Thanks to everyone who responded to our Community Research survey, created by a group of volunteers in partnership with Bridgend Farmhouse and the Scottish Community Development Centre.
We had over 300 responses and will use this to help plan and inform our activities and events next year, so we are now planning the next step. Once the survey's findings have been completed, we are looking for people to discuss these findings and propose the next steps in response to our community. For example, if it turns out people are looking for more mental health services a group would discuss how this would look and what would be most effective for people - is it more social events, more counselling services, more specific activities etc. We are looking to start these sessions in the new year. If you may like to be involved in these discussions, and want to find out more, please contact community@bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk
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We are doing an advent of Christmas Activities…
Christmas themes are taking over our some of our zooms and there will be additional outdoor and zoom events on the calendar; keep your eyes open… Monday 14th - Chef Stefano Sanna will be showing us to make a Christmas cheesecake pudding from Bridgend’s kitchen. You’ll find his video on this link from Monday https://vimeo.com/488576143/09dbb7c7d7 Tuesday 15th – Will you go for the food or the culture? International Dinner: Our Sardinian chef Stefano Sanna will be cooking an international Christmas Dinner for diners in our café, 4-~5pm. Booking is essential to allow us to maintain covid precautions. Email admin@bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk or call/text 07706674108 to book. Winter Ceilidh: 5pm -6.30pm cosy in at home with some mince pies for an evening of listening to, and sharing songs, poems and stories with old and new friends. Please email Darla via bridgendsinging@gmail.com in advance if you would like the link for this zoom event, and especially if you wish to contribute a turn! Wednesday 16 - Turning Point are taking over our outdoor space for Christmas wreath making with Craigmillar Community Grows and Edinburgh & Lothians’ Greenspace Trust. Please note this is a closed group Thursday 17th – Christmas wreath making with BF/Craigmillar Community Grows /Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust. Make your own eco decoration! Meet at 11.30am at Bridgend Farmhouse for a short walk to collect some natural materials before making – finish at 1.30pm.Spaces are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment! Go to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bridgend-farmhousecommunity-growselgt-christmas-wreath-making-tickets-132056016099 - tickets by donation. Friday 18th – Christmas online bingo! Runs on Zoom from 7-9pm.Jean from ‘Chinwags’ will be our host. Eyes down, dabbers at the ready! Please email community@bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk if you would like a card and the link sent to you. With 2 big prizes to be won! We can only take bookings up until the 15th December to give time to send out the cards. Saturday 19th – Bridgend Farmhouse Festive Family Activities 10am – 12noonLive at the farmhouse - make your own eco-friendly wooden Christmas decorations and festive wreath. Suitable for ages 5+ Booking essential via https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bridgend-farmhouse-christmas-eco-make-aged-5-12-tickets-131506428267 , as numbers are limited- just 1 space left. Tickets are by donation, and all participating require one. We have our usual weekly zoom sessions: * Tuesday: 5.00 – 6.00 pm: Singing Workshop with Darla. [This week in the form of the ceilidh] * Wednesday: 2.00 - 3.30pm: Arts and Crafts workshop with Gill C. Suitable for all ages and levels of experience. * Thursday: 6.30 - 8.00pm: The Craft Collective workshop with Gill C. Art experience not necessary. For login details and to sign up for any of the above zoom sessions, please email community@bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk Also coming up if you want to book: Monday 21st - Our Christmas Surplus Dinner from 4-~5pm at the Farmhouse. Donna McArdle will be back creating a Christmas Dinner from donated foodstuffs. Booking is essential via admin@bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk or a call or text to 07706674108 Ongoing: For kids - Our Fairy Doors are still hidden around Craigmillar Castle Park, for those little ones who like to go fairy hunting! Find the map here- https://www.bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk/craigmillar-castle-park-map.html For anyone who is taking part in our activities - have fun! We are delighted to welcome Dominika Jackowska as the artist appointed to work with Bridgend Farmhouse to document our story of community land ownership, commissioned by Community Land Scotland. If anyone would like to share their stories or get involved in this project, please get in touch via doska.animation@gmail.com Urban Journeys aims to dig down into these individual stories of ownership both for Bridgend Farmhouse and our members and communities and also for others who are inspired to learn more about the impact community ownership can have for our local places. These stories aim to inspire and be a resource for other groups and communities in exploring the possibilities of ownership for themselves. Dominika will be working with us from now until the end of February, and we hope to project the final animation to the community on the Farmhouse in March.. Dominika is an Edinburgh based freelance animator born in Poland. She says “I'm interested in the exploration and experimentation of the use of mixed media in work and animation. I like to explore different ways in which animation can be seen, such as nature, outdoor spaces, and urban places. My most recent work consists of interactive, fun, and playful installations combining sound, drawing, and animation, and projections. For this project in partnership with Community Land Scotland and Bridgend Farmhouse I will create a short animated film that will be projected on the Farmhouse and shared with the Bridgend Farmhouse community. I would like to get the local people involved and work with them to explore the connection with the land and what it means to be a part of this community. I would like to hear the stories, collect photos, drawings that can be used in the film.” Website: www.dominikajackowska.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/doska.animation Vimeo: www.vimeo.com/doska
Cost is £5 per kit which you can pay here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bridgend-sewing-at-home-tickets-125316445863 then email us at community@bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk with your eventbrite receipt and address and we can post your kit out to you. What does community ownership of Bridgend Farmhouse mean to you?
We are looking for anyone who would be up for chatting about their thoughts and feelings on community ownership at Bridgend Farmhouse. We would like to share a diversity of stories across the last 11 years of the journey, and ideas and visions for the future. You would be chatting with two artists who have been commissioned to document the story of radical community land ownership in Scotland. There is more information below, if you are interested please let us know via admin@bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk Background: Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant are photographers and filmmakers. They have been selected to lead the Stories of Radical Landownership project which has been commissioned by The Stove (a community-led space in Dumfries) and Community Land Scotland. For this project, Saskia and Colin are working with four Community Trusts across Scotland, Bridgend Farmhouse being one. They would like to create short films and photographs that help tell the story of radical land ownership from those who have been directly affected by land ownership projects. For this, they would like to collaborate with members of the Farmhouse to identify stories that capture the history of our organisation but also want to discover the aspirations of the members are what they see our future to be. They would like to work with a wide range of groups or individuals that would be interested in telling stories and also participating in making the film and taking photos with them. They see this happening through several day visits to all four of the projects during the autumn months where they can work with different members on this project and through online conversations. There are 7 wonderful Scottish groups looking for your vote in this year's Epic Award shortlist, including us for our eco-bothy build project To look at all the finalists in the running for this award and choose who you would like to be the winner go to https://www.voluntaryarts.org/epic-awards-peoples-choice-voting Voting closes on Sunday 20 September The Epic Awards were set up in 2010 by Voluntary Arts, an organisation that works across the UK and Republic of Ireland to promote participation in creative cultural activities. They celebrate the achievement of voluntary arts groups across the UK and Republic of Ireland, by recognising the skill, innovation and hard work that goes into their activities. The Epic Awards are not the only recognition that Bridgend has received recently. We have also been shortlisted for awards from these bodies: Scottish Design Awards - shortlisted in the Architecture- Regeneration category Scottish Civic Trust- shortlisted in the My Place Awards And two shortlistings in the Edinburgh Architectural Association awards - Large Project Award and the Wood Award Read more about these here Go here to vote: https://www.voluntaryarts.org/epic-awards-peoples-choice-voting
Voting closes on Sunday 20 September The full article as published in their current newsletter is shown in full below. Volunteering Matters Action Earth grants are currently available, and any group of volunteers can apply, for more information see the details at the end of this article.
Following an asset transfer in 2016 from the City of Edinburgh Council for the price of £1, Bridgend Farmhouse is owned and run by its community of 406 members. The facilities consist of a training kitchen and café, indoor and outdoor events space, office space, and four new-build workshops for woodworking, arts and crafts, bike maintenance and hire, an ‘outdoor’ classroom and an almost completed eco-bothy and mindfulness garden with children’s play space. Bridgend Farmhouse works to address social inequalities, to reduce isolation and loneliness, to strengthen community involvement, to build local resilience and to contribute to local health, learning and green-space strategies. It’s a place where people come to carry out creative, practical, and physical activity and to develop and share skills, friendship and knowledge with others, and to enjoy what one volunteer has described as ‘a joyful nurturing environment.’ We are a democratic learning community, with five sub-groups and a Volunteer Forum that all usually (things have been a bit different during lockdown!) meet monthly to direct and support the decisions and the activities of the organisation. Fundamental to Bridgend Farmhouse is the opportunity for local people of all walks of life, regardless of personal circumstances, to come together to transform this community-owned land, grow food, and create a more diverse environment and habitat. Within three days of getting access to the land in 2015, we started a weekly outdoor activity session. These continued every week since (except Christmas) until the start of lockdown. We are now developing ways to resume our Sunday sessions in a safe and welcoming atmosphere, so people will be able to safely return to gardening and outdoor work on site together again. We have run virtual and online activities, including in the local environment, throughout lockdown. As we transition out of lockdown, we are adjusting and developing our work to ensure members of our local communities have the opportunity to reduce the isolation experienced in the last few months If you are interested in applying for an Action Earth grant for a volunteer group you are involved in you can find their application form here
If you would like to discuss ideas beforehand, please contact: robert.henderson@volunteeringmatters.org.uk It is with mixed feelings that we announce that the Bridgend Farmhouse COVID-19 FOOD RESILIENCE RESPONSE PROJECT will be coming to an end on 31 July 2020.
This project was setup in record time as a humanitarian emergency operation with the objective of supporting the most vulnerable members of our local community (EH16 and EH17). The situation has now changed:
For these reasons, we will be referring all our remaining clients to the food program setup by Empty Kitchens Full Hearts. This will allow Bridgend Farmhouse to concentrate in the support our community needs beyond the crisis. If because of COVID-19 you find yourself in need of support or know of someone who does, please don’t hesitate to contact Empty Kitchens Full Hearts at emptykitchens@hotmail.com or call: 07895347157 Since the start of this operation, a team of over 80 volunteers have prepared, packaged and delivered over 75,000 meals to members of our local community who, for one reason or another, have found themselves in need of help. Being in a situation where you need help is something that can happen to anyone of us at any point in life. For the members of the COVID-19 FOOD RESILIENCE RESPONSE PROJECT, it has been a civic duty and an absolute honour to be in a situation to be able to join this worldwide effort, supporting our local community. If you have any questions or queries about Bridgend Farmhouse services, please do not hesitate to contact us on community@bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk Please keep an eye on our website and social media for updates to our services as we transition out of lockdown. You can sign up to our newsletter here. Eric Fernandez-Baca COVID-19 Food Resilience Response Project Manager There are now nearly 450 community land owners in Scotland (in December 2018 there were 593 assets in community ownership, owned by 429 community groups and with a total area of 209,810 hectares, 2.7% of the total land area of Scotland). These community groups own and run assets in urban and rural areas, across Scotland and even whole islands.
However, according to Community Land Scotland, the membership body which represents Scotland's community land owners, "Half of the country’s privately owned land is held by just 432 owners and a mere 16 owners hold 10% of Scotland." Here at Bridgend Farmhouse, we believe that a more socially just society has land in the ownership of the many, not the few, and we support groups who seek to place that ownership among more of Scotland’s people. Earlier this year, Bridgend Farmhouse was chosen by Community Land Scotland as one of four groups to apply for funding to develop a creative project called 'The Ballad of Bridgend' to document the story of community land ownership at Bridgend. Unfortuantely, Creative Scotland turned down the proposal. However in the meantime, Community Land Scotland has received funding for three artists in residence to work with community land owners across Scotland to develop creative pieces about community land ownership. Incredibly, we were shortlisted! We were informed recently that after much discussion, two groups were chosen to have one artist each (Abriachan Forest Trust and Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn), and four were chosen to have one artist work with all four of those groups to specifically document the story of 'radical community land ownership' collectively. These groups are the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust; North Harris Trust; South West Mull and Iona Development; and Bridgend Farmhouse. It's very exciting to have been selected from all those hundreds of community land owners, and to be sharing our story alongside such well established and well known groups. Community Land Scotland and The Stove are now curating a process to select the community artists who work with these groups. There is more information here: https://thestove.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Brief_Stories-of-Radical-Landownership.pdf For applications, CLS and The Stove have put a weighted preference on artists that can demonstrate a strong connection and local understanding of the community landowner relative to the commission they apply for. The deadline for applications is 12 noon Monday 3 August. If you are a community artist and know Bridgend Farmhouse, you are welcome to apply on your own or as a collective. Any enquiries regarding the application process should be directed to The Stove - katharine@thestove.org. Caitlin Mulgrew and Jo Sharp lead fun performing arts sessions online using music, dance and drama activities. Ideal for ages 6 - 9 years via zoom, all that's needed is space to be able to move, internet access and a device participants can clearly see the leaders on.
Sessions will run on Tuesdays 21 July, 28 July and 4 August from 1.30 – 2.30 pm. We'll send out permission forms and the on-line log in details once you've signed up by emailing dawn@lyra.co.uk. Any questions or additional access needs, please email dawn@lyra.co.uk Lyra www.lyra.co.uk is a children's theatre charity based at Artspace in Craigmillar, connecting professional artists with children and young people to create new work collaboratively. Lyra is pleased to offer these sessions in partnership with Bridgend Farmhouse. As we emerge out of the restrictions of the COVID-19 lockdown, it can seem confusing to know what is, and isn’t permitted. Please keep an eye on the Scottish Government website for the current guidelines.
Some people are desperate to get back to their old routines, others are more cautious about emerging from lockdown. Many people will be keen to meet friends and family, others will not be able to yet. Everyone will take their own route and their own pace out of lockdown. In a recent poll on our Facebook group many people indicated that their mental health had been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. If the easing of lockdown is worrying for you or causes anxiety, there are many organisations offering excellent support. We are posting information about some of them on our group. If you need that support and are not on Facebook, please contact Scottish Mental Health Alliance (tel: 0344 800 0550) or your own GP. Over the summer, Bridgend Farmhouse is offering a number of activities to help keep our community motivated, busy and a little less isolated or fed up. These include creative, musical, active, cookery, and environmental activities to get involved in. Keep an eye on our website and social media for more information. We were really pleased to receive Investing in Communities funding for two years to develop engagement with our local community in EH16 and EH17 and we were just getting a plan together when Covid-19 struck. However, rather than letting lockdown get us down, we responded like many community organisations with an adapted approach.
It didn’t take long to recruit a team of community researchers via social media and we now have a core team of 8 researchers all of whom are resident in our EH16/17 community. Having researchers who live in the area of research is fundamental to participative community action research and what gives it that added value. The researchers are in the heart of the community; they have a unique knowledge of how their community looks and feels, an idea of the demographic make-up and the kind of groups who meet as well as where they meet. They already have connections and trust and can engage with people and groups most effectively. We are fortunate enough to be working with the Scottish Community Development Centre who offered to try out community action research training using on-line methods. None of us had done this before and it has been a further example of community effort - supporting each other to learn and adapt as each member brings a different and important skillset. We have been in training for the last 2 months and have now prepared an on-line survey which we plan to distribute hopefully with help from the wider volunteer team and local organisations in the community. We will also have paper versions of the survey for those who may prefer this method or who don’t have access to IT. Our objectives are to:
Once lockdown has eased further and we are able to engage in more face to face activity again, we plan to run a series of focus groups around the community to extend our research and build a more in-depth knowledge of and relationship with our community. We would be most grateful for any help in distributing the survey either on-line or as hard copies in order to reach as many people in EH16/17 as possible. We will have the survey ready to distribute around the end of July. If you can help with distribution and/or if you would like more information email community@bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk Now that lockdown is easing a bit, we wanted to take the opportunity to restart our volunteer forum. We had a huge volunteer effort during lockdown with the Covid food delivery service and we now have an even bigger team of volunteers.
As a result we would like to get a new look volunteer forum up and running to take account of your views and most importantly to give you a space to share ideas and take ownership of what volunteering is for you at Bridgend Farmhouse. This is a great opportunity to be involved in shaping the future and long-term we would like the volunteer forum to be run by volunteers. The 1st meeting will be on Sunday 5th July 3-4pm. In line with Scottish government guidance, the first meeting will need to be on-line and our Community Engagement and Skills Development workers will facilitate the meeting. Please let us know if you can attend by emailing wingyee.li@bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk and we will give you the log in details. Please also email if you are unable to attend but are interested in future meetings or would like to give a comment or idea for the group discussion. We look forward to hearing from you. Connecting with nature through walking - listening - looking - creating
Please join us for 6 weeks of Eco sound walk sessions taking place at Bridgend Farmhouse **Limited spaces**max 8 participants** In response to Covid-19 the eco art walkshops have adapted and moved online! Every Monday participants will receive audio sound guides to listen to while walking with nature in their locality; this can take place within Craigmillar Castle Park or a space of your choosing. The audio guides will encourage and prompt you to explore and deepen your relationship with nature as well as new ways of walking and being in your locality. Every week we will work with a new theme; tuning into the landscape as well as seasonal shifts. Participants will have the chance to experiment with varied creative disciplines including drawing, text, land art and photography inspiring site specific responses. Every week the group will meet via zoom to share, reflect and discuss individual responses as well as receiving the following week’s audio guides. To take part participants must have a phone device, headphones and sketching materials including paper, pencils and coloured pencils/ chalk or crayon. Please contact artnaturecommunity@outlook.com to secure your place Following on from our Commendation in the RIBA MacEwan Awards 2019 for 'Architecture for the Common Good'
We would like to highlight three other awards we have been short-listed for in 2020 to celebrate the Bridgend Farmhouse renovation and the unique community-led involvement in it's design, and renovation process. We are one of six shortlisted for this year’s Scottish Civic Trust My Place Award 2020 the winner is currently scheduled to be announced in September and displayed in an exhibition in Glasgow. The My Place Awards celebrate community-led built environment initiatives that have transformed their locality and looking at all six wonderful projects perhaps we should all share it. We are also one of the four finalists in two different categories in this year's Edinburgh Architectural Association; in the large-project category and in the Wood Award which recognises projects using wood in innovative ways. So, we may have a double chance of winning the EAA Building of the Year 2020! Details of our restoration project are available on our wikipedia page, Also, an interview with Lead Architect Malcolm Fraser on the renovation is available here Designed: Malcolm Fraser Architects; Delivered: Halliday Fraser Munro Architects; Entered; Fraser/Livingstone Architects |
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