Tag: Total Craigroyston

The facts of The Matter

The Matter is a new way for young people to tell their councils and governments what they think about issues that concern them, and a group of local teenagers unveiled the first edition of their new publication and presented their findings at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre last month.

Commissioned by the Total Craigroyston initiative, six young people from North Edinburgh Young People’s Forum spent six manic weeks researching, consulting, interviewing, writing and producing their very own newspaper – The Matter – to articulate younger people’s views on how their voices can be heard in the Forth community planning process. The teenagers did receive some assistance – The Matter was supported by design agency Snook in partnership with Young Scot and Firstport.

We promised last month that the young journalists would produce their own article about the project for NEN – and here it is:

Matters2us article

Matters2us is our group name for the newspaper that expresses young people’s voices. We as young people got the privilege of becoming the first ever pilot group to have produced a paper with the team called: The Matter. Our deadline was 6 weeks, so you can imagine how strenuous the whole process was!

We were given a client, an editor and a designer to help us produce the paper and went out to explore the Forth Neighbourhood Community and ask a question. That question that was given to us by the client – Tim from Total Craigroyston/Edinburgh City Council – the question was ‘How can young people’s voices be heard successfully in the Forth Neighbourhood Community Planning Process?’

We consulted with roughly 200 young people around the area and out all of the ideas into the paper. With the ideas the young people gave, we produced 3 big ideas and on our launch night we explored these ideas in greater detail with the audience. The launch night was about highlighting the achievement of us making a newspaper and getting it known to the local community more, whilst also letting the public know about our process of the paper.

In the audience were members of the general public from the community, Edinburgh City Council workers, Councillors, young scot, snook and young people. The outcome was fantastic: people want to support us in finding funding to do a second print and  praised us on the work we had done.

We as a group extremely enjoyed this experience and hope to do it again sometime in the future!

North Edinburgh Young People’s Forum

NEYPF@hotmail.co.uk

 

 

 

What’s The Matter?

Well, The Matter is a new way for young people to tell their councils and governments what they think about issues that concern them and a group of local teenagers unveiled the first edition of a new publication and presented their findings at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre last night.

Commissioned by the Total Craigroyston initiative, six young people from North Edinburgh Young People’s Forum spent six manic weeks researching, consulting, interviewing, writing and producing their very own newspaper – The Matter – to articulate younger people’s views on how their voices can be heard in the Forth community planning process.

And what were their findings? Well, you’ll have to wait for those – the young people have clearly developed a taste for journalism so they are going to write an article about The Matter themselves for the NEN. Watch this space!

The Matter is supported by design agency Snook in partnership with Young Scot and Firstport, who support new and emerging social entrepreneurs in Scotland.

Total Craigroyston: draft ‘road map’ discussed

The Total Craigroyston initiative’s Draft Road Map was produced following a number of consultation meetings across the area. The Total Craigroyston team went back out into the community again last week to get feedback on the draft report, holding sessions at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre, Craigroyston Community High School and North Edinburgh Arts Centre. This feedback will help guide the way forward for the initiative which was set up to improve the life chances of children and families in the Craigroyston High School cluster.

Total Craigroyston’s Tim Packer said: “We had 18 people at the feedback events last week and we will be meeting with others over the weeks to come to continue the conversation about the Road Map and the initiative as a whole.

During the sessions we asked people not only to comment/feedback but also to ‘sign-up’ to particular actions identified in the Road Map. The response to this has been encouraging and we will be following up with those people/organisations on how to take things forward with them.

There has been a lot of interest in the Timebanking scheme and other general opportunities to volunteer and we will make sure how these provisions are accessed is included in the work of Total Craigroyston. Information and communication have continued through the feedback sessions to be an important area requiring further work. It has been great to have a good number of young people involved – they have contributed to a number of the actions and will be involved in taking forward the work.

The Road Map itself is available on the Forth Neighbourhood Partnership website or directly from http://www.edinburghnp.org.uk/media/12573/Road%20Map%202012%2009%2003.pdf. In order to break down the areas of work identified within each of the themes we are preparing a more detailed action plan (with names and some timescales). This will identify who is taking forward each of the areas of work. So, the ‘next steps’ are to go, with the local community and staff, and do the things that people have identified!

If anyone wants to talk about the Road Map then they can contact Christine (Mackay, Total Craigroyston manager) or myself.”

 

Total Craigroyston is based at North Neighbourhood Office, 8 West Pilton Gardens, Edinburgh EH4 4DP

Telephone: 0131 529 5056

Email: tim.packer@edinburgh.gov.uk

Blog: http://totalcraigroyston.wordpress.com

 

Total Craigroyston Draft Roadmap

Forth Neighbourhood Partnership meets on Tuesday

Forth Neighbourhood Partnership’s next public meeting will be held on Tuesday 21 August from 7 – 9pm in Craigroyston Community High School, Pennywell Road.

The Total Craigroyston initiative will be the main agenda item.

For further information visit the website www.edinburghnp.org.uk/neighbourhood-partnerships/forth or telephone 529 5082. All welcome.

Total Craigroyston – update

Manager Christine Mackay gives an update on the Total Craigroyston initiative:

Consultation meeting at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre

I hope you have all had a good summer in spite of the dreary weather.

Many thanks to all of you who contributed to our consultation events. In total, 215 local residents and front line staff, from 37 different teams and organisations were involved in nine events.

We had expected to be ready to share the outcome with you earlier in August but in the end, processing all the information we received took longer than we thought. However, we now have a draft ‘Road Map’, which will set the direction for the Total Craigroyston Initiative. The information and insights that we gathered have been grouped into themes and we have identified a range of short and long term actions that we would like to achieve over the life of the initiative.

What is obvious is that there is a real strength within the community and a desire to build on the good work that is already going on. Of course, some challenges were identified and we hope that we can make progress on these in order to achieve the kinds of changes that people would like to see.

We have organised a range of meetings to present the findings of the research back to people who were involved and other stakeholders.

The meetings will take place on the following dates:

Tuesday 4 September at 2pm in West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre

Wednesday  5 September at 7pm in Craigroyston Community High School

Thursday 6 September at 10am in North Edinburgh Arts Centre.

Everyone is welcome but please book a place by contacting Julie Innes by telephone on 469 3162 or by email on julie.innes@edinburgh.gov.uk. Childcare can be arranged for those who need it. Please let Julie know when you book a place.

The draft Road Map will be available on Monday 20 August from the Total Craigroyston Blog at totalcraigroyston.wordpress.com and if you have any comments or observations please let us know.

As well as the meetings above, there will be a short presentation to the Forth Neighbourhood Partnership on Tuesday 21 Aug at 7pm, which is open to everyone.

Two Play Out days were organised by Total Craigroyston

Teddy Time at Muirhouse Library

All local teddy bears and their families are invited to Teddy’s Rhyme Time at Muirhouse Library on Monday (13 August) from 11 – 3pm.

Part of the Total Craigroyston initiative, Teddy’s Rhyme Time is a fun event that  children aged 3 – 6 years old and their families – and teddies, of course – can enjoy.

Among the fun activities on offer are Rhyme Time, finger-puppet making, face painting, Fingernotes Music, PEEP for babies, badge making and Lickety Spit. The Play Talk Read bus will be there too, and bring along a packed lunch for a Teddy Bear’s Picnic!

Sounds like fun!

Another PLAY OUT this Friday!

It’s fun – even when it’s raining! Last week’s Play Out in Muirhouse

Go on – play out in the street! Following last weekend’s inaugural Play Out in Muirhouse on Saturday, the Total Craigroyston team has organised another fun day this Friday – and this time it’s in West Pilton.

This Friday, from 11 – 3pm, part of Ferry Road Drive will be blocked off to traffic and will become a fun family playground!

Among the activities planned are water balloons, traditional street games, water slides and puppet theatre with Licketyspit.

Last weekend’s event was a great, make Friday’s even better. Go on – play out in the street!

For further information about Play Out contact Sarah Low on 552 5700, and to find out more about the Total Craigroyston initiative check out the blog at http://totalcraigroyston.wordpress.com

 

 

Roads Closed for Total Craigroyston’s Play Out

Muirhouse Park was closed off for four hours yesterday for a Play Out event. Total Craigroyston’s Sarah Low explained what it’s all about: ‘Play Out involves closing a street for a few hours, meaning children and families can play safely in their community. Among the activities were lots of traditional games – skipping, football, rounders and even ‘pop-up theatre’! Local parents identifies the need for events like this during the recent Total Craigroyston consultations.”

Local man Robert Pearson was there, and he takes up the story:

Road closed signs positioned at either end of MuirhousePark, this was out of the norm. Was it another police incident – or something else?

It was certainly something else and something that’s never happened in Muirhouse  before! Local group Total Craigroyston had arranged a fun, safe environment for children and families to play.

From 11am until 3pm the street was a no-go for any motor vehicles, which was enough to get the kids smiling. But when the fun started, the smiles got even bigger!  Total Craigroyston staff and volunteers from North Edinburgh Women’s Group had many games and activates in mind, and officers from Lothian and Borders Police were also here to enjoy the fun and get to know the locals.

Huge thanks to Mr and Mrs Hardwick who kindly allowed a water slide to be set up in their very own garden, it was not long until the kids had formed a very orderly queue!

Who would have thought that a little bit of fairy liquid, water and a sheet of plastic would keep many kids happy for many hours, with competitions to see who could slide furthest. 

 

The fun went on for many hours; other activities included chalking on the road, designing your very own puppet, rounders, football and much more.

Father of three David Graham, of Ferry Road Drive, only heard of the event from one of his friends just the day before. He said: “It’s fantastic to hear kids joking and laughing and it’s fantastic to see so many parents enjoying the activities with their children.” David was also keen to promote next week’s Total Craigroyston event, which will take place in his street.

Many adults took part in the game of rounders – that was until someone managed to lose one ball over the roof and another in the hedge! It was all part of the fun.

My own children really enjoyed the day. Six year old Thomas said “My favourite part of the day was the water balloons” –  and he especially loved throwing the balloons as the police officer! Nine year old Gary added that it was brilliant be able to play safely in the street and not have to worry about cars. He really enjoyed the water slide and making his own puppets.

Over 100 children enjoyed the fun and joined in with many activities, and despite the heavy sudden downpours the fun continued. Huge thanks to everyone who helped and made this day possible.

Some more pictures:

 

 Lothian and Borders police officer being chased, rather than chasing; he was soon to be hit with a water balloon!

   Above: Local children Gemma (6) and Emily (9) perform their very own puppet show with assistance from Licketyspit staff.

 

Words and pictures by Robert Pearson

Total Craigroyston – planning the route map

The first phase of the Total Craigroyston initiative was completed when the last of three consultation sessions was held in West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre on 18 June. The team behind the initiative to improve life chances for local families will now evaluate the findings of the three workshops before deciding  what can be taken forward.

Manager Christine McKay explained the thinking behind the approach. “Total Craigroyston has been established to improve outcomes for children and families in the neighbourhood around Craigroyston Community High School. The initial focus will be on looked after children to ensure that all necessary support has been identified to ensure that they have the best opportunity to succeed in their lives. We will also be working to reduce the need for children to become looked after, and that means finding ways to offer support at an earlier stage and in a variety of ways.

The idea is to take a holistic approach – ensuring that all of the local resources in both the statutory and the voluntary sectors are on the same page, facing the same direction and contributing to the agreed outcomes. Crucially, people who are using services and those who live in the area will be involved in deciding what is required and contributing ideas about where and how it should be delivered. Local staff who know the community, its strengths and challenges, will be also central to the development.

It is important to think of Total Craigroyston as an approach rather than a project! We know there is lots of excellent work going on in the area and we will build on that. However we must be brave enough to acknowledge that there is duplication within the system. When necessary, removing this duplication will allow us to re-invest those resources in services that can be offered earlier to prevent the need for children to become looked after in the first place. To us this means building on community strengths, engaging earlier and more effectively with service users, doing more preventive work, creating better linkages between partners, improving communication and developing parity of esteem between organisations – among other things!”

Total Craigroyston recruited the services of a Glasgow-based social innovation agency SNOOK to help engage with local people and local staff. SNOOK, which ‘specialises in service design for social good’, was tasked with taking a fresh look at how services are delivered, staff and community perceptions of their delivery  and to identify where improvements can be made at an earlier stage.

Three well-attended sessions were held over the course of the month, giving opportunities for as many groups, individuals and agencies to participate in the exercise.

The ‘Total Craigroyston Festival’ on Saturday 2 June was an informal open public event held in Muirhouse shopping centre event that gave local people an opportunity to comment on Craigroyston, express their own vision for the future and describe what they can bring to the area.

The ‘Co-creation Workshop’ on Friday 8 June brought together people from Craigroyston, both organisations and members of the public to develop ideas generated during the Design day, putting ‘meat on the bones’ of the ideas.

The last exercise was a ‘Prototyping Labs/Showcase’ on 18 June in West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre. Before the event, organisers SNOOK explained: ‘We are looking for a cross diagonal slice of leaders/organisations/frontline staff/families/young people/experts.  During this workshop we want to bring the ideas to life that have been generated by the community and check in on the routemap for the future of Craigroyston.’

That route map is now being developed by Snook and City of Edinburgh Council, directly informed by the involvement of local people and workers.  The organisers point out: ‘This is not a consultation but a collaborative exercise in understanding what the future of Craigroyston will look like in terms of services, approach, community and the generation of people growing up.’

Christine McKay said: “We have tried to involve as many people as possible in our open events – the whole point of Total Craigroyston is about being open and welcome to opinion and the route map we are generating will ensure that this approach is maintained. It was good to see so many people taking part in the sessions – both local people and local staff – as it is very important that we get the opinions of local people about how we can best tailor and deliver the services that will suit their needs. This really is only the start of the process, however, and there will be many more opportunities to be involved in the future.”

Principles For Craigroyston:

Working with people, not at them.

Prevention, not intervention.

Always show progression.

Whatever it takes.

You can’t really argue with that, can you? You can keep up to date with what’s happening by visiting the Total Craigroyston blog at www.totalcraigroyston.wordpress.com

Pictures taken at the West Pilton workshops on 18 June

Total Craigroyston – improving outcomes for children and families

Total Craigroyston is the latest ‘early intervention’ strategy to support families with children in North Edinburgh. Total Craigroyston Manager CHRISTINE MACKAY explains what it’s all about …

Total Craigroyston has been set up  to encourage  all the various organisation which work with Children and Families to work together to  improve outcomes for children and families in the neighbourhood around Craigroyston Community High School.

Our initial focus will be on children who are looked after by the Council to ensure that they have all the support they need to give them the best opportunity to succeed in their lives. We will also be working to reduce the need for children to go into care, and that means finding ways to  support families at an earlier stage and in a variety of ways.

The idea is to take a holistic approach – ensuring that all of the local resources in both the statutory and the voluntary sectors are on the same page, facing the same direction and contributing to the agreed outcomes. It may be that we need to change how some of our services are delivered so that we can offer support at an earlier stage and we want to involve local people as well as local staff  in helping us think what changes might be necessary.

We held a meeting in mid-March, bringing together the local Neighbourhood Partnership, the Edinburgh Partnership and the Total Craigroyston steering group (pictured below) to start the discussion and what everyone agreed on was the need to ensure that local residents, service users and local staff are completely involved in shaping the direction of Total Craigroyston.

To help us do this we have been working with an organisation called  SNOOK, and over the month of June we will be running a series of events and workshops aimed at local residents, service users and local staff so that we can  come up with a set of ideas and proposals, based on local knowledge and expertise,  that we can take forward.

A Design Workshop will be held on Monday 28 May from 9.30 – 12.30 in Craigroyston Community High  School. Come along and give your ideas for changing the way we do things. A crèche is available but places must be booked. Please contact Stephen Straiton on 469 3375 or email Stephen.straiton@edinburgh.gov.uk

On Saturday 2 June, the SNOOK team will be out and about at Muirhouse Shopping Centre, North Edinburgh Arts and Muirhouse Library  speaking  to local people and hearing views.

A Young People Speak Out  session will  be held in Pilton Youth and Children’s Project  on  Wed 6 June  from 7 – 9pm to help us gather young people’s views.

A Prototyping Lab (don’t be put off by the title!!) will be held on Monday 18 June from 10 – 4pm in West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre. This will give the SNOOK team an opportunity to present the ideas that have been gathered and to have a think about the ones we want to take forward. A crèche is available but places must be booked. Please contact Stephen Straiton on 469 3375 or email Stephen.straiton@edinburgh.gov.uk

If you are interested in being involved in any way or you have ideas or a story to tell about your involvement with local services please get in touch. We are based at the Local Neighbourhood Office in West Pilton Gardens. Tel no 529 5050. email Christine.mackay@edinburgh.gov.uk. Please contact us if you’d like more information.

 

Christine Mackay

Manager, Total Craigroyston