15 March 2007

Community Building in Pipeline for Peterhead

Tenants First Housing Co-operative has recently been successful in the application of £10,000 to The Big Lottery’s ‘Investing In ideas’ Fund. This award will allow us to investigate how best to run and manage a new community facility in the Dales Park area of Peterhead.

The site has been earmarked for community use for several years, following a ‘Section 75’ agreement between the Council and a local housebuilder. It builds upon previous work done by local volunteers based at Hillpark Community Flat, who used funds from Communities Scotland’s SCARF fund (Scottish Community Action Regeneration Fund) to consult widely with local people. Draft plans were drawn up by John Buchan of Michael Gilmour Associates which incorporated the most popular suggestions.

The lottery money will allow us to redraft and finalise these plans and to produce a feasibility study which will indicate how this much needed community facility will be run and how it will be sustainable in the longer term. We will work closely with various consultants, agencies and local community representatives to do this.

15 March 2007

Help for Ethnic Minorities and Migrant Workers

We are in the process of bringing together various funders in order to allow Tenants First Housing Co-operative to employ an Ethnic Minorities Outreach Worker. This worker will help improve the quality of life for ethnic minorities, migrant workers and their families living in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire.

These aims are a fundamental part of local strategies to promote the social inclusion and integration of these groups into local communities.

We aim to do this by supporting and empowering them to access local support, services and facilities, for example by developing effective information systems to encourage more applications from these target groups to housing services. The worker will work with GREC, MEAL, the international centre and the Local Authorities and Registered Social Landlords in order to do this.

This project is being funded over a 3 year period by the Lintel Trust, Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeen Council. It is hoped that we will have a final funder in place shortly.

The European Commission has designated 2007 as 'European Year of Equal Opportunities for All'  

15 March 2007

Community Internet Café, Fraserburgh

This is an exciting new project which Tenants First Housing Co-operative is involved with in Broad Street, Fraserburgh. A currently disused and centrally located premise will be transformed for use as an internet café and will be run by a local community group, Fraserburgh Community Web. Tenants First Housing Co-operative is currently in the final stages of processing an offer of funding (25% of capital costs) received from the European Structural Funds via the Eastern Scotland European Partnership Ltd. The remaining funding we hope will be funded by the Lottery’s Investing in Communities Fund. Once we have the full funding package in place, we will fit out the café appropriately and lease it to Aberdeenshire Council for use by Fraserburgh Community Web.

The primary aim of the new facility is to provide training experience and real work for adults with disability. Fraserburgh Community Web will receive funding for this via a service level agreement with social services. Fraserburgh Community Web believe that this project will provide real benefits to the clients who will participate in the management and running of the project as well as receiving IT, catering and customer service training. There is a strong social value attached to this unique project, as giving these adults a real purpose within their communities boosts their self esteem and helps to bridge the gap between those with disabilities and the wider community.

Fraserburgh Community Web run the local website at http://www.visitfraserburgh.com