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April 21, 2020
Share what’s happening
The diversity of Scotland’s community sector is certain to produce some very different responses to coronavirus. That said, we can also expect to see some consistent themes running across all communities and it will be important to find ways to share that knowledge and experience. The ever popular Community Learning Exchange has, for obvious reasons, had to be put into temporary cold storage but virtual exchanges are already popping up. Fablevision Studios are currently looking for projects that want to share their story. if you’re interested contact: info@fablevision.org. And in the meantime, here’s three very different local responses.
IT’S Good Friday, the sun is shining and birds are singing full-throated songs of spring. Close your eyes and you could forget we are living in the midst of lockdown.
But in Glasgow’s Govanhill the normally packed-out ice-cream shop on Victoria Road is shut and there are no young people playing cricket in Queen’s Park. In Allison Street the shopkeepers re-stock fruit and veg wearing masks and the familiar hustle and bustle, the spill of people on to street corners, is gone.
With its network of tenement-lined streets, this is one of the most densely populated parts of Scotland, as well as one of the most diverse – about 40% of residents are from ethnic minorities….read more
Galson Estate in the Western Isles
“AT a time of crisis, community will look to their own,”says Lisa Maclean, manger of Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn (the Galson Estate Trust) in Lewis. “I fully believe it’s all about trust.”
The estate – which was bought by the community under right to buy legislation back in January 2007 – stretches across 56,000 acres of coast, agricultural land and moor in the north west of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It takes in 22 villages running from Upper Barvas to Port of Ness with a population of nearly 2000 people. Now, in these extraordinary times, every single one of them is accounted for to ensure if they need support, they will get it…. read more
HOW do you respond to lockdown when all of your activity revolves around uniting people in a physical space? That was the question that started forming in the mind of members of the Stove Network, an artists’ collective in Dumfries that aims to build community cohesion through creative endeavour.
For the network, which was involved in plans to bring the town’s run-down High Street back into community ownership, their cafe was the hub of their work….read more