E-Newsletter February 2021

The 2020/21 South East Community Grants Fund is open for applications until Monday 15^th February 2021.  The Community Grants Fund (CGF) is a small grants scheme provided by the City of Edinburgh Council.  Small grants of up to £5,000 are available to constituted groups for local community activity.  If you have any questions, would like to discuss you application or require some support please contact the relevant Lifelong Learning and Development Officer:

Southside Newington: Scott Wilkins Scott.1.Wilkins@ea.edin.sch.uk or Lucy Reddish Lucy.Reddish@ea.edin.sch.uk

Morningside: David Hewitt David.Hewitt@ea.edin.sch.uk or Hannah Bradley Hannah.1.Bradley@ea.edin.sch.uk

City Centre: Morag Grant Morag.1.Grant@ea.edin.sch.uk or Jade Mooney jade.mooney@edinburgh.gov.uk

Liberton Gilmerton: Charise Barclay Charise.Barclay@ea.edin.sch.uk or Tom Scott Tom.1.Scott@ea.edin.sch.uk

Annual Report 2019 2020

Edinburgh Tenants Federation’s (ETF’s) first online Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Friday 27th November 2020 has been deemed a success. Attendees were able to hear first-hand about all the innovative work that ETF has carried out throughout the year and we welcomed both familiar and new faces to the meeting. Some of the highlights included:

• The City of Edinburgh Council’s (CEC’s) Chief Executive Andrew Kerr gave an update on the work the Council has carried out throughout the year. This was followed by a question and answer session;
• Three new members were elected to serve on the Federation’s Executive Committee (EC);
• Proposed amendments to ETF’s constitution were unanimously voted through;
• A presentation of ETF’s Annual Report using virtual effects;
• Finishing up with a light-hearted quiz, which everyone enjoyed.

ETF’s Convenor Betty Stone commented, “I would like to thank everyone who attended our first hugely successful online AGM. I give my thanks to Andrew Kerr for attending and updating us on what CEC has been doing during this terrible time. I want to thank our EC and all the staff for their great work throughout the year. We seem to be doing more work than ever so a huge thank you to everyone who has helped make this a successful year despite the difficult circumstances.”

You can find out more about the work of ETF by clicking here.

In a guest blog for the Edinburgh Poverty Commission, Professor Glen Bramley from the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research at Heriot-Watt University, writes that there is no pathway to ending poverty in Edinburgh without resolving the city’s housing and homelessness crisis.

You can read Glen’s blog by clicking here.

Are you passionate about social housing and would like to see more being built in Scotland? Nearly 15,000 people have signed Shelter Scotland’s petition calling for more social housing. Build Scotland’s Future aims to get all the major political parties standing at next year’s Scottish Parliament elections to commit to building 37,100 social homes.

You can sign a copy of the petition by clicking here. You can also sign in one of the seven Shelter shops in Edinburgh. These are situated in Corstorphine, Morningside, Dalry, Stockbridge, Nicholson Street, Tollcross and Forrest Road. To find out more, please get in touch with Susie Rose by emailing Susie_Rose@shelter.org.uk or phone 0344 515 2442