrators set to ‘besiege’ Edinburgh Jobcentre

‘We are fighting back’ – Ethel MacDonald, ECAP

Demonstrators will descend on High Riggs Jobcentre today to declare their resistance to benefits sanctions and workfare.

The protest at the Jobcentre near Tollcross will continue over lunchtime and organisers Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty say: ‘We aim to send a strong message that cutting people’s benefits and forcing them to rely on foodbanks is not acceptable. Sanctions and workfare not only attack the claimants directly affected, they undermine all workers’ wages and conditions.’

Ethel MacDonald of ECAP said: “An increasing number of benefit claimants are being sanctioned under the DWP’s increasingly repressive measures and more than ever the Job Centre is aggressively pushing the Workfare programmes.

“Just consider the barbaric numbers: according to Corporate Watch, 139,000 sanctions were handed out to Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants in 2009 but this more than tripled to 508,000 in 2011, the coalition’s first full year in government. And the Child Poverty Action Group state that since 2010 sanctions have increased by 126%.”

Sanctions can be from a period of four weeks to up to 3 years.

ECAP support claimants to contest sanctions and resist being sent on workfare. Ethel MacDonald explained: “Claimants are not prepared to remain passive victims – we are fighting back. With the support of ECAP, Edinburgh Jobseeker Jimmy recently overturned a four week sanction imposed after the Oxgangs Neighbourhood Centre refused to take him on a Community Work Programme workfare placement. Workfare provider Learndirect falsely alleged to the DWP that Jimmy had been ‘very intimidating’ to the placement manager – in fact he had just politely informed him that it was disgraceful that a community resource was participating in such exploiting schemes.

“ECAP and Jimmy met the Scotland area manager of Learndirect, insisted that Learndirect withdraw the sanction referral, and also wrote to the DWP explaining that it was Jimmy’s democratic right to express his views on workfare to the placement boss. The DWP have now overturned the sanction and are repaying Jimmy his benefits.”

542 voluntary organisations have declared they will not take part in workfare and signed the Keep Volunteering Voluntary agreement.

The decreasing number of organisations still participating in the schemes are under pressure to pull out of programmes which lead to benefit cuts and sanctions. ECAP regularly blockade and occupy workfare users such as the Salvation Army and DEBRA, and workfare providers like Learndirect. And this week Brian Tannerhill denounced that the organisation he founded, McSence, were using workfare and called on the communities of Mayfield and Easthouses to tell the directors of the Midlothian social enterprise this was unacceptable.

The Edinburgh action is supported by Edinburgh Anti Cuts Alliance, Greater Leith Against the Cuts, Edinburgh Industrial Workers of the World and Edinburgh Anarchist Federation, and is part of a Britain-wide Week of Action in the run-up to the General Election. Co-ordinated via Boycott Workfare, demonstrations are taking place Britain-wide.

City to shine support for Nepal

‘There is no time to lose’ – Lord Provost Donald Wilson

Edinburgh residents are being encouraged to shine to show their solidarity with the people of Nepal tonight following Saturday’s tragic earthquake.

The City of Edinburgh Council is a partner of the Edinburgh Disaster Response Committee which is asking residents to help survivors during the aftermath of the disaster. A fund has opened with the Edinburgh-based humanitarian organisation Mercy Corps for urgent donations.

To pause to reflect on the devastation, the Lord Provost will lead a candlelight vigil which will be open for all residents to attend. The candle lighting will take place at 4pm on Saturday 2 May at the City Chambers.

Tonight is the last evening of the Council’s interactive light installation in St Andrew Square with the Edinburgh International Science Festival. In a display of support for Nepal, Twitter users will be asked to turn the Melville Monument red which is the shade of the Nepalese flag and the Mercy Corps Earthquake Appeal.

The Lord Provost Donald Wilson plans to lodge an emergency motion at Thursday’s meeting of the Full Council to call on support of the appeal. He said: “Edinburgh residents are known for their generosity of spirit and together we can make a difference to people in Nepal by providing urgent donations. Even a gesture of solidarity like the red lighting of St Andrew Square or a candle at Edinburgh’s vigil demonstrates support and raises awareness of the appeal. There is no time to lose.”

Edinburgh based international charity Mercy Corps has been working in Nepal since 2006. The humanitarian organisation has launched an emergency response in Nepal following the massive earthquake and their dedicated team of more than 90 people has been working tirelessly to evaluate conditions and deliver emergency supplies to desperate families, whilst dealing with their own tragedies.

Simon O’Connnell, Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps Europe, with their headquarters in Edinburgh, said: “Our thoughts are with the people of Nepal and all those in the region experiencing the effects of the quake. Our team has begun distributing urgently needed relief kits to people most affected and we are also working hard to get more supplies to reach the thousands in need.

“On behalf of the Mercy Corps team, we thank the Edinburgh community for your generosity and compassion as we race to help the Nepalese people.”

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, with about one-third of its citizens living below the poverty line. The country’s dramatic landscape makes it hard to reach remote villages even in the best circumstances. These next days are critical for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of survivors and Mercy Corps is reaching families left homeless who desperately need shelter, food and water.

Send lifesaving relief with an emergency donation to the Edinburgh Disaster Nepal Earthquake Fund now.

Welcoming a Greener Future

Project launch this Satuday – all welcome!

The Welcoming Association are launching a new initiative this weekend – the Welcoming a Greener Future Project.

This new and exciting project aims to help members of Edinburgh’s migrant communities save energy and reduce their carbon footprints.

The launch takes place on Saturday 2 May from 3 – 6 pm at St John’s Church Hall, Princes Street, Edinburgh.

We plan for this to be a family event with free multicultural food, live music and entertainment. Please see attached publicity poster for more details. I really hope you will be able to join us!

I would appreciate it if you could confirm your attendance by 29 April to help us to organise things more efficiently.

For more information or to book a place, please contact myself or Christina Rizou on 0131 346 8577 or email info@thewelcoming.org

Adil Ibrahim, Community Development Practitioner

Welcoming a Greener Future Project, The Welcoming Association

0131 346 8577

www.thewelcoming.org