ELREC – Page 9 – The NEN – North Edinburgh News

National Lottery money helps connect Edinburgh communities

An award of £9,500 announced today to Children with Cancer and Leukaemia Advice and Support for Parents SCIO (CCLASP) means that they will be able to provide essential food and household items for families with children suffering from cancer leukaemia.

Scotland Yard Adventure Centre also receives an award of £10,000 to provide a targeted advice service for some of the most vulnerable disabled children and their carers. And an award of £14,000 means that Children 1^st, based in Edinburgh, will be able to increase the capacity of their telephone helpline and digital support service, Parentline, to meet increased demand during the COVID-19 crisis.

The awards to CCLASP, Scotland Yard Adventure Centre and Children 1st are three of 31 Edinburgh based projects sharing in £271,636 of funding from The National Lottery Community Fund.

There’s money too for LifeCare’s Cheyne Gang choir to move online, Granton Youth Centre for a mudic video project and support for both Leith Festival and ELREC’s Edinburgh Climate Festival.

Across the country 282 groups, from charities to smaller voluntary led community projects, are receiving funding raised by National Lottery players for a range of activities, many of which will help people to support each other through the COVID-19 crisis.

Gordon Murdie, General Manager, CCLASP, said: “The National Lottery Community Fund award has ensured that the charity can meet its ongoing staff and running costs through the pandemic and be ready to resume its operation in full as soon as the Scottish Government allows.

“This funding has allowed us the financial security to diversify and assist the families we serve in the best way we can during these difficult times. Lockdown is challenging in general but for families with children suffering from cancer and leukaemia it is particularly difficult.

“Since lockdown began, we have delivered over 20,000 items to around 300 children and their families. These deliveries of essentials, small treats and toys to brighten the days have meant so much to so many.”

Ellen Starkey, Fundraising Assistant, Scotland Yard Adventure Centre, said: “Here at The Yard we were delighted to receive a grant from The National Lottery Community Fund for our COVID-19 services.

“It will enable us to provide at-home play ideas, online mental health and wellbeing sessions, online play sessions and much more for disabled children, young people and their families, as well as our small, targeted service at The Yard, Edinburgh.

“We hope this support will offer fun, respite and a much-needed community of support for our families at this time. Thank you!”

Linda Jardine, Director of Children and Family Services, Children 1^st, said: “Right now, more families across Scotland are getting the support they need to cope through the coronavirus crisis, thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund’s support for Parentline.

“Parentline is our digital family support service, offering help by phone, by webchat and online, every day of the week. Families are telling us that as they face the strains of losing loved ones, mounting financial pressures and the stress of juggling the care their children need with work and other demands, the support Parentline offers is quite simply a lifeline.

“Parentline is here for any family in need of support on 08000 28 22 33, or online: www.children1st.org.uk/parentline.”

Announcing today’s funding totalling £3,384,222, The National Lottery Community Fund’s Scotland Director, Neil Ritch, said: “These awards, made possible by National Lottery players, are making an amazing contribution to the nation-wide response to combat the impact of COVID-19 on local communities across Scotland. 

“This funding will make a huge difference to the lives of thousands more people and highlights the vital work that’s being done in communities across the country at the moment. It also reminds us all how important a package of tailored support can be to improve well-being and help forge a sense of belonging to a wider community again.”

The National Lottery Community Fund, over the next six months, will focus its National Lottery funding in Scotland on those projects that supporting organisations and communities to respond to the challenge of COVID-19.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk    

No Place for Hate in Edinburgh

Hate incidents can be verbal abuse, harassment, bullying, or intimidation, physical attacks, hoaxcalls or messages, online abuse and many more. Hate incidents are motivated by ill-will and prejudice (writes Foysol Choudhury).

The term ‘hate crime’ can be used to describe a range of criminal behaviour where the perpetrator is motivated by hostility or demonstrates hostility towards the victim’s disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity.

The recent attack on two shopkeepers in Edinburgh who were physically, verbally and racially abused by group of teenage gangs. The thugs reportedly shouted, “why did you come to this country”?

The Police dealt with the matter well by making arrests and charging those responsible. The area was subsequently patrolled, and the community given the support and personal/crime prevention advice.

The local Chief Inspector and her team continue to deal with anti-social behaviour in the area and a community impact assessment continues to be in place with the additional police patrols planned to continue over the school holidays.

Another recent issue has been the rise of racism towards the Chinese community due to the coronavirus outbreak in China. Ken Chung, a British-Chinese comedian, posted: “Less than 0.001% of Chinese people have coronavirus yet more than 99.999% have already experienced coronaracism.”

Even though there have been very limited cases reported in the UK of this virus, there has been a rise of racism which goes to show the prejudices in society. People of Asian origin are being treated differently either by not sitting next to them orrefusing to attend classes which has Chinesestudents to even refusing to sit next to them on public transport.

Another student from Edinburgh said how someone had shouted “coronavirus” at her whilst she was on a walk and it made her very upset and scared in case it led to anything physical.

Hate can also be one religious group being intolerant of another because their ideologiesaren’t the same. In Edinburgh and overseas there is hate being spread in many forms and some of the current activities include hate speech, violence against one group and policies aimed at intimidating and singling out that group solelybased on religious reasons. Stirring racial or religious hatred is a hate crime.

Hate in any form will not be tolerated: ELREC aims to reduce inequalities in our society and always promote good culture of human rights and work towards elimination of discrimination in all its forms.

Hate shouldn’t be tolerated in any form, please report it.We also urge the Scottishgovernment to do more to tackle this issue in Scotland and make it compulsory education in schools by raising awareness and putting practical measures in place to eradicate this as much aspossible, both in schools and the general community.