I am delighted that my Labour colleagues on the City of Edinburgh Council have announced the £100,000 Edinburgh Community Climate Fund, which will go to five or more local organisations in Edinburgh for environmental purposes.

We already have impassioned local groups in Edinburgh South working to fight climate change and the degradation of our natural world and you can read our climate manifesto here. This vital funding will allow the great work that communities do across Edinburgh to fight for a greener future and I have included the candidates from Edinburgh South and their project numbers in the list below.

You can vote for your preferred five candidates here.

Rebuild the Magic of Gracemount Community Garden, Gracemount (36)

Gracemount Community Garden is enjoyed by local people of all ages. Its future will be secured by repairing the key south facing wall.  The people who currently benefit from Gracemount Community Garden are from the local community including people facing particular challenges who can draw strength from the therapeutic green space of the garden, children attending local schools and local youth groups who come regularly to the garden, those who attend events in garden and spread the word to others.  They will use the money to repair the key south facing wall and develop related events for the community. That part of the wall has a break in it that is getting bigger and a wider stretch of cap stones are missing.

Foraging a Feast at Forest Fridays, Gracemount (33)

Foraging a Feast at Forest Fridays will provide weekly outdoor sessions to children aged 6-12, teaching practical and sustainable skills based on the food growing cycle: planning; planting; harvesting and foraging food from that grows wild on the sites, working in partnership with two community gardens: Transition Edinburgh South (TES) trading as Gracemount Community Garden at Gracemount Mansion Development and Bridgend Farmhouse Community Allotments situated next to Craigmillar Castle Park. Children will use what they’ve grown to cook healthy food and will share a hot meal together at the sessions, a perfect activity for nurturing neighbourhood relationships.

Fairmilehead Futures, Fairmilehead (46)

Led by Fairmilehead Energy Hub (FEH), Fairmilehead Futures is a nine-month community programme of advice sessions, repair workshops and social events. Covering topics such as energy saving, renewables, climate action and much more, it will bring expert guest speakers and workshop leaders from across Edinburgh to residents from Fairmilehead and the surrounding areas. It aims to offer participants good-quality advice to how to take practical steps towards low carbon, sustainable living, while bringing together the community to create a network for future action.

Being Green is Good, Gilmerton (14)

Being Green is Good would like to organize meetings/ classes  to talk about ecology and environmental protection. Classes would be conducted with children aged 3 years old up to 18 years of age. The children’s families would also participate in such activities, their parents, grandparents as well as friends of these families.

Trash into Treasure, Bruntsfield (28)

The Trash into Treasure project aims to improve connections between South and North Edinburgh and to unite efforts to combat climate change. Trash will be given artistic value during the project through creative repurposing (Treasure). They will teach science and co-create art with primary school pupils (at Bruntsfield Primary School and 14 other schools in Edinburgh) and local communities in both South and North Edinburgh. They will collaborate with professional artists, teachers, local groups, neighbourhoods, and community hubs (the Eric Liddell Centre, North Edinburgh Arts, and the West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre) to host creative art workshops using waste materials, hold public talks about waste reuse, recycling, and repurposing, and develop educational materials for primary schools in Edinburgh.

Collaborating for change: a model community climate action hub, Bruntsfield (56)

Collaborating for change is led by Dig-In Bruntsfield and hosted by the Eric Liddell Centre (ELC). They will use project funding to develop, promote and deliver a series of free, community climate-focused events which harness our existing community organisations, knowledge and activism. The project will culminate with a Community Climate Fair (CCF) and establishment of a Community Climate Action Hub (CCAH) – a model for collective climate action in communities across Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Building Retrofit & Improvement Collective, Bruntsfield (49)

Led by the Bruntsfield Area Net Zero Action Initiative (BANZAI), the Edinburgh Building Retrofit & Improvement Collective are will provide advice to local communities on retrofitting homes, hold events like retrofit roadshows and connect groups like architects and skilled tradespeople to further knowledge of retrofitting and general insulation improvement in Edinburgh.

All Aboard for Climate Action, Merchiston (55)

Pupils from Canal View and Tollcross Primary Schools and Tynecastle High School will head onto the All Aboard canal boat to participate in fun, interactive sessions exploring climate change. Working with young people from the local Positive Transitions groups, the sessions will focus on engaging children and young people with nature and the local environment and exploring the impact of climate change. Using fun and engaging activities, they will introduce them to some small everyday actions that they can take at home and in their community to help tackle climate change.

A Greener Meadows Festival, Marchmont (52)

The Meadows Festival Green Hub would include workshops, talks and stalls from local partners such as The SHRUB, Food Sharing Edinburgh, Spokes, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Zero Waste Scotland and more. This area’s purpose would be education and promoting community involvement and leadership. They would also promote the work of the Green Team at the festival, encouraging anyone to get involved and grow this project at future festivals and introduce a Green Hub at the Kids Area for children to learn more about climate change, environmental sustainability and use eco-friendly products. The fund would also help support a local designer to promote this new area at the festival by designing an online poster with a QR code to be included on our main festival posters.