ALDI EDINBURGH - OXGANGS RD NORTH

Bright Sparks Play Groups is a charitable organisation which provides various groups and social activities for children with complex additional needs and their families within Midlothian. We support children from birth to 25 years with pre-school play groups, out of school clubs, school holiday club, sibling groups and lunch and play clubs. During our sessions we offer play and music therapy for all ages. We offer trips to our families to places like Edinburgh Zoo, Dynamic Earth, Glasgow Science Centre, Falkirk Wheel, Blair Drummond Safari Park, Five Sisters Zoo, cinema trips, Midlothian Snow Centre and National Mining Museum. The purpose of these sessions/activities is to ensure the children benefit from a well rounded social experience in line with their peers. Families benefit from doing activities together not only with their children but other families in similar situations. This in turn lessens the social isolation which is felt by many of the families many of whom have had to give up jobs/careers to become full time carers for their child/children. This can have an adverse financial effect on family life. Our imminent move to larger premises will allow us to expand our service to help more children and families. All of the children experience social isolation as do their families. They are at a higher risk for bullying due to their differences. The children are often overlooked and misunderstood by their peers which can make them feel lonely which can often lead to depression, self-harming low self-esteem, under achieving at school. Often the children's behaviour can be misinterpreted by the community as "bad behaviour" rather than an understanding of the child's needs. Our activities will provide social inclusion for children. Many of the children find it difficult to make and sustain friendships and our clubs provide the needed support for this. We offer a safe stimulating environment so children can feel comfortable and inspired. We want them to have new experiences often without their parents present. Our activities will develop their turn taking skills, working as a team and taking direction from staff/adults.This also encourages their social communication, motor skills, motor planning skills and coordination. Many of the children suffer from bullying and isolation. Our clubs eliminate these difficulties and help support the children to deal with these issues. We will offer many life skills training sessions e.g. kitchen canny, preparing snacks, using cutlery. We'll do workshops in social appropriateness in situations, discussing feelings and thoughts and how to read body language and facial expressions. We recognise the whole family's needs and include siblings in many activities. It has been identified siblings can suffer from the same vulnerability and isolation - many take on the role of a young carer. Many of the families start in our early 0-5 early years services and we aim to offer support right up to 25 yrs.

The Community One Stop Shop is based at 3 Broomhouse Market. It is a Scottish Charity that recognises the need for a local advice and information service, to compliment the work of other agencies and community based organisations that contribute to the quality of life for people living in the Broomhose, North Sighthill and neighbouring areas. Within the shop we have many services which allow us to run a ‘Food Bank Plus’ model. The food bank has existed here since 2012 and we are very proud of the system we have in place. The plus model means we go further than the simple distribution of food to those in crisis in the local area. Within the shop we also have an Employability worker and a Citizens Advice worker who can be accessed by appointment or at our weekly drop-ins. Having these qualified professionals on site allows those in crisis to gain the support and the tools to improve their lives for themselves. The food bank allows for both referrals from outside services and for individuals to self-refer from the local community. If self-referred you will be asked a few questions so we can get a bit of insight in to the person’s life. Once we do that we will provide three days’ worth of food for the client and their family. If through the interview we can discover a way our other services can benefit the client’s situation we will organise an appointment. We have a referral system set up from many other projects including; Young Carers, Broomhouse Young Carers, Wester Hailes Youth Agency, Social Care Direct, Housing Association and the Y People, amongst others. Many of those projects are based outside the local area but we are more than willing to support referred clients from anywhere. Many of those referral agencies support the youngest, most vulnerable members of our society. The ‘Y People’ is a young person’s homeless accommodation who we have a great working relationship with. The food bank is seeing around 90 to 100 people a month at the moment and is need of regular donations to cope with need from the local area and beyond. Our employability worker Evelyn offers support and guidance with interview techniques, CV writing, online job searches and anything else in the field of job attainment. We also organise computer based training from external sources. This sector of COSS is crucial and we expect it to grow in the coming months and years. Our Citizens Advice worker Ruth offers advice, information and practical assistance on a range of topics. Be it debt issues, housing, benefits, education legal rights or immigration amongst many others. Furthermore we have an outreach worker in once a week to provide advice solely on on benefits and another who provides a ‘rent surgery’ which supports local tenants with rent issues. Lastly we have recently became a C card service to give local people over 16 free contraception. This is another example of our project reacting to the needs of the local community.

food facts friends is a Community Project which has been set up to address the issue of food waste. We have volunteers ,who will collect the available produce from shops in the area, and make it available at our central location. This is a panrty with a fridge and is in . the hub and you can fill a bag for £ 1.00 or use the panrty ...