Thank you so much to all the people who joined our £eith Chooses online meeting last week – it was lovely to see / hear you all.
Please visit this page if you would like more information about the results of the September survey.
Tag Archives: community engagement
£eith Chooses is LIVE!
There is £46,102 available for community projects in Leith, to be allocated in January / February 2021 by democratic vote – the local community will vote online for the projects they would like to see funded.
Apply now if you are a constituted group with a bank account and a good idea for a 6 month community project (up to £5,000) that matches the following theme(s), download a form here.
Theme
In these Covid times-
- Challenging food poverty in Leith
and/or - Reducing isolation / ensuring connectedness
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£eith Chooses Community Discussion Meeting!
All members of the Leith community, or with an interest in participatory budgeting, are invited to an online community meeting on Tuesday 10th November at 18:30 – 20:00 (max). Get the link from Eventbrite.
Because £eith Chooses 2020/2021 will be a bit different from previous years, we’d like to catch everybody up with the news of how it will run. We want to be as transparent as possible and to give everybody the chance to ask questions and chat about things.
We’d also like to report back the results of the recent £eith Chooses survey. It was fantastic that so many people took the trouble to respond, we really appreciate it. Not all of the suggestions can be implemented, this time round anyway, but it would be good to air and discuss the ideas.
To get the link, and attend, please register with Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eith-chooses-online-community-discussion-meeting-tickets-127231216995
The meeting will be via the (free) Microsoft Teams platform
See you online!
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£eith Chooses 2021 – it’s happening!
Many thanks to all who responded to our recent survey. What a rich and heart-warming show of care, commitment, and bright ideas!
The overwhelming consensus was that £eith Chooses 2021 should go ahead, even in the current challenging and less than ideal circumstances. And it’s happening!
The good news is that, with a little help from the Council, we have found a way to arrange online voting for £eith Chooses 2021, so we won’t need to have a ‘Panel’ to allocate funding after all. We will still hold at least one public meeting online, to support participation, bring everyone up to speed, and to discuss a number of the points brought up in the survey. More news on that soon!
But because time is now short (how did that happen?), we need to push on with the project meanwhile. The Themes used previously received a majority approval rating in the survey results, so we’re sticking broadly with those same topic areas.The 2021 theme is:
In these Covid times-
- Challenging food poverty in Leith
and/or - Reducing isolation / ensuring connectedness
There is £46,102 available for projects (max. £5,000 per project)
Application Forms are now available here, and groups will have until 11 December 2020 to fill them in and return them.
The £eith Chooses team will offer support to applicants on demand, but that will be online or by phone, rather than in person. Watch our website for details.
Voting will take place online in January 2021. We will do what we can to help people who cannot easily get online, to vote.
Please get in touch with any questions, or to request an application form. Caroline.Lamond@edinburgh.gov.uk
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£EITH CHOOSES 2021 – how will it work?
During this Covid crisis, safety must come first. The £eith Chooses / Community Grant money allocation process will be different this year – but we want as many people and organisations in Leith as possible to have a say in how the process is carried out.
Please click on this link, https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LeithChooses2021 and complete the short survey.
Only constituted organisations that benefit the Leith community can apply for a project grant, but everybody can have a say in how they think things should be run.
Please respond by Monday 28th September 2020
If you are representing an organisation, please fill in the organisation’s contact details in the survey.
If you are responding as an individual, we won’t keep your data (Data Protection rules) so if you want to follow up and volunteer to play a part on the £eith Chooses process, please email caroline.lamond@edinburgh.gov.uk
Thank you
The £eith Chooses team
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What’s happening with £eith Chooses projects?
The £eith Chooses team is of course very aware that normal service delivery and activities have been massively disrupted, for everybody. We have contacted all the community groups that won £eith Chooses grant funding awards in February 2020, to say that we would like to help in whatever way we can.
We understand that some organisations may not be able to deliver their project exactly when and how they had planned to, and that some really creative conversations will take place about possible /necessary adaptations.
We have allocated a named volunteer from the £eith Chooses Steering Group to link supportively with each project group, to join conversations about the direction groups feel they can safely take with their project, to reach the most vulnerable members of our community..
We are hoping that all groups can agree a plan before / by 28 June about how they will be able to use the funding within the spirit of the original agreement.
For example, project groups may aim to –
- Stick pretty much to the original idea but tweak the delivery methods e.g. food going out to people rather than people coming to gatherings for food.
- Deliver the original project idea but with a later start date (probably affecting the finish date).
- Re-prioritise / redesign their original plan and suggest a new project idea that combats social isolation or food poverty right now, in this Covid-19 crisis.
Hopefully groups will not feel that their project cannot be rescheduled or tweaked or revamped in some way and want to return the funding.
Meanwhile, thanks and best wishes to all groups for everything they are doing in Leith
.
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Thank you, Leith!
A huge ‘thank yu’ to everyone who contributed to making £eith Chooses Voting event such a great day, on Saturday. Organisers, project applicants and teams, volunteers, and of course, voters! It all came together in a lovely, buzzy community day when we could find out about all the fantastic charities and groups that work in Leith, for the benefit of our local community.
So the voted are all cast, and are now being counted. The results will be announced on Tuesday 18th February (after half-term, to make sure nobody misses it!).
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Would you like to volunteer at £eith Chooses Voting Day?
Please get in touch if you are interested in helping out at the Voting Day – it is great fun!
Email: caroline.lamond@edinburgh.gov.uk
Short briefing sessions for volunteers at the £eith Chooses Voting Day will be held at 6pm on Tuesday 28 and Thursday 30 in Leith Community Centre cafe (come to one or the other, not both)
Or ask for written briefing paper.
Volunteers should come along on Voting Day between 9:30 and 10 am
PS You can volunteer AND vote!
)
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Get the date in your diary!
Saturday 1st February is the Voting Day for £eith Chooses. Please come along and support the community projects that you feel will best help to fight hunger and/or loneliness in Leith. 
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£eithChooses is coming up!
Make sure YOU take part in £eith Chooses 2020! Hear about it here from past recipients of funding.
Get your applications in NOW (by 6th January) and come along and vote (1st February).
