A New Home

We’ve moved!  No, not the community centre – the blog.  You can now find us at www.heartofscotstoun.org

Although it’s been quiet on the blog front lately, a LOT of things have been happening, and we’re looking forward to getting loads of news and information up on the new site very soon, and often!

Notice, too, our fantastic new logo.  AND that we are now officially Heart of Scotstoun, not Heart for Scotstoun.  It made sense with the imminent(ish) completion of our community centre that we change from an aspiration to an entity.

See you at our new home!

Training tomorrow night – mystery guest trainers!

A reminder that there’s a training session tomorrow night at 6:30pm in 1563 Dumbarton Road.  Loads of exciting stuff, and mystery trainers!

Mystery Trainers

Gie’s Your Tokens!

Swanky supermarket Waitrose opened up at the top of Byres Road a wee while ago, and we heard about a scheme they run called Community Matters.  Every month they pick three local causes to support with a donation of £1000 – the proportion of that donation given to each cause is determined by their customers who vote for their favourite using a wee green token handed out with each purchase at the till.

So this month they chose us!  We have until the end of March to fill up our box – so what better excuse to go and buy some luxury foodstuffs?

I went last night, bought my dinner, and made my vote – we’re doing pretty well!  We are neck and neck with The Phoenix Scotland Trust, but the Volunteer Tutor Organisation seems to be building up the healthiest stack of chips.

Regardless of the split, I am sure Heston Blumenthal and Delia Smith will now be happy to waive their fee when they appear at the opening of our community cafe.

Meeting Tuesday 23rd March

No rest for the community – a reminder that we are meeting on Tuesday the 23rd at 7pm, in 1563 Dumbarton Road.  After the triumphant event, it’s straight into the next challenge.  With the construction phase beginning,  there are some big changes on the horizon and we need to be ready!  Governance is the key issue, so sharpen your pencils and we’ll see you there.

Press Release – “Community At Work”

• Community buy land and build their own centre
• Scotswomen of the year back community management
• Cutting the Turf event 13th March 2-4 pm

After 12 years of campaigning a Glasgow community has finally cut the turf to start building its own community centre. With the land under community ownership, the Heart for Scotstoun group of volunteers hosted a fun-packed public event onsite in Balmoral Street on Saturday 13th March to mark the start of the build. Over 600 local people attended to mark the occasion.

The true community ownership approach, very rare in an urban setting, is backed all the way by Scotswomen of the Year, Jean Donnachie and Noreen Real. Jean and Noreen were honoured with the title Scotswomen of the Year for organising lookouts and warnings of dawn immigration raids at the Kingway high-rise flats in Scotstoun. While they insisted they were only being good neighbours, their planned campaign took on the Home Office and stopped dawn raids on the asylum seeking population around them. Their community spirit prompted Ken Loach’s company Sixteen Films to produce the film Kingsway.

“It really is quite a rare thing to see this sort of community buy out in an urban area,” said Jean. “The Heart for Scotstoun group have pushed for this community place for so long now that the start of the build is going to be a real cause for celebration in the area. I really hope the event enthuses even more people in our community to come on board and get active in managing the centre.”

The community spirit required to get the project this far is widely recognised and the event was attended by John Robertson MP, Pauline McNeill MSP and Councillors Jean McFadden and Graeme Hendry. However, the main honours on the day went to local people.

Local Councillor Jean McFadden said, “There is community spirit in Scotstoun but this is a community which has had to do without a centre in which to meet for a very long time now. Heart for Scotstoun are taking forward the wishes of the community by buying this land and building this centre and I know it will go from strength to strength,”

Local talent Scotstoun Strings, Dance with Attitude and the Glasgow Gospel Choir entertained the crowd. Along with Glasgow Capoeira, Doctor Bike and Youth Group participation it really was a taste of the future for Scotstoun.

John Robertson MP commented, “”It is wonderful to hear that Scotstoun finally has a firm commitment and work commencing on the Balmoral Street site for the new Community Centre. Scotstoun has always been a very integrated community – it is now also very diverse. I look forward to working with; and for; and indeed in, the new Community Centre as this will provide the focal point for the whole community of Scotstoun. The members of Heart for Scotstoun and Councillor Jean McFadden and her colleagues in the City Council should be congratulated for their hard work and tenacity in advancing this project to this stage.”

ENDS

Notes for editors

All photos attached to be credited to Heart for Scotstoun
Photo with digger left to right – Councillor Graeme Hendry, Pauline McNeill MSP, Bailie Jean McFadden, Jean Donnachie, Noreen Real and John Robertson MP.

Images of the planned centre and Heart for Scotstoun group on site are available from hfs@dumbartonroad.com

For further information on Heart for Scotstoun or the new centre visit www.heartforscotstoun.wordpress.com or email hfs@dumbartonroad.com

And the Turf was Cut

We’re still a bit breathless after the exertions of Saturday afternoon, but feeling good nonetheless… we’ve just had a quick debriefing, and a proper event report will follow, but everything seemed to go fantastically well and the final count was OVER 600 PEOPLE IN ATTENDANCE!  Thanks for coming!   I’ve just got the photos in from Tam, our resident photographer – thanks very much.  Here’s one or two quickly plucked out, and the full set will shortly be available on Flickr – they are uploading now.  Not enough?  There’s even more on our Facebook page.  If you have any more, send them in and we’ll add them to the collection.

Thanks for coming!

It was a great day, so thanks to everyone who helped make it happen!  Lots more stories, photos and information to come.  Stay tuned.  I didn’t manage to take a single photo all day, but loads of people did – here’s the first few sent in of getting the site set up in the morning:

Photos coming soon!

Spring Cleaning – Event Tomorrow!

A merry band of volunteers turned out this afternoon to do a bit of spring cleaning before tomorrow’s big event.  We made short work of collecting loads of litter from the cycle track embankment thanks to the efforts of our resident litter picking mountain goats.  Really exciting to do the first really positive activity on the site, by the community.  Roll on tomorrow!

Come down to Balmoral Street between 2pm and 4pm for food, music, dancing, bouncing, climbing, cycling, treasure hunting, rickshaw riding and general good (clean) fun.

Cut the Turf!

Ok, it’s actually more like “break the concrete”, but our event is happening on the 13th March – come and join the fun…

Come to our event on saturday 13th march from 2-4 pm

Come to our Cutting the Turf event!

Yes, it’s actually happening.   Building’s going to be starting soon so we’re having a celebration between 2 and 4 pm on Saturday 13th March.  We want to see everyone there, Scotstoun people own this site and the building that’s going to be on it so come and inspect what’s yours.  And if you’re not from Scotstoun we want you to celebrate with us too.  As well as the actual ceremony, there will be food and entertainment – lots of treats in store.  If you’d like to contribute anything on the day let us know.  See you there!