Pilton Community Health Project’s Anita Aggarwal gives an update on a key local initiative:
Since the closure of Community Organisation for Racial Equality (CORE), PCHP, Community Learning and Development (CLD) and Edinburgh Lothian Regional Equalities Council (ELREC) have been working together to try to minimise the impact of the loss of this important organisation.
The City of Edinburgh Council commissioned a report which examined the ongoing needs of BME communities in the area. This highlighted the difficulties people have integrating with the local population, as well as a host of other issues.
At this point it was felt important to involve other agencies and more local people in this process, and so we pulled together an action planning session on 31 May.
Over 30 people attended this event, representing a wide range of local people and organisations. At this event we identified actions to be taken and many committed to take these forward.
If you weren’t able to be at the event and have ideas about how you or your organisations can contribute please add them in to the plan. This document is an aid to action, not a fixed strategy document to sit on a shelf and get dusty!
We agreed to come back to discuss next steps at another meeting, when we will look at what progress is being made and how we resource some of the ideas on the action plan.
The next meeting will take place at the
Spartans Community Football Academy on Friday 19 July from 10 – 12.
This meeting is open to anyone – please contact me on 0131 551 1671 if you need crèche.
National, citywide and local agencies, organisations and individuals joined together to find ways to fill the gaps when CORE (formerly the Black Community Development Project) was forced to close last year. That work continues, as Pilton Community Health Project’s Anita Aggarwal reports …
You may be aware that since the closure of CORE last year a small group of local people and organisations have been looking at the ongoing issues for the BME (black and minority ethnic) community.
There was a short consultation and the findings have been written up in the ‘Living in Harmony’ report (see below). We have offered to facilitate an action planning session to look at how local organisations and people can come together to tackle some of the issues raised in the report.
There has been a significant rise in the incidence of hate crime in the area, as well as many issues that affect the wider community. We hope that a broad spectrum of people and organisations will want to be part of this planning event. We also hope that by the end of the event local organisations and individuals will have committed to take forward actions that encourage interaction and integration between ethnic groups in the area and remove or reduce some of the barriers for the BME population to accessing services.
This workshop is open for all and we will provide creche (IF BOOKED IN ADVANCE) and refreshments. We particularly welcome members of the local Scottish community to take part.
It will take place on Friday 31 May from 9.30 – 12 followed by lunch, at The Spartans Academy at Ainslie Park. Please let me know if you will attend, or give me a call if you would like more information. Please feel free to forward this invitation to other interested parties.
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:
Criminal profits have been put to good use with the launch of two short films created by local young people. Screen Education Edinburgh (SEE) (formerly Pilton Video) will be screening ‘Danny’ and ‘The Clock Strikes Fate’ at North Edinburgh Arts Centre on Tuesday 18 September at 6.30pm.
SEE worked with young people from the outset on the projects which were made possible through funding from the Cashback for Creativity programme, a fund which takes cash confiscated from criminals and ploughs the money back into the communities they prey upon.
Cashback for Creativity (formally Creative Identities) is Creative Scotland’s programme that provides young people across Scotland with access to high quality dance, film and music activities, funded by the Scottish Government’s CashBack for Communities programme which reinvests the proceeds of crime back into communities to benefit Scotland’s young people.
As part of the scheme, Screen Education Edinburgh are running an intensive programme of short film making for young people aged 12- 19 across the City of Edinburgh, with priority given to those living in areas of deprivation.
In North Edinburgh, a series of taster workshops took place in partnership with Broughton High School, Community Organisation for Race Equality, Muirhouse Youth Development Group and Pilton Youth and Children’s Project, leading to the most interested young people moving forward to form a core filmmaking group based at SEE. Learning the skills of screenwriting, acting, camera, sound and editing, the group have completed two short film’s ‘Danny’ and ‘When The Clock Strikes Fate’.
The two films will be premiered on Tuesday 18th September at 6.30pm at North Edinburgh Arts Centre to an audience that will include the cast and crew, their families and friends, invited guests and members of the public. The event will also feature a ‘making of’ documentary and a question and answer session with the young people involved followed by a small reception.
Seats are free and available on a first come, first served basis; so turn up early on the night to guarantee a seat!
SEE’s Creative Manager Graham Fitzpatrick said: “The project was a fantastic opportunity for North Edinburgh youngsters to learn how to make films, with two outstanding and mature dramas being produced. We look forward to the premiere and supporting the group as they build on the experience to produce more shorts, whilst the programme also rolls out to East and West Edinburgh from now until Christmas.”
CORE (Community Organisation for Racial Equality) has closed. Members voted last night to dissolve the organisation, but there’s hope that something can be salvaged from ashes of the old BCDP …
It started raining at lunchtime and it simply didn’t stop. It rained and it rained and it was still raining when around sixty CORE members, supporters and service users trooped in to Royston Wardieburn to deliver the coup de grace to an organisation that has been an important feature of North Edinburgh community life for 17 years. The mood matched the miserable weather as CORE – like North Edinburgh Trust (NET, formerly Pilton Partnership) and North Edinburgh News (NEN) before it – became the latest casualty of funding cuts.
Facing funding shortfalls, dramatically decreasing reserves and a serious pension deficit (for which individual committee members could be held liable), four office bearers – all volunteers – have battled to save the organisation since May, but they were finally forced to bow to the inevitable and admit defeat.
Chairman Fernando Almeida Diniz said: “It is not just one thing, but a combination of events, decisions and circumstances that have brought about this unhappy day. There is no one reason, and no individual, to blame, but there is one key message – the sole factor that triggered CORE’s closure is financial. We have looked at all options, and sadly there is no alternative.”
Development worker Adil Ibrahim stayed on to support CORE as a volunteer when trouble hit the organisation, and Adil and former chairperson Mariam Gallander made a brief presentation on CORE’s activities over both the last twelve months and some other recent successful initiatives; a final opportunity to reflect on an illustrious past.
It was left to Honorary Chairman Daniel Onifade to go through the formality of the vote to dissolve the organisation. With no other viable options available, members voted 20 – 3 with one abstention to close CORE, and at 7.20pm the organisation was formally dissolved. Mr Onifade said: “I have known, and been involved with, the organisation since before the Black Community Development Project was born, so this is an extremely sad day for us all.”
However there are hopes that all that was good about CORE can be retained; through existing organisations and agencies or perhaps even through a new group. During a discussion session chaired by Forth councillor Vicki Redpath, city council equalities chief Nick Croft said: “We could spend time talking about what went wrong – quite bluntly, Edinburgh lost out to the West of Scotland when it came to employability funding, and CORE’s application was not the best – but I think it’s more important that we build on the positive energy that has been generated this evening to ensure that we build services to meet the local community’s needs.”
That ‘positive energy’ produced a ‘transition group’ of six volunteers which will work with council officers and other agencies to ensure gaps in provision for the black and minority ethnic community are addressed short-term and that any new services are designed to meet both their needs and those of the wider community too. Royston Wardieburn will initially become a ‘hub’ for these activities while evaluation work is ongoing, and voluntary organisations – both local and city-wide – have also offered their support. An initial meeting of interested parties will take place within two weeks.
So yes, a sad evening – but an evening with some positives too. And leaving the meeting, the rain had stopped.
The Pilton-basedCommunity Organisation for Racial Equality (CORE) is to close. Formerly the BCDP (Black Community Development Project), the project which grew out of the Muirhouse Anti-Racism campaign of the early 1990s will be formally wound up at an extraordinary general meeting in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre on 29 August.
At it’s height CORE was one of the most influential community-led equality organisations in the country – growing from humble beginnings in a room in Craigroyston HIgh School to staging prestigious conferences in Edinburgh’s International Conference Centre – but funding issues and financial struggles over recent years has forced directors to seek closure of the organisation.
Chairperson Dr Fernando Almeira Diniz confirmed that CORE has been experiencing financial problems for some months, but said that the Board will not be making any statements at this stage. “I am sure that you will see that we cannot do anything which could be regarded as pre-empting what might happen at the EGM”, he said.
CORE’s EGM will be held at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre on Wednesday 29 August at 6pm. Following the formal business procedures it’s planned to have a general discussion – ‘an opportunity to reflect on the achievements of CORE /BCDP, followed by a Community-led discussion about ways of engaging BME Communities in developing future provision of public services in North Edinburgh.’
For further information, or if you plan to attend, please contact Adil Ibrahim at CORE, email adil@coregb.org.uk by 25 August.
Happier times: Director Tesfu Gessesse addresses CORE’s 2007 AGM
On Saturday 31 March, a group of children took to the stage in the theatre of North Edinburgh Arts Centre to perform songs and lyrics that they had written. You would be forgiven for thinking that these children must have been from one of the capital’s specialist music schools…but these mini composers were showcasing music which they had been working on for just 14 weeks at Soundkidz music group. Organised by CORE and funded by Creative Scotland with in-kind support from North Edinburgh Arts and Edinburgh Mela , the group let the children explore their musical creativity every Saturday afternoon at North Edinburgh Arts.
With the help of youth workers Tamsin Dearnley and Kirsty Miguda, the group worked with a variety of musicians from a range of musical backgrounds. From conducting and African drumming to jazz singing and lyric writing, the children got a taste of the diverse directions in which music could take them. They also began writing their own lyrics and songs, creating individual pieces and group performances. After a few weeks, the children were ready to compose a whole song as a group. They chose the guitar chords, wrote the lyrics and a melody and rehearsed until they knew their song inside out.
At the performance, the audience first heard members of the group recite lyrics which they had written. From lions and horses to video games and city life, the audience gained an insight into where the children’s imaginations had taken them. The children then showcased group pieces that they had composed during a session in which they had been given a word, a rhythm, a percussion instrument and just 30 minutes to create a piece.
The show’s finale arrived. Gathered together on the stage, with guitarist Stuart Taylor to accompany them, the children launched into the catchy chorus of the song that they had written. At the end the audience clapped and cheered as the children took their bows and received their certificates (along with a copy of the CD which they had recorded the previous week). A brilliant performance by North Edinburgh’s budding musicians!
On Saturday 31 March, a group of children took to the stage in the theatre of North Edinburgh Arts Centre to perform songs and lyrics that they had written. You would be forgiven for thinking that these children must have been from one of the capital’s specialist music schools…but these mini composers were showcasing music which they had been working on for just 14 weeks at Soundkidz music group. Organised by CORE and funded by Creative Scotland with in-kind support from North Edinburgh Arts and Edinburgh Mela , the group let the children explore their musical creativity every Saturday afternoon at North Edinburgh Arts.
With the help of youth workers Tamsin Dearnley and Kirsty Miguda, the group worked with a variety of musicians from a range of musical backgrounds. From conducting and African drumming to jazz singing and lyric writing, the children got a taste of the diverse directions in which music could take them. They also began writing their own lyrics and songs, creating individual pieces and group performances. After a few weeks, the children were ready to compose a whole song as a group. They chose the guitar chords, wrote the lyrics and a melody and rehearsed until they knew their song inside out.
At the performance, the audience first heard members of the group recite lyrics which they had written. From lions and horses to video games and city life, the audience gained an insight into where the children’s imaginations had taken them. The children then showcased group pieces that they had composed during a session in which they had been given a word, a rhythm, a percussion instrument and just 30 minutes to create a piece.
The show’s finale arrived. Gathered together on the stage, with guitarist Stuart Taylor to accompany them, the children launched into the catchy chorus of the song that they had written. At the end the audience clapped and cheered as the children took their bows and received their certificates (along with a copy of the CD which they had recorded the previous week). A brilliant performance by North Edinburgh’s budding musicians!
CORE (Community Organisation for Race Equality) is inviting you to a music group event this afternoon in North Edinburgh Arts Centre from 3.30pm.
CORE Youth and Children’s Development Worker Hazel Lyons explains: “CORE started a music-making group last December at North Edinburgh Arts Centre and children from the Greater Pilton area have been focusing on music making and discovering different types of music. Throughout the sessions youth workers have been working with the children to explore new forms of music and improve their music skills, with the help of different guest musicians coming along each week.”.
She adds: “The children have been working towards putting on a performance and would love to show you everything that they have learned. CORE would therefore like to invite you to this event on Saturday 31 March at North Edinburgh Arts Centre. The performance will last from 3.30-4.30pm and there will also be refreshments.The children have worked so well together, learned new skills and had lots of fun – we are all really looking forward to the performance”.
Pilton Community Health Project’s Anita Aggarwal gives an update on a key local initiative:
