£eith Chooses rides again, 2018/2019

Posted on November 3, 2018 by Bruce

Evaluations from 2017/2018 have been ongoing since April, as has forward planning. And at last we have news!

£eith Chooses will take place once more. There is £44,000 of City of Edinburgh Community Grants Fund money available for community projects. Groups can apply for one project, up to a maximum of £5,000 (bids for less also warmly welcomed).

20th November 2018 – £eith Chooses 2018/2019 launches and application open . Please do come along and hear about the plans for this year: 6pm, Tuesday 20th Nov., Leith Community Centre, New Kirkgate.

21 January 2019 – Applications close

23 February 2019 – Voting Day, Leith Community Centre, New Kirkgate.

Help the Scouts go to camp

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Bruce

The 154 Scouts received a £eith Chooses grant of £500 earlier this year. Here is a brief report of what they’ve been up to, spending that money. All sounds great!
We used the money to organise the ‘Leith Chooses Canty Bay Camp’ in June 2018, which was attended by 12 Beavers, 14 Cubs and 11 Scouts. Beavers slept in tents (many for the first time), visited Tantallon Castle by minibus, and learned emergency First Aid.
Cubs obtained different stages of hiking badges, visit Tantallon Castle to obtain their local history badge and complete their nature badge, the latter of which is only possible in rural settings and near the seaside. The camp also facilitated three Cubs staying overnight for their first ever camp, contributing to their ‘Nights Away stage 1’ badge.Scouts hiked to and from North Berwick to the camp site. They cooked their own dinner using a Trangia (Cowboy Stew!), hiked to Tantallon Castle, and played games. They went swimming at North Berwick pool as well.They set up their own tents and helped set up the tents for the Beavers.

Some of the badges that this trip contributed to are: First Aid Badge, Local History Badge, Nature Badge, Chef Badge, Navigator Badge, Camping Badge, Nights Away, Teamwork Challenge, Outdoor Challenge award and Swimmer Activity Badge.

All of this has really helped the young people bond, learn about their environment and grow in independence – allowing them to become better citizens and neighbours in the future.

Art on the Police Box

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Bruce

Another great £eith Chooses project takes shape. You voted for ‘Art on the Police Box’ and here it is!

Police Box owner Monty Roy writes: Our first artworks have been installed on Leith walk policebox with the help of Edinburgh Tool Library (ETL) who made the weatherproof panels and fixings. (Don’t panic, the wonderful Stewart Bremner art deco illustrations are still safely preserved underneath.) We are hoping to have an official launch in October.

Aptly, since 2018 is designated the Year of Young People, young artists is residence at ETL have been involved. Below are photos of the current artworks.

New artworks are being worked on by Stafford Centre Mental Health project and by students at Leith Academy for installation late 2018 early 2019.

Police Box No. 1 is by Page Hardie, who uses salvaged household paint to create abstract patterns that are free flowing and unique.

Urban Constellation is by Vivienne Kelly. Vivienne is inspired by urban animals and the patterns and invisible ‘pathways’ they (like us) carve through our neighbourhoods. She wants us to see the magic in the mundane. (Hard to show on this photo- you’ll have to get up close to investigate, like Monty and Leith Walk Councillor Susan Rae, shown here.)

£eith Chooses Projects come to life!

Posted on September 10, 2018 by Bruce

It is great to see that £eith Chooses projects funded by the votes of the local community back in March are now taking shape, for the benefit of the community. Leith Primary School sent a photo of the ‘Trim Trail’ recently installed outside the school on Leith Links, with the following ‘Thank You’ message:

Thought I’d drop you a note to say thank you on behalf of Leith Primary Parent Council, staff and pupils for the funding we received from £eith Chooses. As you can see from the photo below our wooden obstacle course is now complete and the children love it. The contribution from £eith Chooses, along with over £3,000 we fundraised, has allowed us to greatly improve the outdoor space. Not having had a gym hall for four years, and a large temporary unit housing the nursery in our playground has been very frustrating. Having this obstacle course completed will mean the first stage in improving the outside space for the pupils even further.

Thanks again
XXXXXXX
LPPC Secretary

Next Steps for Participatory Budgeting in Scotland?

Posted on June 27, 2018 by Bruce

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a way for people to have a direct say in how public money is spent. Up until now, PB across Scotland has typically taken the form of a small grants model, where pots of money are voted on and distributed at local events or online. Leith was an early pioneer of this, and the recent £eith Chooses event was a classic example.

A new short film has been produced that looks at moving towards using PB to distribute public funds from much bigger mainstream Council budgets (not just small grants).

Click here to view the film

What do you think? Are we ready for this, in Leith / Edinburgh?

PB Scotland

£eith Chooses – Leith Neighbourhood Partnership report

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Bruce

Following distribution of £44,000 (City of Edinburgh Council, Community Grants Fund) to community projects through participatory budgeting, via the £eith Chooses process, the Leith Neighbourhood Partnership made the following report (14 June 2018).

Read the report here: Leith Neighbourhood Partnership Report June 2018

Report to Scottish Government: Community Choices

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Bruce

Leith Links Community Council received a large grant, in 2017, from Scottish Government Community Choices, for distribution to community projects via participatory budgeting (local people voting for local projects). This was carried out, as part of the £eith Chooses process, as detailed across this website. Leith Links Community Council was then required to submit a brief report to Scottish Government Community Choices, with an evaluative outline of the participatory budgeting process that took place. You can read that report here: LLCC / Community Choices report to SG

£eith Chooses Evaluation & Reporting

Posted on May 20, 2018 by Bruce

We have been carrying out a series of evaluation exercises:

survey of all project applicants (closed 20 May)
survey open to the whole community (closed 20 May)
open face to face discussion session (15 May)

We have also received feedback by email, and will be meeting for private feedback discussions with project groups over the next week or so.

Thank you very much to all those who took the trouble to give their time and thought to responding; all of the feedback is interesting and useful.

If you have any further feedback that you wish the £eith Chooses organisers to be aware of, please send it in NOW / asap, or it will be too late to be included in the reports and recommendations.

The next phase of the project is to analyse all the feedback and write up reports (to Scottish Government and to City of Edinburgh Council), with recommendations for the future. These reports should be available by June, at the Leith Neighbourhood Partnership meeting, and online. Watch this space!

Feedback with Food

Posted on May 6, 2018 by Bruce

A face to face feedback discussion session, perhaps primarily for applicants but open to all, will be held on Tuesday 15th May (18:30 – 20:30 in the Leith Community Centre Cafe area). Come early at 6, to have plenty time to chat and enjoy refreshments.The aim is to facilitate interaction between participants, identify issues, share suggestions for improvement, and generate new ideas. We really want to know what you think and how £eith Chooses can be improved! Most discussion will be in small table groups so hopefully not too intimidating, and easy for everyone to have their say.

Please let us know if you want to come along – we’d like to know numbers roughly as a finger buffet will be provided.

Evaluation and Feedback: What are YOUR views?

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Bruce

We are now at the stage of trying to get feedback about the 2018 £eith Chooses event. We want to know what everyone thinks (positive and negative!) and to get ideas about how £eith Chooses can be improved.

Two ‘Survey Monkey’ evaluation questionnaires are now in circulation, to collect views. One was emailed to project applicants and the other is for – well, ‘everybody’ – supporters, voters and the general community.You!

Please take a few minutes to fill in this short survey, via this link

Also – a face to face feedback discussion session, perhaps primarily for applicants but open to all, will be held on Tuesday 15th May (18:30 – 20:30 in the Leith Community Centre Cafe area), to facilitate interaction between participants, identify issues, share suggestions for improvement, and generate new ideas. We really want to know what you think and how £eith Chooses can be improved! (Please let us know if you want to come along – we’d like to know numbers roughly as a finger buffet will be provided.)

We also welcome any feedback you wish to provide by email, directly, to leithchooses@edinburgh.gov.uk