Category: community

It has been a challenging experience taking up a new job just as we all entered into COVID lockdown. The vast majority of my time since May has involved me working from my home across the river Forth in Alloa. This has often left me feeling detached from the community that I am very keen to get to know and it has been similarly frustrating that I have not been able to meet and engage with the groups and organisations that will shape and progress the local community safety strategy.   Zoom is no substitute for meeting people in the real world and I have also missed just being about Camelon and Tamfourhill and experiencing the daily life of these communities.  The last week then has been a tremendous experience for myself as I have been able to directly support community activities and familiarise myself with the streets and byways of the local area. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to share all the positive experiences I have had in the last week and the amazing people I have met who are all committed to making a real difference to the local area and contributing   to making Camelon and Tamfourhill a happier and safer place to live and work.

Last Wednesday afternoon I met the P6 & P7 pupils from Carmuirs Primary School who have been learning about the negative consequences to the environment and to the community of dropping litter and dumping rubbish. This activity was not about clearing up other people’s mess, this was a learning experience which had a focus upon carrying out litter surveys and promoting techniques which will encourage behaviour change. This Project will continue over the next few months and the pupils will be monitoring the impacts of being part of a community and environmental clear up and behaviour change Project. The pupils spent the morning watching a presentation about litter and its damage to our environment and they were also involved with discussions about the reasons that litter is often dropped and what we as a community can do to improve that situation. An important aspect of this Project is to encourage behaviour change and to discourage people from dropping their litter in the first place. In order to achieve this new anti-litter signs, posters and stickers will be appearing in the streets around Carmuirs Primary School, so I am extremely happy to announce that the winner of the Keep Scotland Beautiful poster competition was Jaimee, so thanks to everyone who took the time to vote in the recent social medial poll.  After the different teams had completed their litter surveys, we finished the afternoon off by all having a hot drink prepared with the Kelly Kettles whilst we also had a chat around the fire about the importance of conservation. I would like to thank Ella from Waste Services at Falkirk Council, Carolyn from TCV Scotland and Ms Boyd and Mr Bell from Carmuirs Primary School, it was great for me to be out in the community meeting these young people and their positivity and enthusiasm were outstanding, here are some of their written comments  when they took part in an evaluation of the days programme:   “ I  learnt how to start a fire safely and I enjoyed the hot chocolate drink , and I also enjoyed writing the survey”, “I liked how everybody worked together, I also enjoyed the hot chocolate but I didn’t like how much rubbish that we found “I liked doing the survey and I loved helping our community” “Meeting new people and the hot chocolate”, these are just a few of the comments but overall the survey was definitely enjoyed  especially when  everyone got a cup of hot chocolate .

The next day I was out again but this time with some local adult volunteers and we carried out another survey along a measured transect on Brown Street. I will publish the results of all of these #tidycleangreen litter surveys in the new year as they reveal certain patterns, and they will be useful for developing our campaigning work that will follow on from these initial surveys and data gathering sessions. I would therefore like to thank Babs and Chris for giving up their Thursday morning to show me about the local area and carrying out the litter survey around Brown Street and its environs. I know they carry out regular litter picks, but I very much appreciate their contribution to our ongoing local campaign.   

Over the weekend I was privileged to be involved with supporting the Camelon Winter Festival and the Big Screen Project in particular. Over Saturday and Sunday, I must have covered 15- 20 miles on foot supporting the Camelon Arts Project with their amazing touring film and Christmas entertainment. This was a marvel to behold and although the entire film was amazing, I personally really appreciated and enjoyed the Freedom of Mind Choir and Brian MacGregor and Geraldine Heaney’s: “A Fanfare of Giants” an emotive piece of art. This was a totally amazing production of creativity and what an incredible input from the volunteers on both days. The rains came big style on Sunday, yet the volunteers and the Camelon arts staff just kept going with good humour and total commitment. I enjoyed this tour of the area and I met some very interesting people and I would like to highlight the volunteers: Craig the cyclist, Ian, Stuart, Kevin, Kenneth and Lorraine and supported by Maria from the Cyrenians, Mark, Mina and Kevin from Camelon Arts, and our own Dan the supper efficient tea boy at CJFC, what a team “you will never walk alone”, and off course also a big thanks to Charlie who provided warmth and shelter in our time of need. Finally, the other strand of the Winter Festival was the visit of Santa in his horse drawn carriage and accompanied by his hard-working elves. I only passed the carriage on a couple of occasions but the children on the street that I saw were totally amazed, excited and overjoyed when the carriage toured around their street.  The Winter Festival Committee produced an amazing weekend despite the challenges of COVID, the amount of work that must have gone into this is massive and I would like to acknowledge and thank: Anne, Babs, Chris, Mary and Liz and my apologies to anyone I have missed because this was such a fabulous team effort that produced such an amazing festive experience for the community.

Announcement Number (1): Please cast your vote for your favourite Poster in this competition, where the pupils form Primary 6 and 7 have been designing posters for the #tidycleangreen campaign, as well as learning about the community and environmental problems created by dropping litter and causing fly-tipping.  I will announce the winner next week and you will be able to see that design locally as it will be getting manufactured into signage and other anti-littering publicity materials.

To cast your vote follow this link: https://fb.watch/2e71dTiY3N/

Announcement Number (2): The results of the question of the month for November was:

So, there you have it, change is in the air and the potential to develop a local school streets scheme would be a positive move and also one which would attract local support.

What are School Streets is a reasonable question to ask?

A School Street is a road outside a school with a temporary restriction on motorised traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times. The restriction applies to school traffic and through traffic. The result is a safer, healthier, and pleasant environment for everyone.

School Street schemes offer a proactive solution for school communities to tackle air pollution, poor health, and road danger reduction. A School Street scheme will encourage a healthier lifestyle and active travel to school for families and lead to a better environment for everyone. I have had some discussions with Easter Carmuirs Parent Council Traffic Group about how this could operate, and I have also had the issue highlighted with me form other local schools. My intention is to support this idea and see if it is a feasible and workable solution to our local traffic problems around the schools.  

Announcement Number (3) Christmas is approaching with great haste and although it will be different this year there is still some festive cheer coming to the streets of Camelon and Tamfourhill next weekend the 12^th and 13^th December. The Camelon Winter Festival is still happening despite the current COVID-19 health problems. I would like to acknowledge the extremely hard work, resilience, and creativity of both our Winter Festival Committee and Camelon Arts who in such challenging times have still been able to bring these joyous activities to the community.   Firstly, we have Santa who will be touring the streets of Camelon in a horse drawn carriage with his elves on foot. They will be delivering pre-booked presents to local families, over the two days. This happening is designed to be viewed from indoors and presents will be placed in front gardens and on doorsteps by the elves who will be wearing their very own yield tide masks and gloves. Secondly a travelling video screen will be touring the streets of Camelon and Tamfourhill, featuring the big voice of local singer Dionne Hickey, festive messages, and three inspiring videos made with local creative residents, part of an ongoing Camelon Arts project: Camelon’s Got Talent. The screen will drive slowly round each area and be accompanied by stewards to make sure that everybody is kept safe and well.

I would like to remind everyone that strict physical distancing will be required and that all COVID regulations must be followed and that any unlawful gathering of crowds outdoors will necessitate the involvement of the Police, so please stay safe and enjoy the wonder of the Camelon Winter Festival.  

Social media, just how social is it? and how is it changing our lives and that of the communities? It is quite difficult to get a balanced view about the pros and cons, the benefits and the drawbacks, the uses, and abuses. It is an issue that is particularly relevant to community safety and I am hoping that I will be able to identify some of the main issues that affect young people through the recently launched youth survey. There is however so much misinformation out there and anybody can become confused and stressed by opinions and attitudes which we find difficult to evaluate or identify fact from fiction. The clear positives are the communications and the connectedness that the likes of Facebook and twitter can provide for us, social media for example is an important strand to the current work of the Our Place Camelon and Tamfourhill project. The different platforms are extremely effective at getting messages out to the community, highlighting local developments, and involving people directly with current issues. The downside to all this is the potential for bullying and intimidation, spreading nastiness and falsity and undermining positive community activities. Social media is democratic, that is everybody and anybody can contribute to the narrative, however this can open us all up to danger and risk. Have a look at his short film: https://youtu.be/c9KUAJqlsdk

You couldn’t imagine that a modern teenagers life could  get any more complicated , but in many respects their lives have become ever more reliant upon  instant gratification with the constant pressures for peer acceptance and once you add in social media, this must become an ongoing stressful experience. Unfortunately for some young people their anxiety levels must go through the roof, their Image, friends and being popular, all accentuated and raised to previously unknown levels through the intense immediacy of social media platforms.  Now I don’t wont to sound over dramatic or cause concern where it is not appropriate , social media is more often than not a good thing , hey rock n Roll had its critics back in the day and I still have my collection of hard core punk vinyl , however young people have always required support and guidance and social media can place an additional burden  on them , their family and the wider community.  The local community safety strategy will be required to have empathy and understanding of these issues, in young people’s terms and as they experience these issues in their language. Local community safety will need to encourage relevant inputs and activities which can reassure parents and family about the welfare of their children when using social media whilst  also  equipping our young people with the confidence and self esteem to make the right decisions in often difficult and contradictory circumstances. I hope that through the youth survey and various focus groups to listen to young people explaining their experiences and concerns about using social media, how might they develop appropriate support, resources and information that would be useful to them and their peers and potentially also their families. I have had recent discussions with Neighbourhood Watch about how they might  make their services and provisions more relevant to young people and how we could better equip young people to deal with the risks that they may face online. This could be a strand of the local community safety strategy where we develop a young people’s scheme which is about them looking out for each other, whether that is online or generally out and about in the community. The key is to empower young people to have responsibility for finding their own solutions to tackle the relevant issues, that way any safety strategy is more likely to be effective. I have indicated in the past the possibility of setting up a Young Community Safety Volunteers Project which would develop and deliver peer education inputs and social media would be one of the key themes that I would like to explore with such a Group.  

Here are some online safety links:

https://young.scot/get-informed/national/four-tips-for-being-safe-on-social-media

https://tutorful.co.uk/guides/how-to-keep-kids-safe-online/social-media-safety

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/young-people

Top tips for 11-19s

Protect your online reputation: use the services provided to manage your digital footprints and ‘think before you post.’ Content posted online can last forever and could be shared publicly by anyone.

Know where to find help: understand how to report to service providers and use blocking and deleting tools. If something happens that upsets you online, it’s never too late to tell someone.

Do not give in to pressure: if you lose your inhibitions you’ve lost control; once you’ve pressed send you can’t take it back.

Respect the law: use reliable services and know how to legally access the music, film and TV you want.

Acknowledge your sources: use trustworthy content and remember to give credit when using others’ work/ideas.

Please encourage all 10-18 year olds to complete the local community safety youth survey, it’s the first step in a wider consultation and listening exercise, it will put young people and their safety at the centre of the local community  strategy. There is a prize of 4 free cinema tickets for the lucky person who has submitted a completed survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/JFHLXT8

I am highlighting in this weeks blog the creative work of the Primary 7 pupils from Carmuirs Primary School. They are taking part in a local litter pick and survey and their art work and anti litter statements will be getting used as permanent signage on the streets and buildings around their school. I therefore wanted to use this opportunity to showcase their work and acknowledge and thank them for making a huge contribution to keeping Camelon and Tamfourhill #tidycleangreen

The messages are straight forward and to the point : In Town Don’t Throw Down, Help the Environment and Keep the Earth well and safe. We should all be listening to these statements as they show the amount of concern our young people have for their community and looking after the natural world around them. They are setting an example and it is one that we all should make an effort to follow.

Please keep an eye out for these designs appearing throughout the community and lets all make an effort to keep the community #tidycleangreen