It is Deaf Awareness Week (1-7 May 2023) and RNID, the charity supporting people who are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus are calling on everyone to be deaf aware!
People who are deaf or have hearing loss have individual communication needs and you should ask how best you can communicate with them. RNID is encouraging people to use E.A.R. to help them remember simple tips they can use to make communication easier:
· Environment – reduce background noise or move to a quieter area. And make sure the room is well lit if the person relies on lipreading.
· Attention – use simple gestures such as pointing, waving or a light tap on the shoulder to get someone’s attention. Face the person you’re speaking to so they can lipread, and speak to them, not their interpreter or anyone else with them.
· Repeat and rephrase – if someone doesn’t understand you, try repeating what you said or rephrasing it in a different way. If this doesn’t work, you could write it down, or speak to a friend or relative if they ask you to.
Following E.A.R. can make the difference between your friend, family or colleague being part of the conversation or left struggling on the side-lines.
For support or information, please visit rnid.org.uk
Are you interested in learning more about dementia and how to support those who are affected by it? Do you have dementia and have questions about what it all means? A new self-help book, “FAQs on Dementia” written by Tom Russ and Michael Huddleston comes out today!
To celebrate this exciting release, there will be a book launch event at Stockbridge library on Friday 5th May, from 3.30pm-4.30pm. The event will feature the authors, and some friends and colleagues with dementia. Representatives from Alzheimer Scotland, Brain Health Scotland, the NRS Neuroprogressive and Dementia Research Network will be there to share information.
The Golden Hare bookshop will be in attendance to sell the book, so you will have the chance to buy your own copy at the event.
Here’s an extract from the blurb:
Will my partner stop loving me now they have dementia?
Does my mum have to go into a home now?
Is dementia a terminal illness?
All these questions, and hundreds more, are covered in this short but powerful, helpful, practical guide to understanding the nature, and impact, of dementia. Read at your leisure, or dip in and out when you most need the support or to shine a light on the issues and concerns that are making you uncomfortable or unhappy, and to bring them out of the shadows so you can understand and accept them.
Skipinnish has been announced as the Friday headline act at the Royal Highland Hoolie, taking place at the Royal Highland Show and hosted in partnership with the legendary Irish country music promoter Farmer’s Bash.
The Royal Highland Hoolie, taking place Friday 23 and Saturday 24 June 2023, will showcase some of Scotland and Ireland’s best homegrown music talent. The group will be joining fellow artists including Derek Ryan, Skerryvore and Lisa McHugh.
With a strong mix of powerful bagpipe, fiddle and accordion-led tune sets, Skipinnish encompasses the very best of contemporary Celtic Music. Celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2019, the band have been going from strength to strength, selling out some of the biggest venues in Scotland.
The band are looking forward to returning to the Scottish festival circuit in 2023 kicking it all off with the Royal Highland Hoolie, the band’s only summer Scottish gig.
Skipinnish co-founder, Andrew Stevenson, commented: “The band are thrilled to be playing at the Royal Highland Hoolie this June.
“We can’t wait to bring the Skipinnish sound to headline at the Royal Highland Hoolie and the Royal Highland Show, while joining a fantastic line up of fellow musicians flying the flag for modern Celtic music.”
More artists and event information are to be announced next month.
Tickets for Friday 23 and Saturday 24 June are now on sale. Tickets are only available to those already attending or who purchase a Friday or Saturday ticket to the Royal Highland Show. Tickets can be purchased at royalhighlandshow.org. Ticketing T&Cs apply.
Jim Warnock, Chairman of Royal Highland Show organisers, the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS), commented: “We are delighted to see more fantastic acts added and reveal Celtic rock band Skipinnish as a headliner. The Royal Highland Hoolie is a celebration of Celtic and country music, from traditional to modern and everything in between.
“We have seen a high demand for tickets this year so far, and with this latest addition to the line-up it looks to be a fantastic couple of nights!”
Farmers Bash organiser, Nigel Campbell, added: “Skipinnish is the perfect addition to the line-up for the Royal Highland Hoolie – with a unique mix of highland tradition and contemporary music, they will be sure to get the crowd going!
“We look forward to announcing even more stellar acts in the coming weeks for what will be a fantastic celebration of modern Celtic music.”
UK government awards nearly £40 million to more than 80 projects through the Darwin Initiative and Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund
Projects from Ghana to Ecuador will support global action to protect wildlife and reverse biodiversity loss
Next round of funding also opens to new projects, building on government’s target to halt biodiversity loss by 2030
Threatened plants and animals, including elephants and pangolins are set to be protected thanks to new UK government funding announced today.
Over 80 conservation projects across the globe will benefit from nearly £40 million funding aimed at boosting international biodiversity, supporting the communities that live alongside nature and tackling illegal wildlife trade.
Some of the successful projects include:
Support for the International Snow Leopard Trust to provide specialised training to combat the poaching of snow leopards in countries like Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Pakistan;
Supporting the work of the Wildlife Conservation Society to reduce demand for collagen rich Pangolin scales in Traditional Chinese Medicine;
Supporting the Zoological Society of London’s effort to create sustainable ways for humans and elephants to coexist in areas such as Thailand, where they are often in conflict.
Environment minister Trudy Harrison said: ““The fantastic projects announced today will enhance efforts to protect threatened wildlife, support economic growth of developing countries and drive nature recovery.
“The UK is a global champion when it comes to biodiversity and driving action to halt and reverse the decline of nature. I am proud that – through our Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund and the Darwin Initiative – we will continue to play a leading role in conservation efforts around the world.”
Dr Charudutt Mishra, from the International Snow Leopard Trust said: “The snow leopard, an iconic species of Asia’s high mountains, is threatened by retaliatory killing due to their predation on livestock, and illegal trade of its pelt and other body parts.
“With support from the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, we are empowering local and indigenous communities of High Asia with livelihood and conflict management initiatives to enable them to better coexist with snow leopards, and to support conservation efforts.
“We are also helping rangers improve their capacity and motivation in Illegal Wildlife Trade disruption with training, resources and enhanced social recognition in three countries.”
Chair of the Darwin Expert Committee Professor E.J. Milner-Gulland said: “I’m thrilled that the Darwin Initiative is funding such a wide range of outstanding projects, which will improve both biodiversity and human wellbeing in such a diversity of ways and in so many places.
“These projects bring fresh thinking and new ideas to conservation practice, produce evidence to support better conservation, as well as building the capacity of the next generation of conservationists around the world.
“It was a pleasure and honour to support Defra in their selection of these projects and I look forward to a new set of exciting proposals in the upcoming 30th round of the Darwin Initiative.”
The Darwin Initiative, a grants scheme to conserve and restore biodiversity and the communities that live alongside in developing countries, supported 63 of these successful projects with over £31.5 million funding. Projects will conserve nature-rich areas in developing countries and support communities who live and work in biodiverse areas to build resilience to climate change.
The Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund has supported 21 projects through £7.8 million funding to enhance the protection of threatened species. The projects will protect species including elephants, pangolins and threatened timber – and cement our leading role in cracking down on the £17 billion a year illegal wildlife trade which fuels corruption, deprives communities of sustainable livelihoods and degrades ecosystems.
The UK is a global leader in supporting efforts to halt the decline in nature, protect wildlife and restore the natural world. Our efforts will help to deliver on the ambitious new global deal for nature agreed at the UN Nature Summit COP15 in December, which will protect 30% of our land and ocean by 2030.
Today’s announcement also confirms that the launch of Round 10 of the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund and Round 30 of the Darwin Initiative will be opening to applications in May 2023. Projects will soon be able to access up to a further £40 million funding building on the government’s commitment to combat biodiversity loss and improve animal welfare standards.
Further projects funded over the next five years include:
Darwin Initiative:
Beekeepers Restore the Forests of Afram Plains: this project will provide training for 1,000 beekeepers on topics including wildfire management and forest restoration, while mobilising communities to help curb illegal logging in Ghana.
Scaling rights-based approaches for conservation and poverty reduction in Indonesia: this locally led project is working to scale up an approach developed over the past seven years to advance the rights of indigenous communities, improve socio-economic conditions, and conserve biodiversity across Indonesia.
Building Capacity for Reciprocal Watershed Agreements in the Tropical Andes: this project will help roll out Reciprocal Watershed Agreements, where residents will be supported to develop projects that protect forests and wildlife while providing new livelihood opportunities for local communities. The funding will help to scale up the project, building capacity and capability across Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund:
Furs For Life – Preserving Culture, Protecting Nature: this project empowers women-led enterprises in Zambia and South Africa to produce synthetic fur garments, replacing authentic wild cat skin garments in local communities.
Conservation Litigation & Wildlife (CLAW): this project explores innovative ways to hold perpetrators of Illegal Wildlife Trade accountable by using liability laws to demand that they provide remedies for the damage they cause.
Unlocking DNA barcoding to identify illegal timber: this project will work to overcome the technical challenges proving a barrier to timber identification – a technique vital to improving the detection and prevention of the illegal timber trade.
Further Information
Round 10 of the IWTCF will open for new applications on Monday 1st May 2023. For more information on previous projects as well as how to apply please visit: https://iwt.challengefund.org.uk/
West Princes Street Gardens will host a special free screening in the Capital to mark the Coronation of HM The King.
On Saturday 6 May, Edinburgh’s screening will coincide with celebrations taking place around the country as the nation marks the crowning of the King alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort, with a special extended bank holiday weekend.
The ceremony, which is taking place at Westminster Abbey in London, is scheduled to begin at 11am but access to the screening area will open from 10am. Entry is free and un-ticketed.
On Sunday 7 May, the screen will remain in place and broadcast The Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle to spectators in the Gardens. The Coronation Concert will bring global music icons and contemporary stars together in celebration of the historic occasion.
As a new Royal era begins, residents are also invited to share their memories and record well wishes for the new sovereign from Tuesday 2 May in the online Book of Congratulations. Physical books will also be available at the City Chambers and Central Library from Tuesday 2 May until Tuesday 9 May from 10am until 5pm.
In his role as His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant, Edinburgh’s Lord Provost Robert Aldridge will be representing the City of Edinburgh at the proceedings in London.
Lord Provost Robert Aldridge said: “The Coronation of King Charles is a truly historic event and we’re proud to be joining in with screenings and services in towns and cities across the United Kingdom for those who wish to come together and celebrate the occasion.
“Watching the ceremony and celebrations on the big screen will be a great way for people to be involved and soak up the atmosphere of the extraordinary weekend.”
The big screen has been supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
People are encouraged to bring their own picnics, however the Scott’s café will be open and can provide take-away food and beverages.
The screening will take place outdoors, so we are advising those wishing to attend to plan ahead, dress for the weather, and bring plenty of water. Toilet facilities will be available and there will be limited seats so we advise bringing blankets or chairs. Extra litter bins will be in place and BBQs will not be permitted.
To mark HM The King’s Coronation, communities and citizens have applied for street closures to celebrate this historic event.
National activities There are also number of national initiatives taking place with residents encouraged to gather and it’s hoped Coronation Big Lunches and The Big Help Out will bring communities together over the weekend.
Coronation Big Lunch
The Coronation Big Lunch on 7 May is designed to bring neighbours and communities together to share friendship, food and fun and be part of history.
Bank holiday Monday 8 May will see a nationwide initiative to raise awareness of the value and impact of volunteering.
It is an opportunity to explore how rewarding volunteering can be. You can get involved and find out how you can make a difference in your community.
There will be lots of different kinds of opportunities, with many of the UK’s leading volunteer charities supporting the initiative. More detail is available on The Big Help Out website.
Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by the Health Promotion and Education Team at Heart Research UK
Healthy Heart Tip: Get On Your Feet
Thursday 27th April is ‘On Your Feet Britain’, a national activity awareness day to promote the benefits of sitting less and moving more.
Decreasing the amount of time we spend sitting can contribute to reducing your risk of developing heart diseases. The key is to make small, sustainable changes to your usual daily routines, making more movement and less sitting easy to achieve.
Here we detail a few ways you can do this:
Walking meetings and phone calls
Lots of us work at desks most days, making movement difficult. Challenge your organisation to allow walking meetings. Especially as the weather warms up it can be a great way to get in some extra steps.
If you don’t have a desk-based job or attend meetings, you could still take every phone call you receive or make outside and walk while chatting.
Set movement reminders
We live in a world full of technologies we can use to our advantage to help improve our health. Your smart phone can be a fantastic tool to encourage you to stand more and take part in movement.
Set up multiple daily alarms throughout your day to remind you to stand up and move. This could look like four alarms spread out throughout the day and when the alarm goes off you pop your trainers on and go for a 10-minute walk.
Look for opportunities for movement
If we spend a bit of energy looking for opportunities to move more, we can usually find them. For example, if you are out shopping, take the stairs rather than the elevator or get off the bus a stop early and walk a little bit further.
If you drive for the daily school drop off, park a little further away and get moving with the kids before school. It doesn’t have to be lots of time spent in one go, just little chunks of time that add up throughout the day.
Speaking after attendingthe event commemorating the 52nd Anniversary of the Independence and National Day of Bangladesh at Holyrood on 25th April, Foysol Choudhury MSP said:“The Independence and National Day of Bangladesh event at the Parliament was a fantastic success.
“It was both a poignant commemoration of the lives lost and affected by the Bangladesh Liberation War and a vibrant celebration of Bangladesh’s success, history and culture.
“It was great to see Scotland’s Bangladeshi community join together in the celebrations, coming together to celebrate over food, speeches, music and dancing.
“It was also fantastic to have on display a painting commemorating the meeting between the late Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh with Bangladesh’s founding father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“It was a great night and a fantastic reminder of the links between Bangladesh, Scotland and the UK. I’ll continue to promote these strong ties between Scotland and Bangladesh through my work in CPG Bangladesh in the Scottish Parliament.
“I thank all of my MSP colleagues and the many Consul Generals from around the world who attended to share in this event, all of the speakers including the Assistant High Commissioner for Bangladesh Kazi Ziaul Hasan, all of our performers who made the night so much fun and the Bangladeshi Community in Scotland, who organised this event.”
People are being asked for their views on how the planning system can support healthy, thriving and connected communities as part of a consultation launched by the Scottish Government.
As part of implementation of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), draft guidance has been prepared to support people to meet the majority of their daily needs within a reasonable distance of their home, preferably through active travel or by using public transport.
The local living and the 20 minute neighbourhood concepts contained in NPF4 will help the planning system to deliver sustainable and resilient places, deliver net zero ambitions, reduce social isolation, promote active travel, and provide access to green space.
Planning Minister Joe FitzPatrick launched the consultation at the Scottish Young Planners Network annual conference in Stirling.
Mr FitzPatrick said: “Local living and 20 minute neighbourhood policies will deliver many longstanding ambitions for the planning system by supporting thriving communities and providing multiple benefits for people and the environment.
“We want to help people to meet their daily needs within a reasonable distance of their homes, while helping them to live healthier lives and contributing towards the achievement of our net zero targets.
“We can really get to the heart of what matters to people by working with them to shape our towns and communities of the future.”
Euan Leitch, Chief Executive of SURF – Scotland’s Regeneration Forum, said: “SURF warmly welcomes additional guidance on how we develop the value of local living and how planning, third and private sectors, public services and our transport systems will deliver this.
“Well maintained, easy to navigate places can be at the heart of community wellbeing and guidance should give communities the assurance that decisions made will improve their sense of control and enhance their quality of life.”
We’re looking for young people with a personal experience of care to volunteer with us. So, if you have used a care service, you could be just who we are looking for.
You don’t have to have qualifications – personal experience is what counts. You must be aged between 18-27 to apply.
Hear what some of our young inspection volunteers said here.
If you would like to find out more about becoming young inspection volunteer, need help to complete the application form or would like us to post you an application form – please email Julie Brown at get.involved@careinspectorate.gov.scot
Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980 Opening Saturday 29 April 2023
Free
National Galleries Scotland: Modern Two
Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980, is an exploration of the modern art scene, from 1900 through to the 1970s. See how artists have captured changes in society as you move through the free exhibition, opening at Modern Two this Saturday (29 April).
You will discover how the mood and atmosphere of the work reflects and embodies each changing decade with works that have been carefully selected to best represent the period.
Filling all of Modern Two and spread across six rooms, the journey begins at the turn of the last century, in 1900. Meet the French artists who painted with electrifying colour in the first room, with work by Henri Matisse and André Derain.
Their brightly coloured landscape paintings were so radically different that the artists were given the derogatory label ‘Fauves’ – meaning ‘wild beasts’. The term stuck and Fauvism had a major impact on British and particularly Scottish art.
Two new acquisitions, by Scottish Colourists FCB Cadell and JD Fergusson, feature in this room. JD Fergusson, who was born in Leith but lived in Paris before the First World War, was one of the key Scottish artists of the twentieth century.
Painted in 1911, Flowers and Pink Box, has bright bold colour and confident, energetic brushwork. Fergusson’s work of this time often had sexual overtones and covert erotic references. In this painting, the pink box depicted is believed to have been used to store his condoms.
This is the first still life by Fergusson to enter the national collection. The Rose and the Lacquer Screen, by FCB Cadell, combines several of his favourite still-life props: a rose in a transparent vase, a black fan and its trailing ribbon and a detail of the lacquered screen that dominated the drawing room of his house in Edinburgh’s New Town.
Moving into the 1930s, artists such as Piet Mondrian believed that abstract art could change society. This room features work by Alexander Calder, Paule Vézelay and Ben Nicholson.
Entering the 1940s, abstraction and idealism were replaced by grim realism. Paintings and sculptures by Francis Bacon, Joan Eardley and Bet Low, created during and immediately after the Second World War, speak of a new reality, reflecting the harsh times. Benno Schotz’s sculpture Lament (1943) speaks of the Holocaust while William McCance’s Atom Horizon refers to the bombing of Hiroshima.
The 1950s saw a battle between Abstraction and Realism, played out in the shadow of the Cold War and the nuclear age. This is illustrated in Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980 by two mural projects created for the great Festival of Britain exhibition of 1951, which are shown together here for the first time.
Josef Hermann’s project shows a row of miners - builders of a new social order; Victor Pasmore’s mural project is instead a daring essay glimpse of spiralling abstract forms. The art of the 1950s reaches into the future yet seems steeped in anxiety.
The display from the 1950s also features exceptional works by Alan Davie, Louise Nevelson, Fernand Léger, Eduardo Paolozzi and Elisabeth Frink.
Art became celebratory, playful and experimental in the 1960s. Sculptors abandoned traditional materials such as bronze and marble for ‘soft sculpture’, exemplified in the work of Jann Haworth, Yayoi Kusama and Duane Hanson’s iconic Tourists.
A firm favourite with visitors to the Modern, Tourists, captures the banality of post-war, consumer society with humour and warmth. Although these two figures are presented as a couple, they were cast from life but never even met. David Hockney’s etching of two gay men in bed dates from 1967, the year in which homosexuality was legalised in England and Wales.
Throughout the 1970s, artists took Abstraction and Minimalism to extremes. Fred Sandback’s Untitled, 1971 – two coloured cords which cut across the corner of the room – questions the very notion of art as something with three-dimensional form or narrative meaning.
The Keiller Library presents a witty and original focus on the motif of the hand in Surrealist art and writing. Drawing on works by artists like Man Ray, Edith Rimmington and Salvador Dali, from the national collection’s world- class holding of Surrealist books and archive material.
From a time when the motor car was just beginning to populate the roads to the dawn of the space race, the world changed significantly in the 80-year timespan that the exhibition covers. This selection of one hundred works from the national collection shows ways in which artists have continually pushed the boundaries and created art which defines its time. These pieces still have the power to shock and make us think about our world today and the changes and innovations to come.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 1 & 2, Dean Road, Edinburgh. National Galleries of Scotland.
Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, Sir John Leighton, said: ‘National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to reopen Modern Two with an exhibition that celebrates the strength of the national collection.
“Featuring a fascinating range of works by many of Scotland and the world’s greatest artists, Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980 encourages visitors to think about how art can both reflect and change the way we see the world around us. We welcome you to join us on a voyage of discovery through 80 years of bold artistic achievement.’
Neil Hanna Photography
www.neilhannaphotography.co.uk
07702 246823
Simon Groom, Director of Modern & Contemporary Art, said: ‘Decades is an amazing opportunity to discover the rich range and depth of art from the national collection in the 20th century.
“Arranged by decades – starting with the beautiful paintings of Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and the Scottish Colourists, the show takes us on fascinating journey to see how artists as diverse as Francis Bacon, Joan Eardley, Eduardo Paolozzi, Yayoi Kusama, Bridget Riley, David Hockney, and Joseph Beuys reflected and gave shape to our experience of the 20th century.’
