granton:hub is pleased to announce that our community is now included in the ‘Coastal Knowledge’ project funded by the RSE Young Academy Scotland and led by Dr Niki Vermeulen (University of Edinburgh) celebrating Scotland’s (prolonged) year of coast and waters.
As a coastal community, Granton plays a part in developing diverse forms of knowledge about the coast and experiences that people have living and working on the coast.
The Recycl-Age Art exhibition was selected as part of this Coastal Knowledge project and is included in the 2021 Edinburgh Science festival, offering artists a unique opportunity to showcase their work.
Recycl-Age Art 2021 includes painters, printmakers, collage artists, ceramicists, illustrators, photographers, textile artists, jewellers, composers, poets and makers. Many artworks incorporate recycled elements, indeed several are made of 100% recycled and repurposed materials. Some artists reflect on what recycling means to them, figuratively or conceptually.
Welcome to your July Newsletter. This is a newsletter about past, present and future.
First: the past.
We have been receiving plenty of positive feedback from the Pots of Kindness project. If you remember, this involved pupils from Victoria Primary School potting up edible flowers, herbs and vegetables and distributing them to some of the isolated or elderly members of the community, whose details were supplied by the Pilmeny Development Project (PDP). Recipients have been responding.
“What a lovely idea. It is so nice to be part of this initiative. As you know I am housebound, so it is great that I can still be part of the community while being at home. I loved the beautiful letter I received from the pupil – what a fantastic idea. Thank you,” said one.
Mary from PDP received a phone call once one pack was delivered
“Thank you so much for the plant and letter – I absolutely love it. I am delighted with the wee package and the letter from the pupil was adorable. And the man who delivered the package was really friendly – thank you”.
A few weeks later, the same recipient rang Mary to say “My plant has started sprouting – I have it on my window sill and I check it everyday. It was great getting the instructions on how to help the plant grow. I really am delighted to be part of this project – thank you”.
“My spinach has started to grow – I love Spinach and I think I might be like Popeye after this. The letter from the pupil was so sweet – thank you,” said another.
We’re glad it has proved so welcome.
The Present
Our partners at the PDP are organising more volunteer induction sessions so if you would like to get involved, make a note of this date: Saturday 7th August at 11am on Zoom, when you can find out about the different volunteering opportunities available within PDP. Expectations, boundaries and confidentiality will be among the topics for discussion.
Similarly, you can join in the HoNC/ PDP Newhaven Virtual Coffee Group for those living in or around Newhaven on either Mon 19th July at 4pm or Mon 16th Aug at 4pm, both on Zoom.
If you are interested in these events then please contact Norma by Email
Still in the present:
We’re thrilled to tell you that the University of Edinburgh student social media team has included HoNC in the most recent episode of their popular podcast’s third series
The Broadcast is The Broad Online’s podcast and aims to bring local community initiatives to its listeners’ attention. HoNC trustee Judy Crabb and Head of Victoria Primary School Laura Thomson were engaged in discussion on the creation of our intergenerational community centre in the old school in the latest recording.
Lauren Galligan and Jack Liddall were the co-hosts and interviewers. She is the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of The Broad Online. Jack is the Secretary of The Broad and a volunteer with HoNC.
The podcast will shortly be available to listen to on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Podbean. We will share a link to the podcast on the Heart’s social media and website as soon as it is available.
Future
Now on to the future. The Men’s Shed members have been busy at work on our Friendship Benches, which we aim to have ready for Mental Health Day in October. We will be organising painting and decorating days with local artist Johnathan Elders over the summer holidays, so watch this space.
In the immediate future, we await the decision from the Scottish Land Fund on our application for the funds required to make good our promise to buy the school site.
granton:hubare excited to announce more details about the granton:hub Recycl-age Art Exhibition happening July 9-11th. This event is FREE entry.
Our Recycl-Age Art Exhibition has been included in the Edinburgh Science Festival. The exhibition has also been selected to be part of the Coastal Knowledge and RSE Young Academy of Scotland project, as the satellite arts venue for a 3-day show and artist-run workshop, funded by Edinburgh Local.
The exhibition is featured in the Edinburgh Science Festival Programme under Coastal Knowledge.
The Recycl-age Art Exhibition will be held at granton:hub, Madelvic House, EH5 1HS, on 9th -11th July 2021 from 11am to 6pm each day.
There are 20+ artists exhibiting from painters, printmakers, collage artists, ceramicists, photographers, textile artists, jewellers, composers, poets and makers.
All the artworks that will be exhibited will either incorporate or be entirely made from recycled elements, or reflect on what recycling means, either figuratively or conceptually.
Find out more about the exhibition and view the artists exhibiting on the website:
In the run up to COP26, The University of Edinburgh is running ‘The Green Micro-grants’, a grants scheme for community projects with the natural environment and social impact at their heart.
Following Patrick Geddes (a Scottish biologist, philanthropist, pioneering town planner and lecturer at the University of Edinburgh), we want to encourage people to ‘think global, act local’ by funding grassroots projects that, in their own way, take action against the climate crisis.
And each of us has a part to play. That’s why, in the run up to COP26, the University’s micro-grant scheme is going green!
We welcome applications for projects or activities that will involve and benefit people living and/or working in the Edinburgh City Region (The Region includes the City of Edinburgh, Fife, West Lothian, Midlothian, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders).
Applications are welcome from not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises.
The funding is available until Friday 19th August, but you can apply at an point up to that date, and all applications will be reviewed by a panel.
If you would like to apply for a larger grant, please apply to our Community Grants Scheme, open twice a year for awards of up to £5,000.
The green microgrants
Through its micro-grant scheme, the University will support community organisations and charities based in the Edinburgh region to do their bit to tackle climate change and the biodiversity crisis, and improve the sustainability of our local spaces and communities.
There is already lots of fantastic work happening across the city and wider region in relation to the climate crisis, and we hope that extra funding will enable some more great activities and projects to take place.
Groups can apply for up to £1000 through our micro-grant scheme for small scale community activities. The purpose of the scheme is to provide micro-grants to community groups, charities or businesses for projects which aim to:
Improve their local natural environment and
Have a positive social impact for local communities
What is meant by ‘supporting the local natural environment’?
This is where projects will improve environmental sustainability, increase local biodiversity and/or contribute to tackling the climate crisis at a local level. This might include seeking to reduce carbon emissions, reducing waste, teaching your community green behaviours, or other ways of improving your local natural environment.
What is meant by ‘positive social impact’?
This is the beneficial effect for local people and communities that you expect your project to create or contribute to. It could include improved wellbeing, access to better nutrition, improved educational opportunities, improved quality of life, greater sense of community, reduction in anxiety or improved financial circumstances. You should set out as clearly as possible how your project will involve and/or benefit local communities living in the Edinburgh City region (the City of Edinburgh and/or East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian, Scottish Borders, Fife).
How to apply
The application process is simple and a member of the Edinburgh Local team will be on hand to support you if you have any questions, just contact local@ed.ac.uk.
Are you a resident in Edinburgh? Would you like to take part in a project by telling us about your experience of the Covid-19 pandemic?
Researchers at the University are looking for participants to take part in their project Lothian Lockdown Diaries, which aims to find out how Covid-19 has impacted people living in Edinburgh and the Lothians.
Food delivery companies such as Deliveroo should be forced to investigate accidents and address risks facing their Scottish couriers, say campaigners.
The call comes as the Workers’ Observatory – an Edinburgh project supporting fast food couriers – prepares to launch a manifesto in response to rider safety concerns such as traffic hazards.
Developed with the support of the STUC and Edinburgh University, the manifesto calls for riders to have better protections at work, and asks councils to step into gaps left by legislation by monitoring riders’ road accidents.
Riders – who are still considered by many companies to be self-employed despite a ruling by the UK Supreme Court that Uber drivers should be classified as workers – fall outside of UK health and safety laws.
The Workers’ Observatory collective, working with Edinburgh University sociologist Karen Gregory, claims that company policy of pay-per-delivery “incentivises risk taking”.
The group has gathered examples of traffic accidents and “near misses” experienced by Edinburgh food delivery couriers. Riders have told researchers they feel “pressurised” to take jobs in areas that feel unsafe because they worry refusing an order will affect the allocation of jobs.
Karen Gregory, who published a study on related safety issues last December, said: “The structure of paying riders “per drop” incentivises workers to deliver quickly, so that they are ready for the next delivery assignment.
“This can mean pushing it on city streets or racing through the city on a bicycle or scooter to minimise your delivery time.”
Cailean Gallagher, coordinator of the Workers’ Observatory, said: “Just like in other workplaces, when gig workers have accidents or injuries at work, these should be reported and monitored.
“Councils should be able to receive accident reports and then share the information with riders so that they can monitor the risks and hazards of their work and develop appropriate demands.”
The hard work and commitment of Edinburgh’s tennis community has been acknowledged by the sport’s national governing body which has selected a local university, club and residents as finalists for four of the most coveted awards in Scottish tennis.
Heather Hooker has been shortlisted for the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award which honours individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to tennis for more than 30 years.
Heather’s (above, right) involvement in tennis began at secondary school and continued when she joined the WRAF aged 17 where she played in inter-station competitions.
Heather subsequently joined Craigmillar Park TC in 1983 and has since become an asset to the club. Throughout 2020, she took the opportunity to revamp the clubhouse and surrounding grounds to provide a welcoming environment as tennis returned to the community.
Meanwhile, Heather’s club Craigmillar Park TC has earned a place on the Club of the Year shortlist as a result of demonstrating outstanding community links and growth in 2020.
Clive Minshull, member of fellow Edinburgh club Meadows City TC, has been shortlisted for the Volunteer of the Year Award which recognises an outstanding voluntary contribution made to inspire others to participate in the sport.
Acknowledging innovative attempts to ensure students of all abilities could continue to develop throughout lockdown in 2020, the University of Edinburgh received shortlisting for the highly desired Education Award.
The shortlist for the Tennis Scotland Awards 2021 has been unveiled to recognise the contribution of individuals, clubs, programmes and competitions which played a key role in helping tennis to thrive last year as participation continued to grow across the nation.
Blane Dodds, Tennis Scotland chief executive, said: “The response of the tennis community played a pivotal role in enabling the safe resumption of tennis in 2020. This year, more than ever before, it feels important to acknowledge exceptional contributions which are being made within our sport.”
“The Tennis Scotland Awards provide the perfect platform to celebrate the success stories of the year. With nominations of a particularly high standard, each shortlisted nominee should be very proud of their achievement.”
In total, 27 nominees have been announced across 10 separate categories, with the eventual winners subsequently securing a place at the LTA British Tennis Awards. Winners of the Tennis Scotland Awards will be announced online on the 23rd of April, with a ceremony to be held at a later date.
Among the winners last year was Yvonne Birnie who received the Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding services to Rothiemurchus and Aviemore Tennis Club.
Elsewhere, Scotland’s number-one ranked women’s player, Maia Lumsden, earned the International Player of the Year Award, whilst the 12U Boys North County Cup Team received recognition for magnificent performances and team spirit which secured their title of Team of the Year.
The full shortlist of finalists can be viewed here:
Three members of Scottish Hockey’s Lead the Way initiative who have been involved in the mental health work undertaken by the University of Edinburgh Women’s Hockey Club have produced a case study to help others.
Eilidh Campbell, Emma Lambert and Hana Nasser from the 2020-21 Lead the Way cohort, alongside club Welfare Officer Iona Grant, developed it to share with hockey and sports clubs across Scotland as a means of promoting and supporting mental health initiatives within clubs.
Eilidh explained: “Emma and I are both on the Lead the Way programme. During one of our discussions, we talked about mental health in hockey, especially over the lockdowns, and about what our clubs had done to help members and support people.
“Edinburgh University has done a really good job, so we talked about everything we had done as well as what worked well for us personally and for the people we know.
“Then Scottish Hockey got in contact and asked if we would be interested in putting a case study together on the things we had done and its impact.”
Eilidh and Emma approached Iona Grant and Hana Nasser to help with the case study as they had both played a role in the club’s approach to mental health.
Hana had come up with the idea of having the club post anonymous stories on its social media pages detailing members’ personal mental health experiences. People could submit their stories via an anonymous online form to shine a light on mental health while tackling stigma.
Hanasaid, “I was doing a masters degree at Edinburgh University and had always been intrigued by athletes’ mental health. I saw that people did not really talk about their mental health, especially if they are athletes, so I put forward an idea to the hockey club then watched it grow arms and legs.
“Iona, as Welfare and Inclusivity Officer, took it on, with Eilidh and Emma getting involved. I had got the idea from the Humans of New York Instagram page – it is run by a New York photographer who takes photographs of random New Yorkers then asks them to tell him their stories. I thought it would be interesting to do that from the angle of mental health in sport.”
Emma, then Publicity Secretary for Edinburgh University, said: “Reaction from the first post was great, and because it was an anonymous submission everyone got on board because they saw it as a positive step.
“It was good to hear what other people were going through. We may all think we know what is going on in our club and team, but then you realise that you do not. So, to hear what was really going on was a positive step.
“We operated through a Google form, and the link is in every post and on the bio of our Instagram and Facebook. Anyone can post. You do not have to be anonymous, and a lot of people have chosen not to be. It is your call whether or not you self-identify.”
One of the main findings was that the Welfare and Inclusivity Officer role at the club has been vitally important in supporting members with mental health issues and promoting inclusivity within the club.
Iona explained, “Welfare and Inclusivity is a big role; mental health problems are so common. We all have our own mental health awareness and the stigma that continues to be attached to mental health issues is highly detrimental.
“As a club, we believed it was important to start tackling the stigma surrounding mental health. What we saw was a gap between people coping with their mental health on an individual level and opting to seek professional help.
“My role sought to help bridge that gap. I promote all the services that are available in Edinburgh, many that people do not even know exist, but I am also a face that people in the club recognise and one that is there to help and support them throughout whatever they are going through.
“I am not there to solve people’s problems, I’m not a councillor or a healthcare professional, but I’m there to lend an ear and promote the services that are available.”
Edinburgh University has been working on expanding the welfare officer role across its entire sports offering, highlighting especially the success of the position at the hockey club.
Recent graduate Hana is now also using her experience to work with her new committee at Watsonians Hockey Club to establish an Inclusivity and Diversity Officer role and to showcase the importance of such roles across Scottish sport.
The Lead the Way: University of Edinburgh Mental Health Initiatives Case Study is attached or can be found here:
Publicly funded researchers and businesses in Scotland are making a huge difference in tackling COVID-19, helping us to better understand the disease and combatting the impact of the pandemic on people’s lives
These projects are just a snapshot of work carried out by people and businesses in Scotland, funded by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)
Over the past year, up and down the UK, thousands of research and innovation projects have been publicly funded to tackle the pandemic.
Researchers and businesses in Scotland are playing a key role in how the UK is combatting COVID-19. Their work forms part of a £550 million COVID-19 rapid investment programme by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – the largest public funder of research and development in the UK.
The diversity of UKRI-funded projects is vast – from the world’s first COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, to projects that help us understand and mitigate the impact of the pandemic on our economy, environment, education, arts sector and mental health. This funding builds on decades of public investment and research expertise which have provided the backbone to our national COVID-19 response.
Scotland’s biggest universities have received significant UKRI funding for a number of projects.
The Universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Aberdeen have come together to track COVID-19’s progression across Scotland in real-time by using patient data, which allows them to rapidly assess the impact of new treatments and vaccines.
The University of Edinburgh is also working on a separate project that looks to answer key questions about the characteristics of new diseases such as COVID-19.
The University is collecting data and samples to create a bank available to researchers and industry and an open-access platform to evaluate treatments and diagnostics. The project has already led to the recent identification of a key protein found in the blood of patients with severe COVID-19.
The University of Glasgow has also been awarded UKRI funding to develop a new interactive tool to evaluate the risk of infection by COVID-19 indoors. Adapting their unique expertise and using state-of-the-art AI, they are modelling what happens to droplets and aerosols when people breathe, talk, cough and sneeze in indoor spaces, as well as how face masks, ventilation or room size affect infection risk.
Dr Andrea Cammarano from the University of Glasgow said:“Our funding from UKRI was integral to the development of our project.
“Thanks to our engineers a new intelligent tool using state-of-the-art AI will enable government, industry and business to find ways to safely manage people in indoor spaces during the pandemic and post-lockdown.”
Another project at the University of Stirling aims to gain a greater understanding of attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines by surveying 5,000 people. Findings will be shared with key people involved in vaccine policy in the UK to help shape campaigns and interventions that are trusted and support high uptake.
Professor Charlotte Deane, COVID-19-Response Director at UKRI said:“Looking back over the past year, it’s clear that the pandemic has had a devastating impact on so many aspects of our lives, but I take more than a glimmer of hope from the extraordinary work being undertaken by researchers and businesses across the UK.
“These projects are just the tip of the iceberg. They show the tenacity and creativty of our research and innovation communities in Scotland and beyond, who have stepped up in the most challenging of times to come together and fight back against this devastating disease.”
These projects are among 3,600 new COVID-19 projects, totalling over £554 million, being funded by UKRI across the country in response to Covid-19.
The University of Edinburgh’s Community Grants scheme is now open!
The scheme helps the development of projects, community activities and sustainable local action through funding and collaboration.
Applications are welcome for projects which could benefit people living in the City of Edinburgh and/or the neighbouring local authority areas, and should show how they could grow relationships between local communities and the University.
If you’re thinking of applying and don’t currently have a relationship with the University, the University’s Community Team is happy to try and put you in touch with members of the University who might be interested in your work.
The deadline for application is 5pm on Friday 9th April.
