Tag: BME

MELA looking for volunteers

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The Edinburgh Mela Festival 2014 is looking for volunteers

Friday 29 – Sunday 31 August

A carnival atmosphere with a vibrant and exciting mix of dance, music, street art and theatre, The Edinburgh Mela Festival is a lively, colourful event for all the family.

We are looking for enthusiastic and friendly volunteers to join the Festival team, so if you are looking for a fun, summer experience then this is the opportunity for you…

We are looking for volunteers in the following areas:

Artist Liaison, Audience Services, Market Stalls, Kids and family area, Green Recycling Team and Marketing.

We provide:

Ø A volunteer training session, which will give you a chance to meet your volunteer colleagues

Ø Travel expenses to and from the Festival

Ø A meal per shift plus refreshments from our hospitality area

Ø 2 complimentary day tickets

Ø A limited edition Mela t-shirt

Ø You will be able to ask for a reference on successful completion of your volunteer post

You will be asked to attend a short, informal interview and training session.

To find out more, please contact Antonia Dickson on 07870621086 or email volunteer@edinburgh-mela.co.uk; alternatively write to The Edinburgh Mela, Unit 14, Abbeymount Techbase, 2 Easter Road, Edinburgh, EH7 5AN

The deadline for all opportunities is Sunday 10 August.

http://www.edinburgh-mela.co.uk/

MELA

Say YEA! to Roshni

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Roshni is running two exciting new projects for the minority ethnic community in Scotland

The Young Ethnic Awards (YEA!) are the perfect celebration of Scotland’s minority ethnic youth and will recognise their achievements in 6 different categories recognising work from volunteering to exceptional sporting and educational achievements, we want to acknowledge the young ethnic minority people who are doing something special. Individuals have the opportunity to nominate ME young people aged 14 and 25 between now and 31 August, with winners announced at the Young Ethnic Awards (YEA!) on 24 October. For more info go to http://www.roshni.org.uk/yea/

Alongside YEA! we are running the Scottish Ethnic Communities 100k fund, which aims to inspire more of the excellent grassroots work in ME communities. The fund offers up to £10,000 for a community based project, allowing people to take their ideas for their community and bring them to life. The application process is simple; and our multi-lingual Community Outreach team ensure that groups can apply in any language. This will allow us to help those often considered hard to reach, who are generally those most in need of help. The shortlisted community groups will then be invited to attend the award ceremony on the 24th October where we will reveal who has been successful in their application and watch their dream become a reality. For more info go to

http://www.roshni.org.uk/the-scottish-ethnic-communities-100k-fund/

Nasim Azad

 

World Cafe returns with a double helping!

The World Cafe is back! Black Community Development Project’s monthly dining event at North Edinburgh Arts was hugely popular, offering local people the opportunity to meet informally and taste foods from all over the globe. The Cafe was one of the victims of CORE’s recent closure, but the transition group subsequently established has decided to resurrect the global dining experience – and they’re kicking off with a double helping, with TWO World Cafes this month!

The Transition Group is keen to hear the views and gather the opinions of North Edinburgh’s BME residents and promise an afternoon of ‘workshops, food and entertainment’ for participants at the two World Cafe events.

The first World Cafe will tak place at North Edinburgh Arts Centre on Friday 16 November from 3 – 7pm, and this will be followed by a second World Cafe at a new venue on a new day – Saturday 24 November sees the first World Cafe at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre from 3 – 7pm!

Booking is essential, so to book or for further informaiton please contact:

Adil Ibrahim on 07533 790 126 or email adilabuelseed@hotmail.com or Deborah Clark at ELREC, dclark@elrec.org.uk

TG Event Flyer 6th Nov 2012-FINAL

SAHELIYA – a friend indeed

BME womens group Saheliya celebrate their twentieth birthday later this month. Saheliya is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘women friends’, and the project has been a true friend to many hundreds of women since it was established in July 1992. 

Manager Alison Davis explains that, although some issues being encountered are changing, the need for the support service remains as great as it ever did:

“Since 1992 Saheliya has been providing support to BME women in Edinburgh who have mental well-being issues – mainly women who are not accessing mainstream services. During these twenty years the profile of our service users has changed: now our average service user has moderate to severe rather than mild to moderate mental well-being problems. Their problems relate mainly to experiences such as racism, Islamaphobia, honour violence, in-law abuse, forced marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), trafficking, torture and other organised violence. Compared to only 1% five years ago, presently 38% of our service users are from refugee communities. For eighteen years, we had only one case of FGM; we now have FGM survivors on waiting lists for our services.

“We provide a wide range of learning activities to sustain recovery and to maximize social and economic integration; this includes accredited childcare training with the potential of work experience placements in our childcare service.

“Through our therapeutic and case work support and because of our organisational focus, we are able to identify changes in the local demographic profile and in needs for specialist services that are not easily identified by mainstream agencies or generally acknowledged by BME community organisations. Our organisational statistics and our specially devised database and monitoring and evaluation systems enable us to map mental health support needs, prevalence of harmful cultural practices, and effective support packages. Saheliya is an important resource for mainstream policy makers and service providers in planning responses to population changes and for service delivery.

“We believe that our wrap-around services, move-on opportunities, and collection of statistics makes us an important organisation for Edinburgh and for Scotland as a whole if we are to ensure inclusive services and achieve integration.”

The organisation is holding a

20th Anniversary Celebration Stakeholders Event

on Thursday 15 November from 9.30am to 1.30pm

an opportunity to meet staff, learn about Saheliya’s work and participate in workshops. 

For further information about the anniversary event, or about Saheliya’s range of services, telephone 556 9302 or email info@saheliya.co.uk

Council seeks more BME foster carers

The city council has launched the second wave of a campaign to increase the number of carers from black and minority ethnic backgrounds in Edinburgh. 

The launch follows a very succesful campaign that saw a doubling in the number of people enquiring about fostering last year, and the city council now hopes to further increase awareness during this recruitment drive.

Carers from all backgrounds are needed but there are very few black and ethnic minority carers in Edinburgh, and the aim is to try and increase numbers so that children from different cultural, religious and ethnic groups can live with foster carers who share similar backgrounds. Matching children with carers from the same background isn’t always essential but, in some cases, it can help a child to cope with their situation.

Children & Families Convener Cllr Paul Godzik said: “We are always looking for new carers to come and work with us to help give our children a safe environment to learn and grow in. We hope to build on the success of last year’s campaign and encourage even more people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds to consider becoming a foster carer. We can help provide the support and advice needed to make this decision, so please, if you are thinking of fostering get in touch or come along to one of the drop-in sessions to learn more about it.”

The drop-in sessions start this week at McDonald Road Library on Thursday (30  August) with another one next Thursday (6 September) – both sessions run from 10am to 1pm.  Foster care recruitment staff and carers will also be on hand at the Edinburgh MELA this weekend (Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 September) at Leith Links.

The BME recruitment campaign is part of a wider ongoing campaign to promote foster care in Edinburgh called ‘Foster Me Foster Us’.  Edinburgh has a shortage of foster carers and more are needed to provide children with safe and caring homes while they are unable to live with their own families.