Charity Funds Holiday Respite For Vulnerable Children

 Aberdeen City, Articles  No Responses »
Nov 062015
 

Middlefield 1 backdropWith thanks to Esther Green, Tricker PR

Disadvantaged children living in Aberdeen and Edinburgh have enjoyed well-deserved breaks – some going on the first holiday of their lives – through funding from the Aberdeen Asset Management Charitable Foundation.

Scottish children’s charity HopScotch secured £9,000 from the firm’s Charitable Foundation to enable 36 children to enjoy a total of 180 days of respite at its holiday centre in Ardvullin in the Scottish Highlands.

A dozen children each from three organisations – Edinburgh Women’s Aid, Aberdeen’s Middlefield Community Project and Waverley Care in Edinburgh – were selected for the much-needed breaks allowing them to spend time in safe and secure surroundings while escaping the stresses of home life and gaining and building confidence, in a caring and supportive environment.

Waverley Care works with children who are living with, and affected by, HIV/Hepatitis C in Edinburgh. Many of the families struggle to take youngsters on holiday due to poor health and financial constraints. Children live in stressful situations and often act as carers to their parents/younger siblings and rarely get the chance to socialise or form friendships.

Middlefield Community Project is based in an area of multiple deprivation in Aberdeen, in the top five of Scotland’s most deprived areas.  Families suffer as a result of parental drug or alcohol misuse, severe poverty, domestic violence, parental health issues and neighbourhood disputes. Many young children are left to fend for themselves, often playing in the streets at night.

Edinburgh Women’s Aid provides practical and emotional support to those who have been, or are, experiencing domestic abuse and many of the children will have witnessed abuse or even been abused themselves. Recovery is a lengthy process for some and an opportunity for a respite break is very beneficial in very many  ways.

At Ardvullin the children try a range of activities like horse riding, canoeing and indoor climbing, boat trips, biking and visiting the beach.

One youngster who went to Ardvullin said:

“I loved my Hopscotch holiday and didn’t want to leave.

 I did lots of exciting things like hill climbing, walking in the forest, canoeing and lots more.  I loved the big, massive swing park out the back garden.  My favourite part was when I made it to the top of the hill and the snow was really, really deep.” 

The Edinburgh-based charity’s 2015 programme has provided around 350 children with a respite break at Ardvullin and this year HopScotch has worked with organisations from the Highlands, Ayrshire, Strathclyde, Perthshire, Tayside, Lanarkshire, Midlothian and Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire to identify those children most in need.

HopScotch manager Roberta Mckay said that the support given by the Aberdeen Asset Management Charitable Foundation had allowed children – many of whom have never been to the countryside or the seaside before – a chance to have a break away from their problems in a safe and secure environment. For children who are young carers, it may be the first chance of respite from their caring responsibilities.

Roberta commented:

“Good childhood memories last a lifetime. We are so grateful for the support of Aberdeen Asset Management during 2015 which helps our work to continue in providing free respite break for Scotland’s most vulnerable children.”

Karin Hyland of Aberdeen Asset Management’s Charitable Foundation said:

“HopScotch holidays provide something which  every child should be entitled to – the chance to enjoy a carefree break in a safe and caring environment where they can make new friends, have fun and experience the beauty of the countryside.”

The Aberdeen Asset Charitable Foundation was established in 2012 to formalise and develop the Group’s charitable giving globally. The Foundation seeks partnerships with smaller charities around the world, where funds can be seen to have a meaningful and measurable impact and  the firm encourages its employees to use their time and skills to support its charitable projects.

For more information visit http://www.aberdeen-asset.co.uk/aam.nsf/foundation/home

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Don Corridor – City Council Seeks Your Views

 Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Environment, Information, News  No Responses »
Jul 012011
 

Calling all groups in Seaton, Tillydrone, Bucksburn, Danestone, Bridge of Don, Middlefield, Dyce, Woodside, Bucksburn, Muggiemoss, Stoneywood….Aberdeen City Council is offering you a chance to air your views on the Don.

View from Grandholm footbridge.

Over July and August the Sustainable Urban Fringes (SURF) Aberdeen project is keen to hear your views on the quality of the environment along the River Don.
Do you use the paths?
What about signage?
What do you like or not like about community woodlands, parks, playing fields or other open spaces?

How could they be better and better used?
What are the barriers to use?
How would you like to be involved in improving your local environment and open spaces?

If you would like Stephen Bly, Community Woodland Ranger, to come to one of your meetings, events or informal get-togethers to have a chat about your views and suggestions, then give him a ring on 07824 626303, or email him, StephenBly@aberdeencity.gov.uk.  Stephen can come along with maps and aerial photos of the area and you can tell him a thing or two.

The Aberdeen SURF project is working to improve the environment and open spaces along the River Don so that they can make a positive contribution to the quality of life of residents, businesses and recreational users. The project recognises that urban fringes – the areas on the edges of towns and cities – need as much attention as urban centres.

SURF Aberdeen is being managed by a partnership Steering Group which brings together officers from the City Council, SEPA, Aberdeen Greenspace, Forestry Commission Scotland and the River Don Trust.

Following on from initial consultation the SURF Aberdeen project will work to deliver a series of improvement projects in the project area.

So, why not take this opportunity to tell us what’s important to you?

For more information on SURF and SURF Aberdeen, visit the website at www.sustainablefringes.eu, or contact Sinclair Laing, email SiLaing@aberdeencity.gov.uk, tel (01224) 522725.

Notes :

•           The Sustainable Urban Fringes (SURF) Project Partners are:-

UK: Aberdeen City Council (lead partner), School of the Built Environment at Leeds Metropolitan University, City of Bradford and Norfolk County Council;

Netherlands: City of Enschede, Saxion University, City of Almelo and City of Hengelo;

Belgium: Province of East Flanders, Province of West Flanders and Province of Antwerp;

Germany: City of Hamburg; and Sweden: Municipality of Harryda.

•           The project is part of the Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme, which promotes trans-national co-operation through four priorities. The SURF project was approved in 2009 under the “Delivers Sustainable and Competitive Communities” category. http://www.northsearegion.eu/ivb/home/.

Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme is part of the European Territorial Co-operation Programme which is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This programme is designed to encourage cross-border, trans-national and interregional co-operation and balanced development of the European territory.

For more information visit: europeanregionaldevelopment

Old Susannah’s Journal No.39 – Maths! (After A Fashion)

 Articles, Community, Creative Writing, Information, Opinion, Satire and Humour  No Responses »
Jun 102011
 

Voice’s Old Susannah casts her eye over recent events, stories, and terms and phrases familiar as well as freshly ‘spun’, which will be forever etched in the consciousness of the people of Aberdeen and the Northeast.

dictionary

Summer in Aberdeen.  Lighting the barbeque (rain permitting) then standing around it (to warm your hands up) while someone inevitably insists on taking over the cooking, ensuring you get a burger burnt on the outside yet still frozen inside.

Old Susannah is off for a spray-tan tomorrow so she’ll be bright orange (or maybe not) for the season’s most important event – the Friends of Union Terrace Gardens picnic.  My picnic basket has been dusted off, a few brewdogs put in the deep freeze, and raingear laid out (just in case) for the big day Saturday.

If you think the City’s economic future doesn’t depend on putting a carpark where the verdant remnant of the Denburn Valley is, then I will see you there Saturday.

Old Susannah was at the RGU students’ fashion show last Thursday as a guest of one of the lecturers; the designs on show were impressively creative and individualistic.  It was a professional, enjoyable show, but I hope they do better on the drink front next time.  I guess it is possible to have clothing that’s not been sewn in the third world by children in sweatshops after all.

The mini bottle of unchilled white wine however was not to my group’s taste, and we made a break for it to Cafe 52 for some cold beer and wine.  Since then, I’ve had a wee bit of my time taken up looking into the deer cull.  It’s not too late (I hope) to stop this madness.

But now it’s time for a definition or two.

Mathematics: (noun) classical discipline encompassing algebra, geometry, trigonometry; numeracy.

Maths was never my strongpoint.  I still haven’t figured out how we can guarantee our economic future by getting a TIF loan for £100 million or more while being £50 million in debt to get rid of Union Terrace Gardens.

Thankfully, that’s what ACSEF and the Council tell me will happen, and I’m quite prepared to take their word for it.  I’m not even smart enough to figure out how a Stadium at Loirston Loch for 21,000 people can work on 1400 parking places (or how the stadium’s plan to have 80 buses reach Loirston from College Street in 15 minutes flat is feasible.  I personally can’t get a bus from Torry to Nigg when it’s busy that takes less than half an hour.  Obviously I’m doing something wrong.).

I’m working on my math skills in the hopes I too can see how black and white our city’s thinking must be.

I guess I also have to work on the mathematics behind the Haudagain Roundabout situation and the proposed Paper mill housing development.  It is good to know that Aberdeen is the best in the UK at something – and it’s official:  we are the best at roundabout traffic jams.  I’d always thought traffic moved just a wee bit slowly in the part of town as people stopped to admire the lovely roundabout itself.  However, as ever:  the City has a plan.

And here is the mathematical sense behind it:

Take: 1 x congested roundabout

Subtract: 100 nearby Middlefield houses to be bulldozed

Add: 900 private dwellings (builder:  one Mr S Milne) near congested roundabout

Add: shops, offices, a medical centre, business units and riverside bistro (builder:  Mr Milne)

Equals = minimal impact on roundabout traffic.

That’s right.  There will be minimal impact on the roundabout per our Council.

Personally I would have thought that the massive number of people trying to get a table at the riverside bistro alone would have led to traffic standstill; I hope to have an invitation to the opening night.  The medical centre makes a nice addition to any housing scheme of this size; it is the Vaseline that lets these great housing plans slide through planning departments.  It will be an extremely useful medical centre, as all of the people stuck on the roundabout will need treatment for C02 inhalation and dehydration.

My other mathematical ignorance concerns the Tullos Hill deer:

Take: 30 deer (Council’s estimate) which normally live 5-7 years

Subtract: (I mean ‘kill’ – sorry, I mean ‘cull’) 9 male deer this year

Balance: 21 deer

Plant: 40,000 trees

Number of trees left for each deer to eat =  1,904

Old Susannah can eat and drink with the best of them, but had no idea how hungry these tiny little deer must be:  1,904 trees is a fair amount per deer.  If each deer ate only 5% of this figure, that’s still 95.2 saplings for each deer (of the remaining herd after we’ve ‘managed’ 9 males as the City wishes).  It is a complete mystery to me how these hungry critters manage to survive on Tullos at all given the lack of trees.  Alas, I have no degree in forestry, so it looks like I must take the experts’ advice:  deer are dangerous vermin which if left unchecked will eat.

Not in Crisis: (mod English phrase) – phrase used to reassure others that a given situation is under control or no cause for concern.

If you follow football (a game somewhat similar to what they do at Pittodrie), then you will know that FIFA is ‘not in crisis’.  For you or me allegations of corruption, vote-rigging, bribery and dishonesty might spell a bit of trouble.  For the Federation Internationale de Football Associations, such issues can be shrugged off.  It is because of FIFA’s high moral stance that footballers the world ‘round behave with such dignity, ethics and honesty.

Behind every great organisation there is a great man.

Milne Homes has Stewart; the Wood Group PSN has Sir Ian, and FIFA has President Blatter.  Mr Blatter is so very popular that no one ran against him in the latest FIFA presidential election.  Or something like that.  I guess the question is does a mere £100 million ‘inducement’ really amount to a bribe?  I think not.  FIFA does have a ‘Standards Statute’, which is a modern fiction classic.  It reads in part:

“The Standard Statues contain all the provisions that are intrinsic to any constitutive texts worthy of such description.  We are therefore calling upon the Associations to examine these statutes meticulously and incorporate all of the articles and principles covered into their own statutes – for their own benefit and for the Good of the Game” – Joseph S Blatter

I love a good read, and gave the Statues a once-over.  However, I did not find the proper etiquette for accepting brown envelopes filled with money.  Perhaps someone here in Aberdeen can help with that.  In any event, it is hoped that all the world’s football associations will soon behave as Mr Blatter wishes.  Heaven forbid anything happens to put the beautiful game into disrepute.

Quasi-serious note

Last Christmas I put in a serious note about the holidays not having to be the beautiful family and friend-filled affairs that the TV commercials present.

Not everyone had 20 friends round their tree drinking eggnog before a horse-drawn sleigh ride.  Summer is rather the same.  The media tells you that you must look fantastic in your bathing suit (if it ever gets warm enough to put it on).  You must play volleyball on a sandy sunny beach and drink orange soda the same colour as your skin.

Don’t for a moment assume that everyone will be having tropical holidays and drinking cocktails from coconut shells under palm trees.  The economy is not great (despite the best efforts of ACSEF and ACC).  You might have your worries.  Take a ‘staycation’.  Visit Scotland.  Visit Tullos Hill for that matter.

But don’t let some false media advertising imagery fool you.  And if you are like many people struggling with one thing and another, remember:  at least you’re not Ryan Giggs.