Green Leith Art was a six month project that started in April this year. The project aims to make communities feel more connected and less isolated, connect them with nature and boost their creativity. This was achieved through providing weekly art workshops as well as weekly walks in the green areas around Leith.

Forest Bound was a project working to engage Edinburgh-based ethnic minority groups with forest landscapes by using art-science approaches.

The project aims to create spaces where communities that face additional barriers to access nature/outdoor spaces can interact with forests.

We organised forest walks and a workshop session where we used visual arts to explore people’s connection to forests and begin conversations on how these overlap with key biological processes such as adaptation and resilience. Material from the activities was curated and will be displayed at a community group art exhibition in Edinburgh from the 14th to 18th of February, 2023.

Forest Bound is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) until February 2023 as part of the Growing Roots 2 call and is a partnership between the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council (ELREC), artist Tamsin Grainger, and Written in Film.

Opening-up the outdoors

Ethnic minority groups are underrepresented in green spaces and face additional barriers to access and gain the benefits of spending time in nature. Reasons for this include:

• Limited access in low income areas
• Cultural and/or language barriers
• Unease and feeling unwelcome 
• Lack of public imagery depicting ethnic minority groups in green spaces

Many public engagement approaches are designed based on the assumption that a deficit of information is the greatest barrier to engagement. This not only ignores the specific limitations different communities experience, but prioritises knowledge dissemination methods that are not targeted and can be ineffective to get people excited about environmental science research. Potentially more effective means of engagement are thus often unexplored and underfunded. 

Forest Bound trialed public engagement approaches based on the collaboration of visual arts and environmental science. The project facilitated spaces so communities underrepresented in the outdoors could engage with forest environments while bringing attention to their experiences and values. 

Responsible delivery

This project is based on the principle that participants, in the full diversity and intersectionality of their experiences (particularly those that restrict access to the outdoors, and by extension, the opportunity to connect with local environments) enrich all outcomes and provide a representative idea of people’s experiences and relationship to forests.

Liaison with communities and participants convened by ELREC was done through the respective group’s Link Officers, who also acted as translators where language barriers were a consideration. ELREC staff supported all activities and helped ensure everyone had equitable opportunities to access, engage and feedback on the project. Informed prior consent was obtained to capture any images, footage and audio related to the project.

ELREC Food Pantry

We are delighted to announce that our food donation has increased to around 60 boxes every week. We have completed our first year of running this project which has helped many families in the community.

However, we have run out of funding for this project, so we would be grateful if we could get some community support and continue our work in order to help those in need.

Every little helps and that’s why we need you!

Food poverty exists in our city, and we must all work together and meet the needs of all our communities.

To know more about our project please click here: https://gofund.me/d5e390e4

If you have any questions please email us at : admin@elrec.org.uk

Eurodesk at ELREC

ELREC is a UK partner organisation of Eurodesk.

Eurodesk is a free information service to help young people experience international opportunities.

Eurodesk is a recognised support structure under Erasmus+, the European funding programme for education, training, youth and sport, and we work closely with Erasmus+ National Agencies to provide current information and guidance on the programme as well as other opportunities.

Eurodesk in the UK is based at the Erasmus+ UK National Agency at Ecorys in Birmingham.

On the Eurodesk UK website You can find information for young people aged 13-30 on the different opportunities available and an insight into what it’s like to take part in European youth projects. For adults working with young people, there is support including resources, and information and training linked to youth work. We also support young people directly through the European Youth Portal which includes an ‘Ask a question’ service.

At ELREC, Mitra Rostami takes care of Eurodesk. You can get in touch with her via email mrostami@elrec.org.uk , by phone ( 0131 556 0441) or on social media @EurodeskELREC

Throughout the year, we run Eurodesk information stalls in various locations in Edinburgh. Please check out our Facebook page for updates.

If you are a young person, you can always pop into our office for a chat and find out about opportunities available to you and get support if you need for applications.

This project is created based on’’ Peer-based learning’’. It is also inspired by the success of a European funded project in Portugal, MOVIMENTO CONTRA O DISCURSO DE ÓDIO (Movement Against Hate Speech).

The projects main objective is to combat prejudice and hate. Expression of hate encompasses all forms of expression which propagate, incite, promote or justify any form of intolerance-based hatred.

We know that internet gives us the ability to create, publish, distribute and consume content thus providing a space for complete participation, commitment and free personal expression. With the development of social networks we can all participate in cyberspace in many different ways, from permanent contact with our friends and developing new contacts to sharing content and exploring our ability to express ourselves. This online space gives us new opportunities such as joining with others in causes we want to engage in and care about.

But we can also be victims and agents of human rights abuses and violations, including hate speech in various formats and cyberbullying. The online world nevertheless has values. Hate speech, as such, is not a new subject, but Its online dimension and the potential damage it can cause to relationships and communities gives us a reason to act!

Project Coordinator: Didem Kaner <Didem.Kaner@elrec.org.uk>