Make Edinburgh greener: Vote for your favourite environmental projects

EDINBURGH COMMUNITY CLIMATE FUND

You have five votes – but you must vote by 12th March.

Dozens of organisations have applied for a share of the £100,00 budget. Here are just a few of the projects looking for your support:

Seedlings to Seniors (Corstorphine Community Centre)

We need your votes for the CCC project ‘Seedlings to Seniors’ to get a share in the Edinburgh Community Climate Fund.

Full details of how to vote are on our website here : 

https://corstorphinecommunitycentre.org.uk

or go straight to the Council page listing the projects at: 

https://yourvoice.edinburgh.gov.uk/budgets/1/investments

Note: registration with mygovscot is required in order to vote.

Edinburgh Climate Festival (ELREC)

Hey Edinburgh community!

The voting for the Edinburgh Community Climate Fund from The City of Edinburgh Councilis open and our project, Edinburgh Climate Festival is a part of it.

We need your help to make The Edinburgh Climate Festival a reality, so please vote for our project today!

You have 5 votes to support not only our project but other outstanding ones as well.

Here’s a guide on how to vote for The Edinburgh Climate Festival:

Step one: If you’re an adult, register on myaccount https://www.mygov.scot/myaccount to cast your vote. This is a secure online portal that provides access to various public services using a single login ID and password. You can find a registration guide on the Edinburgh Council website. Young people under 18 can vote through Young Scot https://getyournec.scot/ using their Young Scot NEC number.

Step two: Once your account is active, visit Your Voice website : https://yourvoice.edinburgh.gov.uk/ and sign in using your myaccount details.

Help us create a sustainable future for Edinburgh!🌎🌲🍃

#VoteNow#SustainabilityMatters#GreenerEdinburgh

Community wellbeing for climate impact (Ferryhill Parent Council)

We are a parent council groups that’s passionate able helping the children learn and thrive in the community.

This project will enable us to create a forest school within the school grounds, giving the whole school the ability to learn more about climate through hands on learning.

We will also be looking to add to the schools existing orchard with some raised beds for the children to grow food and learn about sustainable practice. We also plan on linking up with the local community centre to support the garden project.

Starter Packs Project (Fresh Start)

Since 1999 Fresh Start has been supporting people moving on from homelessness to ‘make a home for themselves’ across Edinburgh. Responding to people with lived experience of homelessness we provide practical support as people move on from temporary accommodation into new unfurnished tenancies.

Our service-users typically are allocated unfurnished properties and do not have the means to purchase the goods that make a home. Fresh Start provides Starter Packs of essential household goods – crockery, pots/pans, bedding, towels – to homeless households within the first 3 days of them moving in to their new tenancies, relieving financial burden and ensuring they have the essentials they need to settle in their new home.

We supply 13 different Starter Packs of quality used-household goods which are donated by the public and local businesses. Teams of volunteers gather in these donations and sort them in our warehouse for distribution.  

In 2022 we distribute 14,430 packs and helped over 2,000 people moving out of temporary Housing. We diverted 75,500 kg (75.5 t.) of goods from landfill.

Community Shed (North Edinburgh Arts)

Vote for the North Edinburgh Arts Community Shed and support our ambitions for a more sustainable future!

Our Community Shed has been nominated for The City of Edinburgh Council‘s Edinburgh Community Climate Fund, and you can vote for it as part of the public participatory budgeting process until 12th March.

The primary focus of the Community Shed is to reuse wood and wooden furniture to enable our members to make and mend things for their homes, gardens and communities. Each year in Scotland we throw away tons of stuff into landfill, including wood and furniture, that should be recycled, reused, mended or made into something completely different and the Community Shed does its bit to convert this waste into useful and beautiful things.

Since its launch four years ago, the Shed has become a key community project in North Edinburgh with over 150 members. Being part of the Community Shed has a significantly positive impact on our members’ lives by improving their self-confidence, giving them meaning and purpose, making new friends and social connections, as well as providing them with an informal support network.

The Edinburgh Community Climate funding will enable us to purchase new much-needed technical equipment to cut and process wood, which will help speed up our processes while also significantly improving the quality of our output.

Please support our work and help create a greener community by casting your vote today!

This is a chance for you to decide how the Edinburgh Council money is spent on things that matter to you and your community.

Vote online at yourvoice.edinburgh.gov.uk/budgets/1/investments/10 by using/creating your own account.

For those under 18 wishing to vote this can be done through Young Scot using your Young Scot NEC number. School libraries will be offering supported voting too.

If you would like to vote in person, please visit your local library.

For information for our local residents, Muirhouse Library is currently located in the foyer of Edinburgh College Granton campus near Morrisons (350 West Granton Road), and its opening times are as follows:

Monday – Friday: 10am to 5pm

Saturday: 10am to 4pm

Make sure you vote before 12 March.

Thank you for your support, and please share with your friends and families as every vote counts! 💙💙💙

All Aboard for Climate Action (People Know How)

The All Aboard canal boat run by People Know How and Polwarth Parish Church has been shortlisted in the Edinburgh Climate Community Fund to receive funding to run climate change sessions with children and young people on the Union Canal.

These organisations are now looking for votes from the public, which will decide the final projects that will receive the funding. 

The climate change sessions will focus on engaging children and young people with nature and the local environment and exploring the impact of climate change. Using fun and engaging activities, we will introduce them to small everyday actions that they can take at home and in their community to help tackle climate change. 

The sessions will be open to pupils from local primary schools that People Know How work with as part of their Positive Transitions service, supporting children, young people and families in the transition to secondary school.

They will draw on the charity’s established experience of running groups across Edinburgh and East Lothian, including previous sessions on All Aboard that have introduced young people to a green space in the heart of their community, seeing plants and wildlife up close. 

All Aboard was launched in 2021 and aims to nurture community cohesion and wellbeing in an innovative space on the Union Canal. It is open to the community, serving as a safe space in which to explore the canal, find new experiences and socialise, while surrounded by nature. 

To vote, visit the webpage below and select All Aboard for Climate Action as one of your five projects. Voting is open to all Edinburgh residents over the age of 8 and can be done online or at your local public library. Please note, you must use all 5 votes for your selections to be valid.

Further instructions can be found via the link below.

Vote today: https://yourvoice.edinburgh.gov.uk/budgets

Free Indian Dance workshop at Granton Goes Greener next week

We are very excited to have another FREE Indian Dancing workshop at Granton Goes Greener organised in partnership with Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council (ELREC) and “Open Arms” project💃💃💃.

The workshop is part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe and their amazing community engagement programme.

If you would like to book your space, please, email:mrostami@elrec.org.uk

Light lunch will be provided🍕🥗🥘

Forest Bound art exhibition opens today at Out of the Blue Drill Hall

We would like to invite you to the opening of Forest Bound – adaptation, resilience and uncertainty, a Community Group Exhibition of artwork and more, created as part of Forest Bound, a public engagement project.

Please see the event details below. Everything in wonderful The Out of the Blue Drill Hall !

The project 🌱🌱🌱

Forest Bound is a project working to engage ethnic minority groups in Edinburgh with forest landscapes by using arts approaches grounded in environmental science. The project aims to create spaces so communities underrepresented in nature can engage with forest environments, while bringing attention to their experiences and values. We organised forest walks and a workshop session. Find out more about the activities by watching the short film produced by Written in Film.

Forest Bound is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and is a partnership between the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council (ELREC), artist Tamsin Grainger, and Written in Film.

The exhibition 🌱🌱🌱

This multi-media, multi-sensory and interactive exhibition includes collage, painting and drawing, film by Written in Film, sound, recipes, and an experience of the smell and touch of the Scots Pines and fungi found in the Autumn in Scotland.

The groups were interested in, and learning about, how we, as part of nature, share the ability to adapt, maintain resilience and manage uncertainty. Created by people who live in Edinburgh, including members of the Chinese, Syrian, and Polish communities, in this exhibition you will be surrounded by the infectious laughter that comes from walking together in such special places.

Evening opening event 🌱🌱🌱

The evening opening of the exhibition is on Thursday 16th of February 2023, 6pm – 8.30pm.

The venue is Out of the Blue Drill Hall (Main Hall) in Edinburgh (EH6 8RG). See how to get there here.

We encourage you to bring along others with you to the evening opening and share the invitation with your network.

Please note the exhibition is cost-free and will be open to all from Tuesday 14th of February 2023 until Saturday 18th of February 2023 (inclusive), so if you are unable to attend the evening opening you can visit during normal opening times these dates (10am – 5pm Tuesday-Friday, 10am – 3pm Saturday).

Free Stuff! Big Swap Event

Come along Saturday 4th February 2023 at St Martins Church (232 Dalry Rd, Edinburgh, EH11 2JG) to find some great clothes, toys, books, DVDs, kitchen utensils, and other stuff for FREE!

Grab your free ticket asap: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/…/big-swap-shop-event…

All welcome!! At the event, you will find clothes and other useful items in need of a new home. Everything will be available at NO COST.

You will find a great selection:

• Women’s, Men’s & Children’s clothes

• Toys

• Books, CDs & DVDs

• Kitchen utensils

..and more!

Bring your own bags and help us reduce waste.

**** Please note that we will not accept donations on the day. If you wish to donate items pop in at ELREC Office (14 Forth Street EH13LH) on Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd February from 10 am to 5pm. ****

If you have any queries please contact: cfc@elrec.org.uk or anna@grantongoesgrenner.org.uk

Please, confirm your presence here: https://fb.me/e/2AM1WtnIz and share it with your family and friends.

This event is brought to you by Communities’ Reduce Reuse & Recycle (ELREC), Granton Goes Greener and NKS – Networking Key Services and funded by The National Lottery Community Fund Scotland.

Come along Saturday 4th February at St Martins Church (232 Dalry Rd, Edinburgh, EH11 2JG) to find some great clothes, toys, books, DVDs, kitchen utensils, and other stuff for FREE! 1pm to 4.30pm

♻️

Grab your free ticket here: https://swapshopfebruary.eventbrite.co.uk#circulareconomy#reuse

Indian Dance Workshop at Granton Parish Church next week

GRANTON Goes Greener are very excited to be hosting an Indian Dance Workshop at @GrantonParish next Thursday (2nd February).

💃

. The workshop is delivered in partnership with “Open Arms” project @ELRECUK.

Check the poster for booking details or email: anna@grantongoesgreener.org.uk

Finding My Place: Celebrate Book Week Scotland at ELREC event

This year ELREC are celebrating Book Week Scotland by organising an event, reading and sharing short stories, including some around moving and migration.

Come and join us on Saturday, 19 November and read the story of your own, or listen to the others. Maybe you get into the spirit of reading and you want to buy some books 😉So, a gift card to help you buying them is on us thank to a grant from #ScottishBookTrust

Places are limited and early booking is encouraged to avoid disappointment. Please reserve your free ticket via this link:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1059801658050615

#BookWeekScotland

Tomorrow: BIG Swap Event

One more sleep until our BIG SWAP event, which we are organising in partnership with Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council (ELREC) and NKS – Networking Key Services at St Martin’s Community Resource Centre, Edinburgh this Saturday (29/10).

We have few basic rules, which we would be grateful if you could follow:

🙏🙏🙏

  • Big Swap is just a name, but it is really a FREE clothes/ shoes/ toys/ household items, etc. giveaway.
  • EVERYTHING given away on the day will be absolutely FREE and there is no need to bring/ swap anything
  • We WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING ANY DONATIONS on the day, so please, do not bring anything to donate on Saturday,
  • Bring your own bags,
  • Be respectful and mindful of others,
  • Help us to extend our invitation to your friends and family.

Windrush Information Event

Citizens Rights Project and Edinburgh and Lothian Regional Equality Council would like to invite you to the free information session about the Windrush Scheme and Windrush Compensation Scheme.

We are happy to announce the special guest – Prof. Sir Geoff Palmer who will take part in the event.

We will present the details of both Schemes available for migrants who arrived in the UK before 1989, that provide a physical document to prove the right to reside in the UK, as well as the financial compensation for the past troubles caused by the lack of such document.

We would like to use this opportunity, to speak with people from Commonwealth communities in Scotland to hear their voices about their difficult experiences of dealing with the UK immigration system. We would also like to listen about their views on the Windrush Compensation Scheme and the Government actions to rectify their past mistakes.

Prof Sir Geoff Palmer is ELREC Honorary President. He became the first black professor in Scotland in 1989 and then a Professor Emeritus after his retirement in 2005. In 2014 he was knighted with New Year Honours. Jamaican Honorary Consul. Chancellor of the Heriot- Watt University. Jamaican Commander of Distinction. Chair of Edinburgh Council’s Slavery Colonialism Group. Chair of the Scottish Museum Group. Chair of University’s Colonialism and Race Group.

Citizens Rights Project is a charity which has a long history of supporting EU nationals with applying to the EU Settlement Scheme and dealing with the Home Office on behalf of vulnerable individuals. We strongly believe that there is a need to talk more about the Windrush Generation and Commonwealth communities, but any action should be linked with the people affected. Let us know your view!

Join us:

19/10/2022, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Broughton St Marys Parish Church

12 Bellevue Cres, Edinburgh EH3 6NE