Tag Archives: community engagement

Projects Revealed!

Posted on by

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!

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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!

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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?

Posted on by

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 Evaluation & Reporting

Posted on by

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?

Posted on by

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

 

Where are things at now?

Posted on by

The votes are counted and the results are now available. See who has won funding, and how much, on the Awards 2018 page.

‘Award Agreement’ forms have been sent out to all projects in the Small and the Large grant pots. As soon as these are completed and returned, a cheque will be issued  by Leith Links Community Council (with Scottish Government Community Choices funding). Please post the Agreement Form back, your cheque will be sent out to you by post.

For projects in the ‘Medium’ pot,  the City of Edinburgh Council process works slightly differently. Once the Agreement  form is sent out by email, please complete and  return, then electronic money transfer will be effected.

A ‘Survey Monkey’ evaluation questionnaire will be circulated very soon to project applicants and another for voters and the general public. We will welcome responses from as many people as possible, e.g. voters, as well as project applicants. We will also welcome any feedback you wish to provide by email, directly, to leithchooses@edinburgh.gov.uk

A face to face feedback discussion session, primarily for applicants, is being planned for Tuesday 15th May, to facilitate interaction between participants, identify issues, share suggestions for improvement, and generate new ideas.

And £eith Chooses project funding awards go to……

Posted on by

Following in- person card voting on the 3rd March, and online voting from 3-17 March (totalled together), the following projects have been awarded funding through £eith Chooses:

SMALL GRANTS
Leithers Don’t Litter – Good Clean Fun
CLASP Seniors Tea Party
Cleaning Up Restalrig Road
Help Scouts go Camping
Art Outside the Police box
The Big Brunch – towards a shared vision of Childcare
Family Fun Street Games and Dance
See Me Portrait Project
Taobh Na Pairce Film Making Workshop
Choose Happiness
Leith Fort Residents Community Group

MEDIUM GRANTS
Hidden Door Festival – involving the local community
Tailor Ed Foundation
Leith Primary Parent Council – Trim Trail
All Together Charity Shop – Skills Training
Leith Community Cinema – accessible screenings
Invisible Cities – Street Barber project
Mustard Seed – Soul Food Easter Road
Leith Late – A Wall is a Screen
Dr. Bells Family Centre – Summer Programme
St. Mary’s Primary – Bike Shelter & Scooter Rack
Leith FAB Cricket Club – all weather artificial pitch
Beyond Gender – LGBT+ Creative Writing (substantial partial funding)

LARGE GRANTS
Leith DIY Skateparks – extensding skateboarding facilities for all
Leith Theatre Trust – Thomas Morton Hall equipment
The Edinburgh Tool Library – accessible Leith
Creative Electric – art and performance with various groups
Projekt 42 – yoga, youth fitness, summer bootcamp
Citadel Youth Centre – Citadel Connect
Out of the Blue – Meanwhile…in Leith Hub
Scottish Historic Buildings / Leith Heritage Trail Group (small partial funding)

All this adds up to a total of £118,000 that will go to the community in Leith in many and varied ways, through the energy, work and commitment of all the great project teams taking part.

Many thanks to everybody that participated in £eith Chooses in any capacity – applicant teams, supporters, voters, volunteers, organisers, elected representatives, retweeters…

Only fly in the ointment – so gutted that there were, inevitably, some projects that didn’t get funding. There were so many brilliant projects (and such an incredibly diverse range), we just wish that everybody could have got what they needed, and nobody lose out. Sadly not possible, but please don’t be too discouraged. We sincerely hope that you got something out of the experience – publicity? new links, contacts and supporters? new ideas?
We will try and pass on to you any ideas or opportunities for other sources of funding.