Tag Archives: community

Applications for LeithChooses 2025/26 are now open!

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Local charities and constituted community groups are invited to apply for project funding of up to £5,000. As usual, projects should be new or adding new value (not continued funding of an existing service) that will be of benefit to the community in Leith. Projects should be designed to start after 31st March 2026 and run until March 2027 at the latest. The theme for this year is ‘Well-being in Leith’ and the deadline for applications is midnight on Wednesday 22nd October 2025.

We welcome your applications using our new online form at edinburgh.gov.uk/applyleithchooses. If you would like access to the application form in a different format, please contact leithchooses@edinburgh.gov.uk or 07743 167 340.

Be sure to also download and read the LeithChooses guidance notes, to check if your project is eligible, and to guide you in putting together your application. You can also read additional guidance and a sample application form from Edinburgh Council.

If you have any questions or would like any support from the steering group with your application, please get in touch as early as possible to allow time for discussions, by emailing leithchooses@edinburgh.gov.uk.

You are also welcome to come along to a Steering Group meeting, to discuss your project ideas, and ask for advice on completing the Application Form. See ‘About’ page for details.

We look forward to hearing your ideas for new projects.

Vote Online NOW!

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From 20th January to 3rd February 2025, online voting is open. Everyone 8 years or older who lives, works, volunteers or attends school or college in Leith is eligible to vote.

You get TWO voting opportunities – once at the live in-person voting day, and once online.

If you didn’t manage to get to the Voting Day on 18th January, you can still vote once online.
Even if you DID vote at the Community Centre, you can ALSO vote once online.

VOTE HERE
www.edinburgh.gov.uk/voteleithchooses

Please remind your friends, family and colleagues to vote, too.

Who to vote for?
You can find the list of 23 projects here, to check out who you want to vote for, or you will also have a chance to read about them as you go through the voting process.

VOTE HERE
www.edinburgh.gov.uk/voteleithchooses

You will need to give your Leith home post-code or street name to show you are eligible to vote. Or give your school name, or the address of your work or volunteeer work, if you don’t live in Leith.

LeithChooses 2024-2025 is open for applications now!

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LeithChooses 2024-2025 is now open for applications!
Local charities and community groups* are invited to apply for project funding of up to £5,000 for a new project.
         The new theme this year is Leith Uniting.
Hopefully this is open enough to allow for all sorts of creative interpretations. Looking forward to hearing your ideas for new projects!

As usual, projects are invited that are new or adding new value (not continued funding of an existing service) that will be of benefit to the community in Leith. Projects should be designed to start after 1 April 2025 and run until March 2026 at the latest.

Please do ask for help and support in putting together your application if you wish. Contact leithchooses@edinburgh.gov.uk Please submit your application as early as you can – that then leaves time for any questions or adjustments that may be necessary, and avoids the stressful ‘last minute rush’! At the very latest, application forms must be submitted by 10th October 2024.

*only organisations that have a Constitution and a bank account may apply

Please download an application form here, and be sure to also download and study the Guidance Notes, to help you ascertain if your project is eligible, and to guide you in putting together your application. Various formats are available:

format Application Form Guidance Notes
DOCX Application form (DOCX format) Guidance notes (DOCX format)
DOC Application form (DOC format) Guidance notes (DOC format)
PDF Application form (PDF format) Guidance notes (PDF format)

You will also be able to pick up a paper form at Leith Library, McDonald Road Library, Leith Community Centre, Out of the Blue, Duncan Place.

Need help with your application?

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£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

£eith Chooses Steering Group, anyone?

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We would like to invite new people to join the £eith Chooses Steering Group, whether for a longer or a shorter period, to bring new ideas and new energies to the process and to try to ensure that different aspects of the local community are as well represented as possible. Could this be you?

This is a voluntary position. You need to be someone who lives, works, volunteers, or studies in Leith. We are looking for ‘working members’  – that is, people who have time to attend meetings fairly regularly (mostly online currently), and to contribute actively. You could ask to attend a couple of meetings as an ‘observer’ if you’d like to learn more about how it all operates.

Please get in touch if you are interested. Email: secretary@leithlinkscc.org.uk

 

Apply Now – don’t leave it too late!

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The clock is ticking, now. Just 27 days to go  – please don’t put it off until the last minute!£eith Chooses has £56,102 for charities and community organisations serving the community in Leith, and is accepting applications NOW, until 30th November. 

This year’s theme is one that everyone can find a point of contact with:

Reconnecting in Leith:
Nourishment, Creativity, Sustainability

If you are a constituted community group with your own bank account, and are thinking of a project (12 months max) 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
PDF Application form Guidance notes

 

Thinking about applying to £eith Chooses? Online Q & A session 5th October 6:30pm

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Talk to us! Don’t leave everything to the last minute!

There will be another online (Zoom) general Q & A session about applying to £eith Chooses this coming Tuesday 5 October 2021, at 6:30pm. This is a good chance for an informal chat about a possible application, and to clarify any queries you may have. Do join the call, you will be very welcome!

Register to attend via Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eithchooses-2021-22-applications-qa-tickets-170120002507

As well as – or instead of – this Q& A session, Information and support (private discussions) for applicants will be also available at any time / on an ongoing basis, as requested,
Contact: caroline.lamond@edinburgh,gov.uk

Applications are OPEN NOW for  £eith Chooses 2021-2022. There is £46,102 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 for a 12 month project that will benefit members of the community in Leith.

 

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
PDF Application form Guidance notes

 

 

 

 

Awards 2020-2021

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The following groups / projects received the largest number of votes from the Leith community, and will receive funding through £eith Chooses 2021, for projects
that challenge food poverty in Leith and/or that reduce isolation /help people get / stay connected, in Leith.
The total amount allocated is £51,102.
The figure below, per group, is the amount the group applied for

Empty Kitchens, Full Hearts –               £5,000

Sikh Sanjog’s Punjabi Junction –          £4,330

Edinburgh NE Foodbank –                    £5,000

Multi-Cultural Family Base  –                 £4,510

Edinburgh Community Food
& MILAN ‘Leith Bowl Blethers’ –            £4,400

Building Bridges –                                  £2,180

Edinburgh Remakery –                          £4,620

Edinburgh and Lothian Regional
Equality Council (ELREC) –                   £5,000

Projekt 42 –                                            £4,700

Citadel Youth Centre –                           £5,000

Dr Bell’s Family Centre –                       £3,630

PIE Scotland – (£5,000) –                      £2,732 (partial funding)

Many Congratulations! These projects will benefit the Leith community in many different ways, through the energy, work and commitment of the great project teams listed above.

Sadly, because of the limited funding available and the nature of participatory budgeting, not every applicant can be successful. The groups and projects whose names do not appear above did not win funding on this occasion.This is no reflection on the quality of their projects, which were all excellent. The £eith Chooses team is always finds this distressing, just as the project groups must do. Thank you for participating, don’t give up, you could be lucky another time.

Any project applicants who wish private feedback on their application, eg. number of votes received, and how their vote total compared with that of other projects etc. are most welcome to email in for this information to Caroline.Lamond@edinburgh.gov.uk

Feedback and Evaluation

A short survey will be circulated in the next week or two to allow everybody to feed back any observations they may have about the £eith Chooses 2021 process. Please do respond!

There will also be an open ‘Feedback’ discussion session online on Tuesday 9 March, at 6pm, to review and discuss in more depth all/any aspects of the 2021 £eith Chooses process. All welcome, and all views and contributions will be listened to and taken on board for future events. Do join!

Who can vote?

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Am I allowed to vote in £eith Chooses?

  • Yes, if you  live, or work, or study (go to school or college), or volunteer regularly in Leith
  • And if you are 8 years old or over.

When you go to the voting site, you will be asked for your email address and your postcode, so have these ready.

If you live in Leith you should know your postcode, but if you work or study or volunteer in Leith you may need to check in advance and note the postcode of the building where you go for this.

What counts as Leith?

Anything within the black line on this map.

5 sleeps until voting opens!

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Please vote, next week! As Monty says, £eith Chooses needs YOU!

>>Press here to play video

>>Press here to play video

To plan who you mean to vote for, you can preview all the excellent projects here.