Community celebrates rapid rise of Blackhall Athletic

Broughton High School was the venue for a reception to mark the formation of a new local football club last night. It’s been a meteoric rise – six months ago Blackhall Athletic didn’t exist, but now has teams playing in three football leagues!

Club chairman John Adams explained: “Blackhall Athletic really came about through conversations in the pub! A number of parents were talking in the Blackhall Lounge – their kids were members of a team but the boys were not always getting a game. Everyone agreed that it was important that the kids get a chance to enjoy taking part in sport, no matter their abilities. It was from those conversations that the idea for the club was born”.

John (pictured above) is retired, but remains very active within the community and he was ‘coerced’ into helping parents set up a new football team for boys from Blackhall and the surrounding neighbourhoods. In August, just months later, Blackhall Athletic had three teams playing league football.

That’s a cause for celebration and last night parents, coaches and players got together at Blackhall Athletic’s Broughton High School home to say thanks to the people who made it all possible – Carey, Peri, Blackhall Sports Committee, Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership and Craigleith Blackhall Community Council have all showed their support for the new club through sponsorship.

John added: “We’ve received tremendous support from a number of sources. To make a success of something like this you really need two things – money and dedicated people to volunteer their support. It’s been quite lot of hard work but we have both in place and we’re now able to offer young people the opportunity to come along and get involved, enjoy a game of organised football whatever your skill level. We will never be results driven – Blackhall Athletic is very much a community football club, all about sporting endeavour and playing the game in the right spirit. Everything is set up for the boys now – we have good coaches and the facilities here at Broughton are first class.”

Robert Ure (pictured below) is the Active Schools coordinator based at Broughton High School’s Sports hub. He told guests: “Blackhall Athletic is the first club to be launched from the hub here so this is a very exciting time. We are delighted to host Blackhall Athletic, and I’m delighted they have made their home here at Broughton. Our aim is to offer sporting activities for everyone – we provide a wide range of sporting opportunities with lots of different options, from dance to rugby and everything in between, so come along and give it a try!”

Blackhall Athletics has two Under Tens teams and an Under Thirteen squad side too. Given their meteoric rise, don’t rule out more teams and age groups being added to that list some time soon!

Final NENgage session this Thursday

The Joy of Stats!

In the final of our series of NENgage sessions we’ll be delving into the world of online data -looking at free tools and resources that community groups and local citizens can use to gather and present data in interesting ways. We’ll be showing you;

How to create a simple online poll in WordPress or using Easy Poll.
How to do a more detailed survey of opinions and feedback using Survey Monkey
How to make an FOI request using the What Do They Know website
How to present data online using free tools like Infogram or Many Eyes.

We’ll also have some great speakers, including journalistMichael MacLeod (former Guardian journalist, STV online reporter) and James Baster, a digital programmer with an interest in innovative community projects. James will be telling us about an exciting new open data project involving the city’s greenspaces.

We’ll also have a brainstorming sessionwhere you’ll have the chance to tell us about the kind of work you do, and we’ll come up with ideas for ways that you could use these tools to good effect for your projects.

As always, tickets are free, but you’ll need to reserve a place on our Eventbrite page. The session will start at 5:45 and runs until 7:30, with drinks in the Antiquary Bar afterwards.

Hope to see you there!

Transport’s the theme for Inverleith community conference

On the Move in Inverleith

Transport is the theme for this year’s Inverleith Community Conference, which will take place on 15 November from 6 – 9pm in Broughton High School.

Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership development officer Elaine Lennon said: “Our fourth annual community conference is coming up and this year’s theme is local transport in all it’s forms. We are formatting it as world café style with table discussions around themes of: public transport, road safety, winter weather, walking and cycling and road maintenance and we hope to have Officers leading on each table who are ‘experts’ in the subject.”

An evening of lively discussion, community cohesion, information sharing and fun is promised, so please tell your friends and neighbours about the event!

Organisers add:

On the theme of local transport, there will be opportunities to discuss issues and ask questions on various aspects of getting around Inverleith in small table discussions –

parking,
public transport,
road repairs,
road safety,
walking and cycling,
winter weather.

We hope that you can join us in person or live on twitter on the night, by following #inverleithconf

A finger buffet and live entertainment will be provided, and transport related stalls and information will be available for browsing.

You can book your place online through the Eventbrite website, but if you prefer to register off-line, or want more information, please contact Anne Brown on 332 6316, anne.brown@ea.edin.sch.uk or Elaine Lennon on 529 5270, elaine.lennon@edinburgh.gov.uk

NENgaging tonight?

Just a reminder that NENgage – the NEN’s programme of fun, informal Social Media workshops – continues in Stockbridge Library tonight at 5.45pm.

This is our second workshop, but you don’t have to have attended the first one as each session is independent of the others. There are a very limited number of places left for tonight’s session – An Introduction to Blogging – but you need to register if you plan to attend! Please go to:

http://nengage2.eventbrite.co.uk/

Tom, Lucy and I look forward to meeting you all tonight, and thanks again to Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership for supporting this initiative.

NEN Board Meeting

The Board of NEN meets on a regular basis, the most recent meeting being on 7 August. We thought readers might be interested in a brief summary of discussions and decisions. This is what we discussed and agreed:

There has been some correspondence with the printer regarding the timing of payment. We agreed to look at alternatives.
We discussed the financial position and agreed that it was vital to step up efforts to increase income. There was a report on a few outstanding debts, but we are hopeful of a positive outcome regarding payment. We agreed to send the accounts for the year ending 31 March 2012 to the auditor in time for reporting back at the AGM.
We noted that Pilton Central Association had agreed to sponsor the August edition of the paper, for which we are extremely grateful. We hope a few more bodies will come forward to offer the same support!
We agreed that we will publish bi-monthly while new pursuing new sources of income.
We agreed to deliver more papers door to door this month, particularly in the Stockbridge area. Other areas in Inverleith will be targeted in the future. Community drops will continue.
There was an update on the social media course, which is being funded by the Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership. This is about to get off the ground at Stockbridge Library (see elsewhere on this blog for further information). This will give training to interested local people, who wish to get to grips with Twitter, facebook, blogging etc. in order to provide us with news items in the future.
AGM – we agreed to hold this on 27 September at 7pm in Drylaw Church. All interested people are welcome. There will be an update on where the NEN is just now and where we hope to be in the future.
The next Board meeting is 24^th September.

NEN Board

Share your story – join NEN's social media workshops

Would you like to use social media like Facebook, Twitter and blogging but don’t know where to start? Or maybe you know a little but would like to know more? Wahtever your level of knowledge, help is at hand – starting later this month, NEN is running a series of five informal social media workshops at Stockbridge Library. The sessions are informal, fun and they’re FREE!

Funded by Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership’s Community Grants Fund and hosted by the NEN, new media experts Tom Allan and Emily Dodd will lead the workshops and help you find your way through the multimedia maze at your own pace.

It’s an exciting new initiative for NEN, offering local people the opportunity to learn new ways to communicate and how to share their stories with the wider community.

The first workshop, ‘Share Your Story – an introduction to Blogging’, takes place on Thursday 30 August from 5.45 – 7.30pm and subsequent sessions will focus on topics like safety and security, video blogging, the joy of stats and how to build an online community.

Interested? To find out more or to sign up visit http://nengage1.eventbrite.co.uk/

All sessions are free, but register early to avoid disappointment!

Share your story – join NEN’s social media workshops

It’s an exciting new initiative for NEN, offering local people the opportunity to learn new ways to communicate and how to share their stories with the wider community.

Interested? To find out more or to sign up visit http://nengage1.eventbrite.co.uk/

All sessions are free, but register early to avoid disappointment!

Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership to meet in Drylaw

The next meeting of the Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership will be on Monday 13 August 2012 at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre, Groathill Road North. The meeting is from 7-9pm, with refreshments and displays from 6pm.

Come and see presentations on changes to household waste services in your area plus proposed new pedestrian crossings.

Papers will be available in advance of the meeting at http://www.edinburghnp.org.uk/neighbourhood-partnerships/inverleith/downloads/links-to-inverleith-np-papers/and paper copies will be available on the evening.

For further information please contact Neighbourhood Partnership Development Officer Elaine Lennon on 529 5270 or email elaine.lennon@edinburgh.gov.uk

North West Carers move south!

North West Carers Centre has moved from it’s Muirhouse Crescent base to a new home in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre. Their Muirhouse offices were bigger than the project needed, so when an opportunity to cross the great Ferry Road divide into Drylaw came up, it was ideal. Manager Sarah Mavor and her team moved in on 9 July.

Sarah (pictured above left) said: “We were happy in Muirhouse but the office was really too big for us, so the move to Drylaw was a sensible one. Many of the people we work with come from the Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership area too. It’s been a good move and we’re all enjoying the change of scene. Things are going well.”

While North West Carers Centre address has changed – it’s now Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre, 67b Groathill Road North, EH4 2SA – the telephone number and email addresses remain the same – that’s 315 3130 and email resource@nwcarers.org.uk

Services provided are unaffected too – North West Carers provide information, advice and respite and run support groups for young and adult carers, and also runs a Dementia Support Group, a Carers Afternoon Together and a Young Carers Group.

The North West Carers team are pictured just after the organisation’s annual general meeting on 25 July.

Water of Leith cleanup and family picnic

The Water of Leith Conservation Trust, in conjunction with the Inverleith Coordinated Summer Programme, is organising a cleanup and family picnic on Sunday 29 July from 10am.

Organiser Callum McLeod of Inverleith’s Community Learning and Development team (pictured below) said: “This is an annual event and we’re concentrating on the stretch between Canonmills and Dean Village. There should be something for everyone –litter picking, some tending of culture garden areas, clearing out invasive plant species along the banks or even clearing log jams after the floods for the more adventurous – all depending on folk’s skills and abilities of course! We quite a good turnout last year despite the rain and so I’m looking forward to it!”

Participants are encouraged to bring along some food, too. After all, all work and no play …

“If people and maybe even bring along a packed lunch and or picnic things we can sit and enjoy some friendly company in pleasant surroundings after all the hard work of the clean up. We’re hoping for some decent weather, of course!”

Interested? Meet by the bridge at Saunders Street at 10am, or for further information call Callum McLeod on 332 6316 or email callum.mcleod@ea.edin.sch.uk