Author Archives: LeithChoosesTeam

Art on the Police Box

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Another great £eith Chooses project takes shape. You voted for ‘Art on the Police Box’ and here it is!

Police Box owner Monty Roy writes: Our first artworks have been installed on Leith walk policebox with the help of Edinburgh Tool Library (ETL) who made the weatherproof panels and fixings. (Don’t panic, the wonderful Stewart Bremner art deco illustrations are still safely preserved underneath.) We are hoping to have an official launch in October.

Aptly, since 2018 is designated the Year of Young People, young artists is residence at ETL have been involved. Below are photos of the current artworks.

New artworks are being worked on by Stafford Centre Mental Health project and by students at Leith Academy for installation late 2018 early 2019.

Police Box No. 1 is by Page Hardie, who uses salvaged household paint to create abstract patterns that are free flowing and unique.

Urban Constellation is by Vivienne Kelly. Vivienne is inspired by urban animals and the patterns and invisible ‘pathways’ they (like us) carve through our neighbourhoods. She wants us to see the magic in the mundane. (Hard to show on this photo- you’ll have to get up close to investigate, like Monty and Leith Walk Councillor Susan Rae, shown here.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

£eith Chooses Projects come to life!

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It is great to see that £eith Chooses projects funded by the votes of the local community back in March are now taking shape, for the benefit of the community. Leith Primary School sent a photo of the ‘Trim Trail’ recently installed outside the school on Leith Links, with the following ‘Thank You’ message:

Thought  I’d drop you a note to say thank you on behalf of Leith Primary Parent Council, staff and pupils for the funding we received from £eith Chooses.  As you can see from the photo below our wooden obstacle course is now complete and the children love it.  The contribution from £eith Chooses, along with over £3,000 we fundraised, has allowed us to greatly improve the outdoor space.  Not having had a gym hall for four years, and a large temporary unit housing the nursery in our playground has been very frustrating.  Having this obstacle course completed will mean the first stage in improving the outside space for the pupils even further.  

Thanks again
XXXXXXX
LPPC Secretary

Next Steps for Participatory Budgeting in Scotland?

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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 – Leith Neighbourhood Partnership report

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Following distribution of £44,000 (City of Edinburgh Council, Community Grants Fund) to community projects through participatory budgeting, via the £eith Chooses process, the Leith Neighbourhood Partnership made the following report (14 June 2018).

Read the report here: Leith Neighbourhood Partnership Report June 2018

Report to Scottish Government: Community Choices

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Leith Links Community Council received a large grant, in 2017, from Scottish Government Community Choices, for distribution to community projects via participatory budgeting (local people voting for local projects). This was carried out, as part of the £eith Chooses process, as detailed across this website. Leith Links Community Council was then required to submit a brief report to Scottish Government Community Choices, with an evaluative outline of the participatory budgeting process that took place. You can read that report here: LLCC / Community Choices report to SG

£eith Chooses Evaluation & Reporting

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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!

Feedback with Food

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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). Come early at 6, to have plenty time to chat and enjoy refreshments.The aim is 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! Most discussion will be in small table groups so hopefully not too intimidating, and easy for everyone to have their say.

Please let us know if you want to come along – we’d like to know numbers roughly as a finger buffet will be provided.

Evaluation and Feedback: What are YOUR views?

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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?

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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……

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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.