Edinburgh youth nominees up for awards

Edinburgh will be well represented at the annual National Youth Worker of the Year awards dinner in Glasgow next week. Five city-based nominees are among the finalists.

Citadel Youth Centre’s Karen Anderson has been nominated in the Youth Worker of the Year category and Kerry Reilly of YMCA Edinburgh is on the shortlist for Youth Work Manager of the Year. Leith-based Sikh Sanjog is in the running for Team of the Year for their Heritage Inclusion project and both Kerry Smith (Prince’s Trust)and Graeme Stewart (Police Scotland) have received nominations for their collaborative work on a programme based in Edinburgh College .

Preparations are in the final stages for this year’s event on Thursday (12 March) at the Crowne Plaza in Glasgow. Winners will be chosen in nine different categories from twenty-seven nominees and there is also a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Minister for Children and Young People Fiona McLeod MSP will present the winners with their awards. She said: “The National Youth Worker of the Year Awards are a great platform for celebrating the fantastic and often unseen work done by young people in our communities. I congratulate all twenty-seven of the selected finalists and wish all of them well ahead of the big night.”

These are the eighth annual awards and this years event will be hosted by broadcaster and DJ Arlene Stuart.

The event is sponsored by Scottish Fire and Rescue Services, One Awards, Young Scot, CLD Standards Council for Scotland, Generations Working Together, The Scottish Community Safety Network, The D of E, SQA, Youth Scotland and Education Scotland – quite a list!

YouthLink Scotland Chief Executive Jim Sweeney said: “The awards are a true celebration of our unstinting belief in our young people”.

Working together brings FairTrade awards to Goldenacre

Inverleith St Serf’s Church and Goldenacre Fairtrade won two Lord Provost of Edinburgh Fair Trade awards last night: the Fair Trade Achievement Award and Fair Trade Faith Community Award.

The awards celebrate the long term commitment to fairtrade and more recent innovations, including their support of the Muirhouse Community Shop on Pennywell Road.

Inverleith St Serf’s Church’s fairtrade connection started almost 20 years ago, with Ian and Alison Craddock at Inverleith Church and Bridgid Donald at St Serf’s Church establishing fairtrade stalls.

With the merger of the two churches into Inverleith St Serf’s Church there was an opportunity to expand the stall and provide greater choice of items for sale for members of the congregation and the wider community – the charity aim to have new items on the stall every fortnight.

The stall has been in the Traidcraft ‘Top Seller’ category for thee years and has seen orders of fairtrade items increase from £3,315 in 2010 to £7,075 in 2014, principally through Traidcraft, One World Shop and Hadeel. There has been a year on year increase in sales over this period.

The stall set up a Twitter feed early 2013 (@FairtradeStall), tweeting about fairtrade and UK and global poverty and other topical issues aimed at reaching a wider audience (e.g. local events, news, music, literature, photography). Through this social media activity the stall established a link with Tenants and Residents in Muirhouse (TRIM).

Two large donations from the stall helped TRIM during their first year (late 2013). Early in 2014 the Inverleith St Serf’s Church Kirk Session agreed to support TRIM, with retiring collections for TRIM during 2014, and food donations received by the stall going to TRIM for the foreseeable future. Half the stall’s 2014 profits will be given to TRIM.

This brings cash donations from Inverleith St Serf’s Church to TRIM to £1546.82 during 2014, going towards equipment, training and extra food purchases for the shop.

TRIM splits food donations between their foodbank and community shop. Accordingly the Inverleith St Serf’s Church congregation can use the stall to support third world producers (through purchases) and local causes (through donations).

Food donations range from tinned goods brought in from home to fairtrade items from the stall (e.g. pasta, rice, tea, fruit pots and much more). These donations are distributed right from the heart of the Muirhouse community, ensuring rapid and effective distribution to those who need them most and the link between the church and community shop has continued to grow.

The Goldenacre stall is now currently run by Graham Mackenzie – and supported by three generations of the Mackenzie family! – at Inverleith St Serf’s Church.

Goldenacre Fairtrade would be happy to discuss their innovative work with other churches, community organisations and local media.

More information about the Goldenacre Fairtrade nomination submission can be found here:

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The Yard is Tesco Bank local charity of the Year

Local children’s charity The Yard is one of three childrens’ projects that will be supported by Tesco Bank over the coming year.

Tesco Bank ‘colleagues’ from each of the three Bank’s three regions choose a local children’s charity to support, and this year the lucky recipients will be:

The Yard (Edinburgh)

The Yard is a playground for children with physical disabilities or learning difficulties. It gives children space to explore, join in and make friends – things that they can be excluded from in other environments.

The large outdoor playground is a perfect place to build dens, climb trees and charge around on one of their specially adapted bikes and trikes. Indoors there is also room to paint, bake, draw, smile, chat and be with others or be alone in the calming sensory room.

The Yard’s specialist Playworkers look to encourage children and young people to explore and be themselves, promote risk and challenge to help children overcome barriers to inclusion, and nurture natural curiosity.

HOPE For Autism (North Lanarkshire)

HOPE for Autism is a charity set up by parents who didn’t feel their children’s needs were being met. They have a great understanding of what is required to support the whole family, as they have been through it themselves.

HOPE for Autism currently offers services to families affected by an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), including evening groups for children and young people, parents’ group meetings and services for carers, such as one-to-one and group support, free training and social nights.

Grace House (Sunderland)

Grace House is a purpose-built children and young person facility in Sunderland which will offer short break and respite care services for children and young people with complex disabilities, health needs and life limiting conditions.

They are presently planning to increase the number of their en-suite bedrooms to eight before their planned opening in May 2015 which will allow them to have up to eight children visiting at any one time. Eight bedrooms will allow them to help between 250-300 children every year.

Congratulations to you all!

Edinburgh College strikes gold

Gold for Edinburgh College at the College Development Network Marketing Awards

Edinburgh College scooped a top marketing award to recognise the success of a campaign to promote courses to prospective students this week.

The college won gold in the Integrated Marketing Campaign Award at the College Development Network (CDN) Marketing Awards 2015 on Wednesday (25 February), in recognition of a marketing campaign it ran to promote applications for college courses starting in January 2014.

The college also received two bronze medals at the awards, which celebrate the excellent marketing and communication practice taking place in colleges across Scotland.

The judges praised the college’s courses marketing campaign for its ‘bold creative approach and strong integration of messages and visuals tailored for different audiences’.

This campaign helped the college achieve its target for course applications and as well as the highest attendance recorded for an open day at Edinburgh College or at any of its legacy colleges.

The college also received two bronze medals in the following categories:

The Internal Communications Award, for communications around the college’s first staff conference in June 2014. The staff conference brought all the staff together to take part in workshops around the theme of innovation, covering technology, sustainability, teaching and learning, the workplace of the future and outward innovation. The judges felt the project highlighted that the college management had made a major effort to communicate with all staff appropriately to build buy-in and involvement.

The Customer Experience Award, for the college’s Centre for Creative Industries Student Employability Day. The day, which involved workshops and talks from industry professionals, was designed to develop students’ understanding of employers’ needs, give them insight into how they can make themselves as employable as possible, and promote positive destinations. The judges felt the event was well structured and that it gave the students access to industry practitioners. The project also enabled the college to engage with a number of employers.

The awards evening took place at The Caves in Edinburgh and featured two performances by the college’s HND Acting and Performance students, while attendees were treated to chocolates made by professional cookery students.

Edinburgh College interim principal Elaine McMahon said: “I am delighted that the efforts of our Marketing and Communications staff have been recognised with a gold and two bronze awards. It is satisfying to see that the judges recognised and appreciated the work put into planning and executing the extremely successful course marketing campaign, which resulted in the college meeting student recruitment targets for the year.

“It is also great to see the creative work put into supporting and communicating with staff and students recognised with two bronze awards.”

Last year, Edinburgh College achieved a silver award in the Internal Communications category and bronze in the Event category in the CDN Marketing Awards 2014.

Pictured: L-R Deborah Robertson, head of marketing, Moira Findlay, head of communications, Jon Buglass, head of the Centre of Creative Industries, and Lee-Anne Mackay, marketing manager.

Edinburgh College in the running for marketing awards

Edinburgh College has been shortlisted for three prestigious marketing awards, recognising achievements in marketing courses, catering for students’ needs and communicating with staff.

The College Development Network (CDN) Marketing Awards 2015 – which take place next Wednesday (25 February) – are designed to recognise and celebrate the excellent marketing and communication practice taking place in colleges across Scotland.

The college is shortlisted for the following awards:

The Internal Communications Award, for communications around the college’s first staff conference in June 2014. The staff conference brought all the staff together to take part in workshops around the theme of innovation, covering technology, sustainability, teaching and learning, the workplace of the future and outward innovation.
The Customer Experience Award, for the college’s Centre for Creative Industries student Employability Day. The day was designed to develop students’ understanding of employers’ needs, give them insight into how they can make themselves as employable as possible, and promote positive destinations. Professionals from a wide range of creative industries ran workshops, talked to groups of students and shared their expertise.
The Integrated Marketing Campaign Award, in recognition of the success of marketing campaign held to promote, and increase, applications for college courses starting in January 2014. The campaign used the theme ‘Of course you can’ and achieved the highest attendance recorded for an open day at Edinburgh College or at any of its legacy colleges.

Edinburgh College interim principal Elaine McMahon said: “Being shortlisted for these awards is a great achievement and our staff deserve huge congratulations. It’s fantastic to see the creative work put into supporting, encouraging and communicating with students and staff being recognised in this way.

“The Creative Industries Employability Day was a fine example of the focus college staff put upon preparing students for working life in a competitive market and was so successful that the event will run again in February.

“The nomination for the staff conference is a welcome credit for the work done to build a sense of community in the still newly merged Edinburgh College.

“It is also satisfying to see that the work of our marketing and communications staff to promote the range of courses on offer at the college has been recognised. Their hard work led to a highly successful open day and the college meeting student recruitment targets for the year.”

Last year, Edinburgh College achieved a silver award in the Internal Communications category and bronze in the Event category in the CDN Marketing Awards 2014.

STV Appeal cash for Changeworks

Changeworks receives £2,000 from the STV Appeal

Newhaven Road-based environmental charity Changeworks has been awarded £2000 from the STV Appeal Awards 2014. The money will be used to provide reflective radiator panels and emergency radiators to those most in need – perfect timing as temperatures continue to plummet.

Changeworks is a local environmental charity and thriving social enterprise which provides practical ways for people and organisations to live and work more sustainably. The service supports individuals, communities and organisations to deliver practical solutions that reduce carbon emissions, fuel poverty and waste by managing resources more efficiently.

Changeworks helps householders to lower energy bills; reduce, reuse and recycle; install renewable energy and heating systems; offers waste education for pupils, teachers and Early Years practitioners; and provides consultancy advice, project management and training to support the efficient management of resources and behaviour change for organisations.

The STV Appeal is committed to making a difference in the lives of children and young people living in poverty in Scotland. Across the country, 220,000 children live in poverty and figures from the Campaign to End Child Poverty show that in Edinburgh it’s actually 21.1% of children – more than one in five. Changeworks is one of the projects the STV Appeal is supporting in Edinburgh.

Since launch in 2011, the STV Appeal has raised over £8.2 million with 297 big and small grants distributed to projects across all 32 local authority areas in Scotland, providing much needed support to over 37,000 children. The money raised is distributed to provide practical help like food and warm clothes; create opportunities for training and employability; and enable social and emotional support for those who need it most.

Sam Mills, Head of Projects at Changeworks, said: “We are delighted to be awarded this money to support our work helping families to better afford being warm at home. We will use the award to provide reflective radiator panels and emergency radiators to those people most in need. This practical support will be much welcomed at a time when the wintry weather continues, energy costs are rising, people’s incomes are increasingly stretched and families are struggling to keep homes warm.”

Rob Woodward, STV CEO and trustee of the STV Appeal, said: “The money donated to the STV Appeal remains in Scotland and will help bring about a positive change to the lives of vulnerable children and young people on our doorstep. With the help of the extraordinary fundraising efforts taking place in communities across the country we have raised an incredible £2.6m in 2014 allowing us to make grants to 297 projects. We are extremely grateful to everyone who supported this year’s Appeal.”

Sir Tom Hunter, trustee of the STV Appeal, said: “Yet again the people of Scotland have cast their vote – end child poverty. Through the STV Appeal we are attempting to deliver sustainable solutions to do just that. It is simply unacceptable in modern Scotland to still have young people debilitated by poverty, through this project and many more the people of Scotland are doing their level best to combat poverty.”

Sir Ian Wood, trustee of the STV Appeal, said: “The generosity of the people in Scotland who provide such great support to the STV Appeal is incredibly encouraging and heart-warming. However, it is deeply concerning that there continues to be a significant requirement across Scotland for financial support for child poverty.

“Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce, a commission I chaired recently, has the overarching aim to enable Scotland’s young people to move into sustainable employment upon leaving education. But how can they achieve positive destinations if they have a less than adequate start in life?

“I sincerely believe that the grants donated by the STV Appeal can have a significant impact on the lives of Scotland’s young people and make a real contribution to eradicating child poverty in Scotland.”

The STV Appeal 2015 is now well underway with an exciting line-up of fundraising activities planned for the year ahead.

Book your place to see Scotland’s top new writing talent

The hottest new writing talent in Scotland will perform their work, live, next week as Scottish Book Trust celebrates the work of the New Writer Award 2014 recipients.

These awards identify the authors of some of the most affecting, exciting and engaging new writing in Scotland. The 2014 awardees were selected last January from hundreds of entries by a panel of writers including Liz Lochhead, Doug Johnstone and Jenni Fagan, and received a £2,000 cash award alongside a tailored package over the past year including mentoring from writers and industry professionals and training in public relations, social media and performance.

Those interested in Scotland’s literary scene are invited to book their tickets now to join host Cora Bissett at The Jam House in Edinburgh on Thursday 29 January at 7pm for a winter’s feast of words. Tickets cost £2 and can be booked on The Jam House website.

The New Writers Awards are managed by Scottish Book Trust in association with Creative Scotland and each year they provide unpublished writers with financial support to enable them to concentrate on developing their work, as well as professional guidance to help them move towards publication.

The 2014 New Writer Awardees are:

Fiction & Narrative Non Fiction

Malachy Tallack (narrative non-fiction)

Poetry

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction

Juliette Forrest

Lindsay McKrell

Scots Fiction and Poetry

Philip Murnin (fiction)

Ann MacKinnon (poetry)

Callan Gordon Award for New Writers

Jonathan Durie

Caitrin Armstrong, Writer Development Manager at Scottish Book Trust said: “The New Writers from 2014 are a very talented and dedicated group of people and we are very much looking forward to watching how their writing develops over the coming years.”

Many New Writer Award recipients go on to secure publishing deals and Scottish Book Trust New Writers can also be found in the programmes of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Aye Write, Stanza, Margins Book and Music Festival, the Dundee Literary Festival and the Wigtown Book Festival amongst others.

Last call for heroism award entries

‘There are no accidental heroes’

The search for the first ever winner of the recently established The Annie Dow Heroism Award – TADHA for short, which celebrate acts of heroism by young people with additional support needs in Scotland, will close to nominations on Saturday 31 January.

The winner of the inaugural award will be announced at a celebratory awards ceremony at Edinburgh’s Summerhall on Thursday 19 March and will receive a cash prize of £2,500. Two runners up will each also receive a cash prize of £500.

Officially launched in October 2014, TADHA takes its inspiration from Annie Dow, a young woman with additional support needs who saved the lives of her mother, father, family friend and dog Hamish when she bravely raised the alarm after discovering a fire in the middle of the night which destroyed her home.

TADHA founder (and mother of Annie) Sophie Dow is urging anyone who knows of any young person that might be eligible to receive TADHA recognition to put them forward for consideration. She said: “If you have any questions about nominating someone, please just get in touch! We are looking to hear about heroic acts from those with additional support needs, but will also consider inspirational acts as well.

“With TADHA we have a real opportunity to recognise and highlight the often unsung heroes in our society. We need your help to make sure that we hear about those acts, however big or small they might be.”

Made possible by an anonymous donor who gifted £20,000 to recognise Annie’s heroism and that of other young people with additional support needs in Scotland, the TADHA awards will be judged by a prestigious panel made up of Rose Fitzpatrick, Deputy Chief Constable, Police Scotland; Lieutenant Colonel Rob Heatly, MBE Royal Marines;, Anne Houston, Former Chief Executive of Children First;, Peter Murray, Assistant Chief Officer, Scotland Fire and Rescue Services; Louise Macdonald, Chief Executive Young Scot and Aaron McHale, Young Campaigner and Haggeye Member.

Sophie continued: “Setting up TADHA is one of the most important and joyful things I have done throughout my career. TADHA will highlight the abilities, rather than the inabilities, that anyone with additional support needs have.

“After all, the true definition of a hero is someone who can stay calm under pressure, in a crisis or an emergency, knows what to do and does it well without panicking. There are no accidental heroes.”

www.tadha.co.uk

Lord Provost launches Fair Trade Awards

Edinburgh’s Lord Provost, Donald Wilson, has launched the Fair Trade Awards 2015. Now in their ninth year, the awards recognise the difference that residents, businesses and schools make in promoting fair trade in Edinburgh.

The Lord Provost will invite nominations (or in the case of schools, applications) in four categories – Achievement Award, Newcomer Award, Faith Community Award and Fair Trade Schools Award – before the closing date of 13 February 2015.

The awards will be presented during Edinburgh’s Fairtrade Fortnight, which runs from 23 February to 8 March 2015.

Lord Provost, Donald Wilson, said: “I am very proud of Edinburgh’s long-standing commitment to fair trade and these awards provide us with an excellent opportunity to praise the generous contribution individuals and businesses are making to fair trade throughout the city.

“I would encourage people to have a think about where they shop or where they eat and whether that business or organisation promotes fair trade – and, if so, get nominating!”

In 2014, the capital saw its fair trade status renewed for the tenth year in a row. last year’s winners included the Fair Business Alliance Ltd, who introduced fair trade plantain crisps to the market, and Gorgie Dalry Parish Church which was recognised for promoting fair trade across the city. Their Saltyard coffee shop serves fair trade hot drinks and snacks and promotes Created Gifts, Tearfund’s fair trade range, while a mural at their entrance demonstrates their support for fair trade to all those who enter.

Awarded in the schools category last year was St George’s Junior School, whose pupils engaged with local shops to stock fair trade products.

Visit the Council’s Fair Trade webpage for further information and to make an online nomination for the 2015 awards.

The award categories in full:

Achievement Award

This award is for any organisation, business or individual based in Edinburgh showing outstanding commitment to fair trade over a long period of time and has enhanced fair trade within the city.

Newcomer Award

This award is for any organisation, business or individual operating with fair trade in Edinburgh for five years or less which has adopted fair trade products as a key part of the business and promotes fair trade in their marketing.

Faith Community Award

This award is for a faith community in Edinburgh that can demonstrate a strong commitment to fair trade and provide evidence of fair trade activities in the faith community.

Fair Trade School Award

This award is for any school that can demonstrate a strong commitment to fair trade activities throughout the school and its community. Each school must apply through the school community, for example, by parent/teacher council, Eco schools team, fair trade group, for consideration. The school can be working towards Fairtrade status but should not yet have received it.

Small Is Beautiful

This new award is for small organisations or business projects based in Edinburgh, which promotes Fair Trade or Fair Trade products.

Edinburgh College student is apprentice of the year

Edinburgh College student named oil and gas apprentice of the year

An apprentice from Edinburgh College is celebrating after been named apprentice of the year by OPITO, the oil and gas industry’s skills organisation. Michael Williamson, 23, beat off competition from students at three other colleges to win the 2014 Apprentice of the Year Award, which honours the top apprentice on OPITO’s UK Upstream Oil & Gas Technician Training Scheme.

Michael is the sixth Edinburgh College student in a row to win the coveted annual award.

Originally from Whalsay on Shetland, Michael is currently an instrument technician apprentice at Edinburgh College. He was selected after demonstrating an outstanding ability and attitude during the four-year national apprenticeship scheme, which has so far seen more than 1,500 young people enter the industry, creating a sustainable pipeline of technicians coming in at a grassroots level.

Split into two phases, the apprenticeship sees students take part in a 21-month full-time course at college, before embarking on a two year worksite placement.

The former mussel farmer, who previously completed an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering with Shetland Island Council Ferries, received his award at a prestigious lunch in Aberdeen to mark the 15th anniversary of the Technician Training Scheme. The milestone event celebrated the roles of leaders and apprentices across the UK oil and gas industry in addressing skills issues.

Michael said “I was quite taken aback by winning the award. I didn’t even expect to be nominated, let alone win, so I was over the moon. I chose to retrain as an instruments technician mainly as a stepping stone into the oil and gas industry, and also because two apprenticeships are better than one!”

“My studies are progressing well, the theory side is a bit challenging but manageable as long as I keep my head down and get through it. I hope to continue to gain experience and knowledge of the industry and progress towards starting my own limited company and be self-employed further down the line.”

Mike Jeffrey, Head of Engineering at the college, said: “We are thrilled that Michael has been recognised with the OPITO Apprentice of the Year award. Edinburgh College is one of three training centres for OPITO in the UK and the consistent quality of our apprentices has now been recognised with this award six times. The college has successfully trained hundreds of apprentices for the oil and gas industry.”

Operators and major contractors have invested more than £120million in the Technician Training Scheme since it was established in 1999 with 13 trainees and four industry sponsors. Since then, the programme has grown to see around 130 new apprentices taken on every year across 15 sponsoring companies, making it one of the biggest industry-led MA programmes in the UK.

The Technician Training Scheme is managed by OPITO in partnership with the Engineering and Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB). The awards were held as part of National Oil & Gas Skills Week, a UK-wide initiative that saw more than 75 companies take part in around 50 events in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, North Shields, Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, London.

John McDonald, managing director of OPITO UK, said: “Skills Week has demonstrated that there are some outstanding companies and individuals working in our sector who are delivering tangible benefits around the skills agenda at both a company-wide, local and national level.

“The high standard of entry we received for the inaugural awards was matched only by the passion and enthusiasm shown by this year’s apprentices for the industry they have chosen as a career.”