£eith Chooses voting has now closed and vote counting is in progress. Results will be announced as soon as possible, in the next couple of weeks.
Many thanks to all who took the trouble to vote, you have done a good thing, for the benefit of the community in Leith.
£eith Chooses voting is OPEN NOW! Please vote, and please pass the word around!
How do I vote?
Easiest for many people is to vote online at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/voteleithchooses
Otherwise, pick up a paper voting paper at any of the places listed below. (You can collect a voting form for someone else, but please do not photocopy forms, as each is invidually marked.) You can fill it in and deposit your vote on the spot there, or take a postage paid envelope and post it later.
| McDonald Road Library 2-8 McDonald Road Edinburgh EH7 4LU |
Leith Library 28-30 Ferry Road Edinburgh EH6 4AE |
| Utilita 41 Newkirkgate Edinburgh EH6 6AA |
Out of the Blue Drill Hall 36 Dalmeny Street Edinburgh EH6 8RG |
| The Wee Hub (The Living Memory Association) 1st floor (former Debenhams) Ocean Terminal shopping centre 74 Ocean Drive EH6 6JJ |
£eith Chooses 2022-2023 opened this week and the best news possible just came in a day later – a very generous donation of £3,000 from Port of Leith Housing Association. Thank you PoLHA!
This new donation bumps the grant pot up to a total of £49,102, which means that more projects can be funded.
Hope your project ideas are flowing – now is the time to get started on your application!
Sustaining Leith: supporting and protecting the most vulnerable in our community
£eith Chooses 2022-2023 is opening earlier this year – it is open for applications NOW!
Applications for projects up to £5,000 will be accepted from 1st August 2022 until the end of September 2022. Please download the Guidance Notes and an Application Form here (choose whichever is your preferred format, below), and start working on your application straightaway.
| Format | Application form | Guidance notes |
| DOC (older versions of Word) | Application form | Guidance notes |
| DOCX (newer versions of Word) | Application form | Guidance notes |
| Application form | Guidance notes |
Project applications should align with this year’s theme: Sustaining Leith: supporting and protecting the most vulnerable in our community.
If you feel you would like to discuss your ideas, or need some help or advice with your application, please get in touch and a member of the Steering Group will make contact with you to offer support. Email: caroline.lamond@edinburgh.gov.uk
Why so early this year? We know from feedback from applicants in the past that it can be an uncomfortable struggle to be finishing off an application at the tail end of the year, just as Christmas is approaching, so moving everything a bit earlier is an attempt to remove that barrier. Voting will be in January 2023.
The following groups will receive funding as a result of the £eith Chooses 2022 voting. Congratulations to all, and we look forward to seeing your projects develop and benefit the community in Leith over the coming year.
Commiserations to those groups that were not successful this year. Please don’t be too discouraged. Your participation is really valued, and we hope that as more people become aware of your work, perhaps your time will come next year.
| PROJECT | Outcome | Project is about… |
| Citadel Youth Centre | fully funded | Reconnecting kids / parents / carers /community and nature through a programme of outdoor activities. |
| Cyrenians | fully funded | Linking young people and celebrating diverse cultural backgrounds, through a food & stories event. |
| Dr Bells Family Centre | fully funded | Linking young children and parents from many different cultures through cooking, eating and playing together, as part of summer activity scheme. |
| Edinburgh Community Food | fully funded | Supporting older and elderly members of the community with delivery of nutritionally balanced food hampers, and with community meals and film events. |
| Edinburgh & Lothians Regional Equality Council (ELREC) | fully funded | Fighting loneliness and promoting inclusion, health and wellbeing through outdoor group walks and painting workshops. |
| The Edinburgh Remakery | fully funded | Regular social groups, connecting people though creativity, craft and recycling and repurposing |
| Hibernian Community Foundation | fully funded | Free lunch club, fortnightly for one year, reconnecting folk in Leith. |
| Homestart Leith & NE Edinburgh | fully funded | Garden group for young children and their parents, playing, eating and gardening / growing veg. together and building friendships and support. |
| House of Jack | fully funded | Free and fun weekly dance socials for older people, to fight loneliness, support rehabilitation following illness or injury, and promote mobility, strength and balance. |
| LeithLate | fully funded | Bringing folk together to celebrate Leith’s community spirit, working together on how to renew the Leith History Mural, and documenting / filming as the process develops. |
| LifeCare Edinburgh | fully funded | Free nutritious hot meals delivered to isolated older people across Leith , providing a regular friendly visit and ‘check-in’ service. |
| MILAN | fully funded | Helping elderly Leithers from Asian backgrounds access MILAN services (groups, food, activities). |
| NEPAL Scotland Association | fully funded | Taekwondo lessons for BAME groups (and wider Leith community) for healthy and active living, mental health, community and well-being. |
| THE ABOVE PROJECTS WILL RECEIVE ALL OF THE FUNDING THAT THEY APPLIED FOR.
THERE IS, HOWEVER ONE MORE PROJECT THAT WILL BE AWARDED PARTIAL FUNDING (subject to confirmation from them that they would be willing to accept this) |
||
| Citadel Arts | Partially funded
£772 |
Drama group for young people, developing skills and confidence, linking with adult writing group, leading to local performances. |
UPDATE
Online voting will open on Monday 24 January, until 31 January. You can vote from any smart phone or computer, we will post the link here as soon as it’s live.
Thanks to a very generous last minute offer from Utilita – anyone who can’t vote online can go into the Utilita Energy Hub shop in the New Kirkgate any day next week and get help to vote there. Staff and a member of the £eith Chooses Steering Group will be on hand to support voters.
The 20 projects that are applying to £eith Chooses 2021 – 2022 for funding are now all available (listed in alphabetical order) for public viewing. Please read the project summaries here and start thinking about which three (four, if you use your Boost Vote, which we hope you will) you’d like to vote for, when voting opens on 24rth January.
The window for applying to £eith Chooses 2021 /22 closes today. Thank you to all who have applied. Please don’t worry if you do not receive an immediate acknowledgment / response to your application. City of Edinburgh Council IT systems are having a bad week, it seems, at least in this particular neck of the woods. Hopefully normal service will be resumed shortly, and you will hear back from £eith Chooses very soon.
Applications are NOW OPEN,for the 2021-2022 £eith Chooses process. There is £44,102 available from City of Edinburgh Community Grants Fund, supplemented by a further £5,000 donation from Port of Leith Housing Association. Community Groups can apply for up to £5,000.
This year’s theme is:
Reconnecting in Leith:
Nourishment, Creativity, Sustainability
If you are a constituted community group with your own bank account, and are thinking of a project that would benefit the community in Leith, please download and fill in an Application Form, and Guidance Notes, from the links below.
| format | Application form | Guidance notes |
| DOC (older versions of Word) | Application form | Guidance notes |
| DOCX (newer versions of Word) | Application form | Guidance notes |
| Application form | Guidance notes |
There will be an online (Zoom) general Q & A session about applying to £eith Chooses on Tuesday 7 September 2021, at 6:30pm. This may be particularly useful for new groups that have not applied before. Register to attend via Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eithchooses-2021-22-applications-qa-tickets-168847432215
Further information and support (private discussions) for applicants will be also available on an ongoing basis, as requested,
Contact: caroline.lamond@edinburgh,gov.uk
Please will you take a few minutes to fill in this short survey about the £eith Chooses experience, 2021?
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/leithch2021
The £eith Chooses Steering Group is keen to collect feedback from everybody in the community after each participatory budgeting event, We want to hear your views. The survey will run until the end of March.
Applications are being accepted NOW for £eith Chooses 2021.
Check out the details, download a form now. Send it in by 11th December 2020.
If you need further information / advice, email caroline.lamond@edinburgh.gov.uk
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