The next Living in Harmony forum will be on Thursday 13th October, 10-12 at Pilton Community Health Project. There will be crèche available if booked in advance.
The theme of the session will be on understanding hate crime and we will have input from the police and from another project working with young people on hate crime in North Edinburgh. There will be an opportunity to explore what hate crime is, discuss how to raise awareness about it among our communities, and also to sign up your organisation to become a third party reporting centre.
It would be helpful if you could RSVP so that we have an idea of numbers.
Community cash for participatory budgeting initiatives
Communities across Scotland are to benefit from £1.5 million funding which will give people more power to make decisions directly on spending in their local areas.
The Community Choices Fund is targeted at work in deprived areas, and for the first time community groups as well as public authorities, including local authorities, were able to apply for funding to organise their own Community Choices budgeting events.
The fund received well over 100 applications with 16 successful community projects and 12 public authorities spanning the breadth of Scotland. A full list of successful applicants is provided below.
The projects include:
The Joint Community Councils of Moray, £46,500 to use the Community Choices process to help tackle social isolation
Aberdeen City Council, £100,000 to target the 8 most deprived areas in the city to help reduce community isolation
Edinburgh City Council, £81,895 to support events on health and hate crime
North Carrick Community Benefit Company, £95,868 to recruit 8 community participation champions from underrepresented communities
Burnfoot Community Futures Housing, Hawick £39,000 to address social and community needs.
Leith Links Community Council was among the community projects to receive funding. The community council was awarded £20,869 to support their ‘CommUNITY links: Brightening Local Lives’ initiative.
Local Government and Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said: “It’s the commitment of this government to give communities more control to shape their futures. I am delighted to see communities applying for Community Choices funding and to read about the innovative and creative ways communities are working to address the issues that are important to the people in their community. It is also pleasing to see that we have engagement with Community Choices right across the country from Shetland to the Scottish Borders.
“The Community Choices Fund offers an opportunity for decisions to be made by people in their local communities who are best placed to know what their community needs.”
The Community Choices Fund builds on the Scottish Government investment in participatory budgeting over the last two years. More information about participatory budgeting is available at: http://pbscotland.scot
Next week’s Forth & Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum will focus on Localities. What are Localities – and how will they affect your organisation?
What are Localities?
The City of Edinburgh Council and the Health and Social Care Partnership are moving to a locality model of working with a phased implementation from the start of April 2016 – July 2016. This is supported by the Fire and Rescue Service and Police Scotland.
There will be four localities in Edinburgh – details of the geography for each of these areas and the current voluntary sector forums that are in them can be found here.
Why the move to Localities?
Locality working is a legal requirement of the Health and Social Care Partnership and City of Edinburgh Council has decided to move to the same model, believing that this change will help the services deliver better outcomes through being less bureaucratic, more agile and innovative in approaches. Their need for cost savings through staff reductions have also reinforced this move. Police Scotland and the Fire and Rescue Service are supportive of the move and are aligning to the model.
There is an overall desired outcome that Edinburgh citizens will receive better co-produced services with the third sector as a key partner.
What does it mean for the Third Sector?
EVOC has held ThinkSpace events in each locality to update organisations and groups on locality working and to discuss how the third sector can be represented in localities. The papers relevant to each locality can be found under each locality.
Locality Leadership groups have been established for each locality with monthly meetings planned. As a result of the discussions the following immediate actions have resulted:
The Third Sector Lead will now be referred to as the Third Sector Representative
As well as EVOC staff representing the third sector at these meetings there will also be a Chair from one of the voluntary sector forums attending these meetings.
A session will be held at the next meeting where EVOC can report back from these ThinkSpaces.
EVOC is applying for support to support better communications across the third sector regarding locality working.
Influencing the locality leadership meetings can be done via the quarterly local Voluntary Sector Forums
To access information on a particular locality please click on the links below
Tuesday 11th October 2016, 9.30-11.30am – North Edinburgh Arts
‘Getting to know you’ event with the locality leadership team. All Third Sector organisations in the area are welcome to attend – and please be ready to talk about your project!
For further information please contact Denise Horn, email denise.horn@evoc.org.uk or call 555 9117.
The deadline is fast approaching for local people taking part in this year’s community council elections in Edinburgh – nominations close on Monday (26 September).
This year, nominations are being sought for 44 community councils. By becoming a member, local residents are given the opportunity to influence what happens in their area. Members can get involved in a wide range of activities, comment on planning and licensing applications, take part in community campaigns and work with others to improve the local area.
Community councils are made up of local residents and community groups such as youth forums, parent councils and student bodies. Each one is represented on the Neighbourhood Partnership for their area, where they work with local elected members, Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, NHS Lothian and the voluntary sector to identify and deliver local priorities.
The first community councils were established in Edinburgh in 1980 in Merchiston and Longstone, and there are more than 500 community councillors across the city.
Cllr Maureen Child, Communities and Neighbourhoods Committee Convener, said: “Community councils are an ideal way to support communities to thrive. They allow people of all ages and from all backgrounds to meet and share ideas and to make change happen. They are a fantastic way of making public sector agencies aware of the needs of local areas, and can really help to make changes for the better.
“With only three days left until nominations close, I’d like to encourage anyone who’s interested in local democracy to get involved – be part of something great.”
People aged 16 years or older who are registered to vote can join. The nomination period for the community council elections runs until 4pm on Monday 26 September 2016. Elections, where required, will take place on Thursday 27 October 2016. Residents can apply as an individual or as a local interest group, such as a Parent Council, Friends of Parks or sports club.
People’s Assembly Scotland Conference this Saturday
The People’s Assembly Scotland is organising an industrial and political conference on Saturday 17 September in the Renfield St Stephens Centre, 260 Bath St, GlasgowG2 4JP starting at 10.30am where leading trade unionists from UNITE, UNISON, RMT, FBU and others will address activists to discuss and organise building unity in the fight against austerity in a post-EU Scotland.Continue reading Building unity after EU Referendum
Thank you to everyone who participated in the last forum meeting. There was a good discussion and lots of good ideas to follow up on, including how we can make North Edinburgh an area of excellence in terms of diversity in employment. I’m attaching the minutes (below). The next forum meeting will be on Thursday 12th October from 10 – 12 noon.
I’m also including a summary of a recent report produced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission which Douglas Samuel shared. This highlights further the worrying inequalities present in many walks of life, employment being one of them.
Race Report: Healing a Divided Britain
Scotland’s Ethnic Minorities face overcrowding, poverty and unemployment, says equality and human rights body
A new report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on race equality, has found that in Scotland, if you are born into an ethnic minority household today, you are nearly four times more likely to be in a household that is overcrowded and up to twice as likely to be living in poverty and experiencing unemployment.
The report is the biggest ever analysis of existing evidence into race equality in Scotland and focuses on poverty, education, employment, and housing.
Findings include:
In 2013 ethnic minority households were four times more likely than White households to live in overcrowded properties – 11.8% compared with 2.9%.
In 2013/14 people from ethnic minorities were more twice as likely live in poverty, both before and after housing costs, compared to ‘White-British’ people.
After housing costs, 36% of people from ethnic minorities were in poverty, compared with 17% of ‘White-British’ people.
Unemployment rates for people from ethnic minorities in 2013 were significantly higher than for White people – 13.2% compared with 6.9%.
In 2013, only 57.4% of people from ethnic minorities were in work compared with 73.8% of White people.
Unemployment rates for people from ethnic minorities in 2013 were significantly higher than for White people – 13.2% compared with 6.9%.
Just 2.1% of modern apprenticeships are filled by ethnic minorities although 5% of the target group for apprenticeships across Scotland are from ethnic minority groups. (Skills Development Scotland, Q1 2016).
Just 6% of Black school leavers from across GB attended a Russell Group university (Edinburgh and Glasgow), compared with 12% of mixed and Asian school leavers and 11% of white school leavers.
1 in 4 Scottish pupils said they were aware of peers suffering prejudice based bullying.
Around fifty local people took part in the latest ‘Getting Together, Making a Difference’ event at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre last week. Taking place on ‘Living Life’ Day, the gathering offered an opportunity for people from diverse backgrounds to get to know their neighbours better, make new friends, learn new skills and create new artworks.
Workshop sessions followed introductions and the official opening of the Getting Together, Making a Difference’ photography exhibition.
The workshop aims:
Provide an opportunity for participants to get to know each other
through an activity
Introduce participants to songs, poems, art work which focus theme of
diversity and solidarity
Provide an opportunity for partiipants to create poetry, music and art
work which can be shared with other workshop groups after lunch
Create an opportunity to send a positve message on diversity, difference
and solidarity to the wider community
Workshop 1 : Poetry
Workshop led by Jim Aitken
Supported by Lynn McCabe and Fiona Manson
Workshop 2: Music
Workshop led by Jed Milroy
Supported by Hannah Kitchen
Workshop 3: Arts
Workshop led Mo Brand
Supported by Anna Baran and Lydia Markham
The event proved to be a great success and a lot of fun: creating new friendships, developing relationships, fostering greater understanding and producing some impressive artwork, a poem and a brand new song, too!
The poem:
Getting Together
Getting together, making a difference
Getting together, making a difference
For future families, and our community
Solidarity
Binding you and me
From wartime to Thatcher
The taxes, the cuts
We fought against it
For a better place for us
We’re getting together
For ceilidhs and meals
For visits and trips
It’s turning the wheels
Into the future
Our community
Our children, their children
Will be running free.
And the song? Well, It goes something like this … :
I’m writing to give you some information about upcoming events in the area, and to outline a plan for the next forum meeting on Thursday 18th August, 10-12 at Pilton Community Health Project.
Forum meeting
As the last meeting was very busy, it would be good for everyone to have a chance to update each other and to plan for the coming year. I suggest we talk about:
– Inequalities in employment – what can we do to respond in North Edinburgh?
– Community integration activities – updates and plans for the coming year
– Living in Harmony – topics for upcoming forum meetings; training sessions we could organise in the future
– Hate crime reporting – how do we increase understanding of hate crime and enable people to report a crime? Plans for Third Party Reporting training.
Please RSVP and feel free to suggest other items for the agenda by replying to this email.
Diversity in Public Life event, 11th August
Celebrating Diversity in Community Councils. Date & time: Thursday, 11 August 2016, 6.00pm – 8.30pm Venue: Royston Wardieburn Community Centre, 11 Pilton Drive North, Edinburgh EH5 1NF.
The key aim of the event is to increase the representation of BME communities in community councils. It is hosted jointly by ELREC- Diversity in Public Life project and the Granton & District Community Council. See below.
Kind regards
Hannah Kitchen
Development Worker, Living in Harmony,
Pilton Community Health Project, 73 Boswall Parkway
