Reflecting on Shaping your future

The consultation

Shaping your future was a community consultation that aimed to capture as many different voices as possible on the route to unlocking positive change.

In 2017 our attention was drawn to the community of Craigentinny and surrounding areas of Lochend, Restalrig and Loganlea. This community boasts a thriving community centre, the first of its kind in Scotland, with a wide range of projects and activities. Supplementing this is the local primary school and nursery at the centre of the community, as well as a vibrant Community Council, engaging people in local decision making.

In addition to these assets however, it is important to note that the community faces considerable change and the challenges that accompany it, most notably poverty and social inequality. As a whole, the North East locality of Edinburgh has the largest number of adults without qualifications and the highest percentage of people with long-term health problems.

People Know How has worked to support North East locality communities since its foundation in 2013. Our mission is to empower individuals to be socially innovative in their communities by helping them transform their ideas into action. Shaping your future embodied this in pursuing the seemingly simple aim of listening to the community we wanted to support. By collecting residents’ ideas, People Know How simply acted as a channel through which they could make their voices heard, revealing ideas, strengths and assets crucial in empowering and strengthening their community.

Giving the community a voice

We began sharing some of the findings of Shaping your future in our exhibition and event series Trains of thought, which took place in Autumn 2017. We positioned our Shaping your future map in the centre of one of our exhibition rooms alongside a panoramic image of Craigentinny and a window that looked onto the community. In another room we displayed large portraits of Craigentinny residents, as well as a voice recording and memoir of one resident in particular in which she recounted her life, from her birth in 1933 to the present day. Many guests had never heard of Craigentinny, but left the exhibition with new knowledge and a new perspective.

Restoring green spaces

Later that year, Shaping your future prompted action to restore Craigentinny’s local children’s play area, Loganlea Park. Despite being located near Craigentinny Primary School, the playpark was left unused and abandoned after dangerous antisocial behaviour in 2017.

Having identified the park through Shaping your future and worked with local schools through the Positive Transitions Service, People Know How took part in a number of Community Clean-ups to restore the area, leading to locals creating a Community Gardening Project, which has now become a focal point for events with the local primary school, and recently won a Level 1 ‘Know Your Neighbourhood’ award from ‘Keep Scotland Beautiful’.

Improving health

By speaking directly to individuals within the community, Shaping your future revealed that up to 40% of local residents live alone and often face social isolation. These findings prompted the local council to issue a grant to pilot Reconnect. Funding such as this has allowed us to review and relaunch the project, now offering a much larger, multi-faceted service comprising of a number of projects to support adults across Edinburgh. One of these projects is Walking Befriending, which matches adults in need of support with a walking befriender who shares similar interests. Through regular walks, adults can improve confidence, decrease social isolation, and benefit from some gentle exercise.

Establishing a community hub

The current Community Centre sits next to another building, which has lain vacant for almost a decade after the council relocated their Social Work offices to Craigmillar. Much of the available space running underneath the building is without natural light and air flow, and these rooms can only be accessed by a narrow staircase, making the space completely inaccessible for those with mobility issues.

A group of passionate locals are taking action to restore the dilapidated building and develop a new Community Hub for the fantastic projects taking place in Craigentinny. Running regular meetings at the existing Community Centre, the group have formed an official committee and are in the process of applying for charity status. With the help of local residents, Craigentinny Committee wish to apply for a Community Asset Transfer, which will allow them to bring the building back into community, from the council, and set it up as the Community Hub. This will give them the authority to raise funds and restore the building to welcome individuals, groups and activities on a daily basis.

Moving forward

Shaping your future is being moved into our project archive as our consultation comes to an end, but the work is just beginning. We’ve already begun to share our learning and turn our findings into action that will benefit the community, all directly founded on the ideas of local residents.

Thanks to Santander Foundation, the Hunter Foundation and the University of Edinburgh - community grant scheme for supporting the consultation along with support from numerous volunteers, interns and placement students; with special thanks to social work students from the University of Edinburgh and occupational therapy students from Queen Margaret University.