Please come along to the Leith Community Centre 6:30 pm, Wednesday 6th March, to learn the results of last week’s voting event, and which projects will receive funding this year.
Tag Archives: community engagement
£eith Chooses 2019 is a Record Breaker!
What a day! And Well done, Leith! A record-breaking 1,267 people (not including volunteers and some project applicants, so probably c100 more) came along on Saturday, showing a commitment in our wonderful community, and supporting all the brilliant community groups putting forward their project ideas for making Leith even better!
The sun shone, and the people came! We served delicious food from local suppliers, and many people stayed around to network and chat, after voting. It’s everything you’d hope for and expect in lovely Leith. We know that the project groups are all winners in their own ways, in who they are and what they do. The only sadness is that there is not enough money to fund all of them.
The ‘themes’ for this year’s £eith Chooses were tight, so that the only projects eligible for funding were ones that met the criteria of addressing inequalities and aiming to benefit disadvantaged people. Local community groups rose to the challenge and all put forward imaginative, creative ideas! There was also a requirement to actively include members of ethnic minority communities in project designs, and groups did this too!
This year we introduced the new idea of a ‘Boost Vote’ for a few projects that go ‘over and above’ in involving and benefiting minority ethnic communities, as some of these groups have been ‘left behind’ in previous years, due to ‘minority’ status and the fact that Participatory Budgeting is essentially a ‘first past the post’ model. We’ll have to wait for the count, to see the results of this innovation…. But it was heartwarming to see how generously the people of Leith accepted/welcomed this experiment, to make sure our community is ‘fair’ to all.
Projects Revealed!
Wow! There are 30 applicants to £eith Chooses – 8 for the ‘Food’ theme, and 22 for the ‘Supporting Vulnerable People’ theme. Lots of really great project ideas! View them all here in the ‘£eith Chooses Gallery’.
Checking out the projects online gives you a bit of background to each project, and a chance to reflect, before you come to the Community Centre on 23rd February, to vote. Please take a look and think about questions you might like to discuss with project groups, when you come, and which you might vote for.
The Gallery is just for ‘viewing’. There is no online voting this year.
When you come to vote on 23rd February, you will get up to 3 votes in each room (Food, and Vulnerable People). 2 votes for your 2 favourite projects, and 1 Boost Vote (optional) for your favourite from certain projects which go ‘above and beyond’ in involving members of ethnic minority communities. More voting information.
The following 8 (out of 30) project groups qualify for Boost Votes, according to the criteria laid down by the £eith Chooses Steering Group:
- Broughton Primary School Parent Council, Saheliya & partners
- Building Bridges
- Creative Electric
- Dr. Bells Family Centre
- Hermitage Park Primary School Association
- Multi Cultural Family Base
- Sikh Sanjog
- YMCA
Please Come and Vote!
Before the 23rd February –
- If you would like to come and vote, but cannot get to the Community Centre under your own steam, please let us know asap and we’ll try and arrange help for you to attend.
- If you are bringing younger children, you may wish to book them in to the free creche (for both applicants and voters). Please get in touch to book them in, in advance (places limited – first come, first served).
Email Caroline.Lamond@edinburgh.gov.uk for either / both of the above
On the Day –
We suggest that you come early, if you can – doors open at 12 – don’t leave it to the last minute, because –
- it may get busy at Registration, and at the ballot boxes
- you will want plenty time to chat to project groups on their ‘stalls’
- there will be lovely free food on offer, but it may start to run out….
- your kids may want to get glitter tattoos or face-painting done
- under 8s may need help with the new ‘Kids Vote’ (for the ‘Best Stall’)…
Voting in 2019, and Booster Vote
This short video explains a bit more about how voting will work at this year’s £eith Chooses, and about the new ‘booster vote’.
In the past, small and new, or not widely known groups have very often missed out, at £eith Decides / £eith Chooses. In particular, sadly, this has affected groups whose projects mainly involve ethnic minorities. The key is in the word ‘minority’ – such groups just don’t manage to get the vote numbers. It’s not just a problem in Leith, it’s a weakness of Participatory Budgeting in general. This year, any group that has made special efforts to engage with minority ethnic communities (including language minorities) – as applicants, partners, project workers, participants, beneficiaries etc.could qualify for a ‘booster vote’.
Contact the £eith Chooses team, to find out if / how your project might qualify.
Email – Caroline.Lamond@edinburgh.gov.uk
Partners!
Why not partner up with another (or more than one) organisation, for your £eith Chooses project bid? This is a great way to work cooperatively, rather than in competition with each other, for funds. A small group without a constitution can be ‘sheltered’ by a bigger group taking responsibility for governance. Groups doing similar things, but maybe with different ‘end users’, can share ideas and resources. And of course, partnering is a good way to widen your voter base!
£eith Chooses rides again, 2018/2019
Reply
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.
Next Steps for Participatory Budgeting in Scotland?
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).
What do you think? Are we ready for this, in Leith / Edinburgh?
£eith Chooses Evaluation & Reporting
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!
Evaluation and Feedback: What are YOUR views?
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