Dear All
The Portobello Book Festival starts this weekend and kicks off at Portobello Library tonight. Some more details here:
talesofonecity.wordpress.com/2015/09/30/portobello-book-festical-2015 and here: Women’s Library All events are free, but you need to pick up tickets from Portobello Library, address and details below my signature. Some are ‘sold’ out, but if you come along, you might be lucky to get a return ticket.
An invitation to upload your family photographs to Edinburgh Collected and help us our city’s history! Details here: https://www.edinburghcollected.org/
Such a fabulous day of great weather last market, so let’s hope for a repeat this coming Portobello Market, tomorrow. Music will be from resident band of the Caleerie Buskers and BG Cycles will be back with their offer of a free bike check. Sit with a coffee and soak up the atmosphere. That’s Saturday 3 October from 9.30am to 1.30pm in Brighton Park, Brighton Place, Portobello. More here: http://www.pedal-porty.org.uk/food/portobello-market/
A short booklet has been created by the Compact Partnership in Edinburgh to provide a collective overview of Edinburgh’s Third Sector.
The Third Sector is hugely diverse, consisting of charities, social enterprises, voluntary organisations and community groups. The organisations can be made up of paid staff and volunteers or run completely by volunteers, whatever suits the needs of the organisation. See more here: Compact Voice
Edinburgh Volunteer Recruitment Fair: Click here: Volunteer Recruitment Fair This is a fantastic opportunity to meet some of Edinburgh’s Volunteer involving Organisations, and for your constituents and Edinburgh’s people to learn more about volunteering opportunities across the City. Last year the fair helped around 1,000 people in their search for volunteering opportunities to make connections with the organisations that needed them. The Fair will also feature volunteering and employment specialists, Volunteer advisors, volunteering with older people and employability, a friendly café run by Bespoke Organic Events and of course access to hundreds of volunteering opportunities across the city. More here: http://www.volunteeredinburgh.org.uk/volunteer/Blog_Article_Depository/Recruitment_Fair_2015
Come meet the new Equality and Rights Network (EaRN) team at the above Volunteer Recruitment Fair next Wednesday to learn more about EaRN and attend their workshop on volunteer Equalities Ambassadors at 3.30pm. if you can.
Edinburgh has just launched a solar co-operative. Se video about it here: Solar Co-operative Video and national coverage here: Solar Co-op
It was mobbed last weekend on Porty Beach to watch the Cockenzie Power Station chimneys coming down: Cockenzie Power Station Towers And here’s some great video footage of the Cockenzie demolition: fb.me/2UxuszZ8M
Following the local Evening News campaign to save lives by taking first-aid action quickly on people who suffer a heart attack, it’s really fantastic that several defibrillators are at the ready in Craigmillar and local people are trained up so they know how to use them, thanks to Kevin Finlay, the charitable organisation he runs – Kids in the Street (KITS) – and Craigmillar community members for getting this sorted.
Lovely pictures of Brunstane Primary School’s P7’s baking bread at social enterprise, Breadshare Portobello. See them hard at work here: pic.twitter.com/Suna0FiWru They brought kits home to bake some for their parents too! Breadshare were successful in getting a small Community Grant through the Neighbourhood Partnership ‘You Decide!’ grants process we ran this year. Good to see the money being very well spent giving our local youngsters this kind of experience. More workshops with more youngsters yet to come!
The Chronicle on-line, a new community news medium for Craigmillar, is getting up and running and is looking for contributors. Find out more here:https://mobile.twitter.com/EdinReporter/status/649668099080351744/photo/1 News of Castlebrae Community High School’s new permanent Head Teacher and her ambitions for the school are here.
In a year’s time, our new Portobello High School will open. A reminder that a new park is planned for the old school site and now is the time to start thinking about its design and layout. Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust (E&LGT)need your input. Click here: New Park Ideas
If your community garden project is looking for funding for next year, Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust have grants of up to £500 available for anything from gloves and tools to compost bins. The deadline for applications is Friday 27 November. For more information and how to apply: Apply for a Grant
E&LGT are busy in this area. They are also involved in Craigmillar Town Centre Greenspace and plans for a park at Little France Little France Proposals
Keep Britain Tidy figures show: 30 million tonnes of litter are collected in the UK each year; £1bn is spent by local councils each year to clean this; 28% of people admit that they drop litter. (68% actually do); 8 million dogs produce more than 1,000 tonnes of mess every day in the UK alone; 86% of people say that littering is disgusting; 99% of town centres have cigarette litter. It really doesn’t have to be this way! Who picks it up – besides beleaguered Councils?! Nominate a Hero: Clean Up Scotland’s Hero of the Month Award recognises a volunteer’s outstanding contribution to cleaning up Scotland. If you know someone in your community who goes above and beyond to improve Scotland’s environmental quality, Keep Scotland Beautiful would love to hear about it. To nominate a local Hero, go to www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/hero
This looks like a great cause – aiming to raise funds for balance bikes for nursery aged children, initiated by another great social enterprise The Bike Station. More here: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/balance-bike-project
Another great idea, that I hope blossoms all over our city – making our streets safe for children to play and neighbours to get to know each other better. I first picked this up in an article about Bristol where a couple of parents had got together to make their street a ‘play street’ for a day a month: edinburgh.stv.tv/articles/1329644-edinburgh-playing-out-campaigns-for-safe-street-childrens-play
Finally, there’s a free mini health event in Bingham Community Centre next Friday October 7, 11am-2pm. More here.
I hope you all have a great, sunny weekend!
Best wishes
Maureen
Councillor Maureen Child | Labour Elected Member | Portobello/Craigmillar (Ward 17) | City of Edinburgh Council | City Chambers | High Street | Edinburgh | EH1 1YJ | Tel 0131 529 3268 | Mobile 07718 666 481| Twitter @MaureenChild1
p.s. My face-to-face Councillor Advice Sessions, or ‘Surgeries’, are usually every Monday at 5.30 pm in Castleview Community Centre, 76 Craigmillar Castle Avenue (Phone 661 4064) and then at 7 pm in Portobello Library, 14 Rosefield Avenue (Phone 529 5558). Now also at Craigmillar Library, 101 Niddrie Mains Road, EH16 4DT, 1st Wednesday of the month, drop-in session 5pm-5.30pm, thereafter by appointment only up until 7.30pm. Please phone me on Direct Line 0131 529 3268 or Mobile 07718 666 481, or email maureen.child@edinburgh.gov.uk to check availability, make an appointment or request a home visit.
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