£eith Chooses 2022-2023 is accepting applications up until 30 September.
Want to apply for funding (up to £5,000) but need some advice or help with your application?
Come along to the Learning Centre (upstairs at McDonald Road Library) and talk it over with a member of the Steering Group, who can advise you how best to frame your project application.
From 4pm
On Wednesday 31 August and / or Wednesday 7th September 
Please remember that £eith Chooses is starting early this year. Applications should be in by the end of September 2022.
£49,102 is available for community projects that the community votes for.
Your project should match the theme:
Sustaining Leith: supporting and protecting the most vulnerable in our community
£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.
What’s going on at £eith Chooses HQ these days?
We would like to know what everyone thinks about the recent £eith Chooses event, and any ideas for next year’s theme and event. Please will you contribute your thoughts via this very short and straightforward survey open until 13th April. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/lthch2022
We do listen very carefully!
Otherwise – those groups that successfully won funding are seeing the cash dropping into their bank accounts . For many, the process is complete. For a few, there may still be ‘paperwork’ issues but this should all be sorted by the end of March (end of financial year), so please make sure you’ve answered any outstanding emails.
Onwards and upwards, Leith!
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. |
Online voting is open NOW until 31 January. You can read about the 20 projects applying for funding to £eith Chooses, and vote at http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/voteleithchooses
You can vote from any smart phone, tablet or computer. People with no access to technology can vote at the Utilita Energy Hub in the NewKirkgate, during office hours. You can read more about the voting process here.
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.
”So what’s happening with £eith Chooses?” you may be asking. Well, 20 interesting and worthwhile community projects have been put forward, and the Leith Chooses Christmas elves have been busily working away in the background to get all the information up on the website for you to look through and think about, before you vote. This will go live for your delectation on Monday 10th January, so please come back here and check in then! Online voting will then open on Monday 24 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.
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