Last chance to have your say on Drylaw Skatepark
Drylaw Community Association and Edinburgh and Lothian Greenspace Trust will be holding a final consultation event on the new skatepark this Wednesday (15 April) from 5.30 – 6.30pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre.
Go along, have a look at what’s being planned and have your say – the organisers are particularly keen to hear the views of young people.
Ban on displaying tobacco in small shops comes into force today
A ban on displaying tobacco in small shops and convenience stores comes into force today. The display of tobacco products has been illegal for large stores and supermarkets since 2012 but smaller retailers were given more time to implement the legislation.
From today, the display of tobacco products is prohibited in all premises and the ban has been welcomed by public health campaigners.
Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) says the ban is an ‘important step forward’. Welcoming the ban, Hazel Cheeseman, director of policy at Ash, said: “Two-thirds of smokers start before the age of 18, so it is vital that everything is done to put tobacco out of sight to protect future generations.
“The display ban in small shops will work hand in hand with standardised packs, which will be introduced in May 2016, to further protect children from glitzy tobacco packaging.”
Retailers’ organisations say the ban is unnecessary and that there is not enough proof that it will have a real effect on child smoking rates. There also believe there are other more effective means of stopping children from taking up smoking.
The Tobacco Retailers’ Alliance, said: “The introduction of the display ban into larger shops hasn’t even been evaluated, so how do we know it will work in smaller shops? Of course retailers will need to comply with the law but this is a further unnecessary measure that will hit small businesses.
“There will be real difficulties around its application, including longer transaction times, and the costs of implementation such as the installation of new gantries. Coming on top of plain packaging, it is an unnecessary burden on shops already struggling with red tape.”
The organisation says tobacco represents about a third of the average newsagent’s turnover and says the Government should crack down harder on the tobacco black market and increase resources to enforce the existing law on the prohibition of sales to young people.
Cancer Research UK’s director of cancer prevention, Alison Cox, said: “Smoking kills 100,000 people every year in the UK. It’s great that tobacco will no longer be in plain view of children and young people every time they go into a shop.
“Research shows that children exposed to tobacco displays are more likely to start smoking and removing these eye-catching, colourful walls of cigarettes will protect them from tobacco marketing.”
To coincide with the Scottish Independence Referendum in September, Pilton Youth & Children Project’s ‘Get Involved Group’ (GIG) undertook a ‘Democracy Project’ over several months.
The young people explored all the arguments about both sides of the independence debate and also found out about the roots of British democracy -did you know that only very rich people and only men used to get the vote?
The project ended with two performances of a play staged by the young people.
There were sketches about the working class people and suffragettes who fought and died for their right to vote and a sketch about a fictitious family in Pilton, whose kids eventually persuaded their parents to miss ‘Storage wars’ to go and cast their vote!
The young people performed brilliantly and all their weeks of hard work were well worth it as the audience gave them a standing ovation. Well done to the ‘Giggers’!
Following on from the GIG project about democracy, the young people in the ‘Get Involved Group’ went through a democratic process of identifying what the GIG should focus on next.
After much discussion, they unanimously voted for the next topic to be ‘Animal Welfare’ as this is something they care deeply about.
They are in the process of developing a ‘Dog Dirt Free’ zone around the PYCP building, as many children play there, but unfortunately people are letting their dogs foul there and not cleaning it up.
The group recently had a visit from Rachel Bliss from The Dogs Trust who spoke about the many aspects of Dog Welfare and Dog Safety. Rachel has agreed to come back to PYCP to do two more sessions for young people during the Easter holidays.
A couple of youngsters are very keen to look at protection of unicorns, and this is something that the workers are trying to figure out how best to tackle this subject-without shattering their illusions about unicorns being real!
Photos: (1) Suffragettes scene from GIG play, and (2) GIG trip to Cosmos to celebrate their West End Theatre run!
Pilton Youth & Childrens Project (PYCP)
North Neighbourhood Partnership is taking forward the Youth Talk initative as part of ‘Engaging Young People’ priority identified in both Inverleith and Forth Neighourhood Partnerships’ community plans. Youth Talk, originally developed in Liberton/Gilmerton where it was well-received, gives young people an opportunity to talk about facilities, activities and services in their local area.
It has now been launched in the Craigroyston Community High School, Royal High School and Broughton High School, where pupils were asked to vote/rate their local services. The results will be collated after the Easter break and the young people will then be gathered to map out their suggestions and discuss these in more detail.
It is intended that the outcome of the Youth Talk initiative will inform future service development and third sector commissioning. For more information contact info@totalcraigroyston.co.uk or scott.donkin@edinburgh.gov.uk
MYDG young people, staff, colleagues, partners & community are going to swim for 24 hours in order to raise money for the groups & activities and the work they do with young people in North Edinburgh.
Please support MYDG by donating through “just giving”
PLEASE TEXT MYDG97 followed by your amount (£1-£10) to 70070
Or visit
https://www.justgiving.com/
Thank you for your support and contributions
You can keep posted on the lengths covered: @MuirhouseYouth on twitter!
Joanne Stewart
We-CTV Award for North Edinburgh Young People’s Forum
North Edinburgh Young People’s Forum (NEYPF) has won second prize in a national competiton organised by the Scottish Youth Parliament. Josh, Laura and Brandin’s entry was the only submission from Edinburgh to win an award at this week’s presentation ceremony (writes Dave Pickering).
Launched last June, the We-CTV Competition asked young people to address issues of interpersonal violence in communities. Groups were asked to produce a piece of creative work on themes like knife crime, abuse and online bullying in one of three categories: Art (drawing, painting, textiles), Literary (creative or discursive writing) or Multimedia (video or audio).
NEYPF decided to take part in the competition and agreed to write a piece on bullying.
It’s been a long process. Entrants were first asked to submit an expression of interest by the end of August 2014. The creative concept deadline was 31 October and a National Creative We-CTV Production Day took place on 11 November, giving entrants an opportunity to meet with creative experts and share ideas. The final submission deadline for ‘creative solution’ entries was 16 January and this was followed by an online vote.
The group has had an anxious wait since voting closed on 8 February, but the NEYPF were rewarded for their hard work when they were announced as runner-up in the Literary category at Wednesday evening’s awards which were held in Glasgow’s Film Theatre.
Josh Ward (13), Laura Hulbert (14) and Brandin Sharpe (13) – all of whom took part in a training session with NEN last Autumn – attended the gala event with NEYPF youth worker Danielle Ward and were delighted to win second prize in their category. As well as the Award, each team member received a certificate and vouchers from Pizza Express and Vue Cinemas.
Their certificates read: ‘Their contribution helped raise awareness of interpersonal violence against young people‘.
Prizes aside, the highlight of the event for the Forum members was meeting Sanjeev Kohli, Still Game’s Naveed, who was MC for the evening! His quote: ‘I am just a monkey in a suit’ was the group’s favourite.
The final words, quite rightly, go to the NEYPF members. “It was an emotional rollercoaster!” said Brandin, while Josh added: “It was fun and I met Navid and we came second!”
Short and sweet but says it all! Well done, NEYPF!
Leith-based The Junction youth project has been awarded £30,000 from The King’s Fund. The Junction is the only Scottish project among ten recipients of a GSK IMPACT Award, which recognises excellence in health and wellbeing – and The Junction is one of a very select few to have won the award TWICE!
The GSK community investment programme has been running for 18 years, during which time it has awarded more than £5 million in unrestricted funding to charities across the UK. This year’s winning organisations were selected from more than 350 charities who applied for the GSK IMPACT Awards, which are run in partnership with The King’s Fund.
Winning charities are also given access to a free training and development programme and are invited to join the GSK IMPACT Awards Network. This Network offers previous winners the opportunity to develop their staff and provides a forum to share and learn from each other’s experiences and expertise.
This year’s winners will join more than 60 previous winning organisations from across the UK, who have committed to ongoing professional development, collaboration and delivering outstanding services to patients and communities.
An overall winner, who will receive an additional £10,000 in funding, will be announced at an award ceremony recognising all winners to be held at the Science Museum in London on Thursday 14 May 2015.
The winners were selected by a judging panel of health and charity experts including broadcast journalist Fiona Phillips; Gilly Green, Head of UK Grants at Comic Relief; Sir Christopher Gent, Chair of GSK; and Sir Chris Kelly, Chair of The King’s Fund.
Katie Pinnock, Director, UK & Ireland Charitable Partnerships at GSK, said: ‘These awards recognise charities that make an incredible difference to many people’s lives right across the country. The programme has grown immensely since we started in 1997, and we are extremely proud of the way it has brought people together, enabling them to share knowledge and learn from each other. Each year we are impressed, inspired and moved, not only by the innovation and talent in the work our winning charities undertake, but by the commitment and dedication of everyone involved.’
Sam Anderson, director at The Junction, said: “We are delighted at being a 2015 GSK Impact Award winner. Being a GSK Impact Award winner in 2009 provided the Junction with the platform to celebrate our strengths, develop and deepen. The 2015 GSK Impact Award offers fantastic recognition of all we have achieved in the six years since and provides us with both significant funding and development opportunities which will ensure we are able to continue to flourish.”
Lisa Weaks, Third Sector Programme Manager at The King’s Fund, said: ‘Charities provide important services and support in our health and social care system. These winners show just how much can be achieved with relatively limited funds, through the passion and dedication of the organisations and their volunteers. Their work spans the whole of our lives – they can help prevent young people from making detrimental decisions like taking up smoking, or provide support for people at the end of their lives so they can make the right decisions for them and their family. Their energy and commitment is inspirational.’
A Junction spokesperson added: “We have been named a winner of the GSK IMPACT Awards, and in fact we’re one of the rare organisations that have won twice! Not only is this a huge honour but it is a great way to recognise how The Junction has continued to strive for excellence year after year.”
The ten winners are:
Local businessman Daren Henderson went back to his roots when he presented a £1000 cheque to Spartans Community Football Academy last month. Daren, who owns the Edinburgh Driveway Company, is a Muirhouse laddie, and he handed the cheque over to his old Muirhouse Primary pal – and now Spartans Community youth work manager -Kenny Cameron: the pair were P1s together! (writes Dave Pickering)
Daren explained: “When I watched the Spartand video NEN posted on YouTube (see below) I couldn’t help but listen to the youngsters and think: that was me! I was that young boy with nothing to do but hang around the street corners of Muirhouse and Drylaw.”
Daren immediately decided to support the Spartans Community Football Academy, which provides opportunities for local young people that weren’t so readily available when he and Kenny were growing up.
“The Spartans Community Football Academy is very close to my heart and it was a pleasure to hand over a cheque – this money goes straight into the coffers of the academy and helps take local kids of the streets of North Edinburgh and into much more meaningful activities”, he said. “As an extra, The Edinburgh Driveway Company will be funding go-karting and combat activities as part of Spartans summer programme AND one lucky kid gets to come and work with us for a whole week as part of his/hers work experience to give them that much needed experience of working life.”
Daren’s generosity won’t end here. “This relationship is ongoing and I will continue to support this fantastic organisation – the work they do throughout the whole north Edinburgh community is absolutely second to none.”
Kenny Cameron said: “It was great to see Daren and his support is really appreciated by everyone here at the Academy.”
For more informaton on the Edinburgh Driveway Company visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/theedinburghdrivewaycompany
Dave Pickering
Seventeen year old Dionne McFarlane is a leading light in the Scottish Government’s GIRFEC initiative. The local girl is in her final year at St Augustine’s High School but she’s also pretty busy delivering presentations and facilitating workshops around children and young people’s issues. Dionne’s been called Edinburgh’s GIRFEC ambassador. What’s GIRFEC? Read on …
GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) is a consistent way for people to work with all children and young people. It’s the bedrock for all children’s services and can also be used by practitioners in adult services who work with parents or carers.
The approach helps practitioners focus on what makes a positive difference for children and young people – and how they can act to deliver these improvements. Getting it right for every child is being threaded through all existing policy, practice, strategy and legislation affecting children, young people and their families.
For children and their families GIRFEC means:
For professionals working with children GIRFEC means:
Putting the child or young person at the centre and developing a shared understanding within and across agencies
Using common tools, language and processes, considering the child or young person as a whole, and promoting closer working where necessary with other practitioners
Providing leadership and strategic support to implement the changes in culture, systems and practice required within and across agencies to implement Getting it right for every child
Planning for the transition as staff in agencies move from the current working processes to the new child-centred processes
The GIRFEC approach is based on solid foundations: there are ten core components and a set of values and principles which bring meaning and relevance at a practice level to single-agency, multi-agency and inter-agency working across the whole of children’s services. They can be applied in any setting and circumstance where people are working with children and young people.
The core components are:
A focus on improving outcomes for children, young people and their families based on a shared understanding of wellbeing
A common approach to the proportionate sharing of information where appropriate
An integral role for children, young people and families in assessment, planning and intervention
A co-ordinated and unified approach to identifying concerns, assessing needs, and agreeing actions and outcomes, based on the wellbeing Indicators
Streamlined planning, assessment and decision-making processes that lead to the right help at the right time
Consistent high standards of co-operation, joint working and communication where more than one agency needs to be involved, locally and across Scotland
A Named Person for every child and young person, and a Lead Professional (where necessary) to co-ordinate and monitor multi-agency activity
Maximising the skilled workforce within universal services to address needs and risks as early as possible
A confident and competent workforce across all services for children, young people and their families
The capacity, proportionately and appropriately, to share demographic, assessment, and planning information within and across agency boundaries.
That all sounds pretty complicated – how did a 17 year old girl from Crewe get involved in delivering the GIRFEC message?
“It might sound complicated, but it’s not really”, Dionne said. “It’s really just about making sure the support for the child is always there. IS the child safe? Is the child healthy? It’s about the whole wellbeing of the child – this is about emotional, not educational, support”.
Dionne first got involved almost two years ago, when Minister for Children and Young People, Aileen Campbell, wanted to find out what wellbeing means to Scotland’s young people. Ms Campbell invited young people to send in either a written piece or a drawing about what wellbeing meant to them.
There were over 300 entries from young people aged between 11 and 15.
“I read up about it and thought that this was something I would be interested in. I entered – my choice of subject was ‘bereavement’ – and I thought that was that. I was busy with other things and had pretty much forgotten all about it when the Scottish Government got in touch to say I was one of twelve winners”.
You can find Dionne’s entry here
http://www.wellbeingforyoungscots.org/about/winners/dionne
Dionne was the only young person from Edinburgh to be invited to Victoria Quay to participate in workshops with the Scottish Government to produce all the information on the www.wellbeingforyoungscots.org/ website. The idea is to tell other young people more about wellbeing and what the Scottish Government is doing to try and make Scotland the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up.
Since then, our Dionne’s been in constant demand – speaking at conferences, helping to formulate policy and delivering presentations all over the country. As a seventeen year old schoolgirl, isn’t it all too demanding? What about exams?
“I’m in sixth year and I have exams and I also have college interviews lined up but everything is okay; I’m able to manage fine. The school is very supportive and I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy it. I really do love it and it’s a fascinating subject – the work I’ve done with GIRFEC has made me think seriously about a career in social work”.
While spreading the GIRFEC message Dionne has met many high-profile public figures. Who has impressed her most?
“Aileen Campbell (above, with Dionne) was really nice. She is very enthusiastic about the work we are doing and she is also passionate about her brief. I think her attitude rubs off on other people too. She’s just had a second baby so she’s on maternity leave just now. If I had to choose just one person I would have to say Sue Bruce, who is the city council’s Chief Executive. She was really down to earth and showed genuine interest in the work I’ve been doing. She was very easy to talk to”.
And a final message to young people?
“If I could only get out one message, it would be to reassure young people that you don’t have to go through difficult things on your own – whatever problems you are facing there are people to help you. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness – that’s the most important message I would like to get out”.
Preparing and delivering presentations, speech-writing, participating in workshops, then there’s the school studies and college interviews … it’s a schedule that might floor some people, but not Dionne – Edinburgh’s very own GIRFEC ambassador!
For more information on GIRFEC go to:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/gettingitright
The votes have been counted and your MSYPs for Edinburgh are:
Edinburgh Central: Wing Yan Ng and Lucie Duffy
Edinburgh Eastern: Mahnoor Shah and Shannon Donoghue
Edinburgh Northern and Leith: Terri Smith and Eilidh Mackay.
There were only two candidates in each of the other constituencies so Kishore Lennon and Panashe Muzambe (Edinburgh Pentlands), Sarah Garland and Charlotte Watt (Edinburgh Southern) and Owen Cruickshank and Laura Holloway (Edinburgh Western) were returned unopposed.
Congratulations to all the candidates, successful or otherwise – hope you go on to do great things for your communities!
