Appendix 1
Further details on CCS Projects and Developments in the Stewartry
Arts and Museums
Kirkcudbright 2000 Summer Art Exhibition
The service again provided support to Kirkcudbright 2000 for the group’s annual Summer Exhibition. This year’s exhibition was entitled ‘Tam O Shanter’ and illustrated the story of Robert Burns’ famous poem of the same name. The exhibition comprised of a selection of paintings by the late Alexander Goudie held by South Ayrshire Council. The exhibition also employed the use of ‘wands’ which provided pre-recorded information. This significantly added to the public experience with interviews from experts on Burns, the Goudie collection and Ayrshire historians. The wands cost £2 to hire allowing the cost of producing the recordings and the hire of the equipment to be recovered over the duration of the exhibition.
Collections
The Stewartry Museum collection has continued to grow over the last six months with generous donations from the public. New acquisitions ranged from a collection of archival material on land management to an early 20th century swimming costume. The Museum has also benefited from allocations of archaeology from local metal detectorists acquired through the Treasure Trove process. The oil and acrylic paintings in the Stewartry collection photographed for the Public Catalogue Foundation have now been published in a Southern Scotland volume along with the other paintings in our Council’s museums and galleries collections. Free copies were given to the Museums and galleries involved and the full publication can be viewed on the BBC website ‘Our Paintings’.
Exhibitions
Individual artists and photographers and local art and photography groups provided a busy and varied programme of exhibitions at Castle Douglas Art Gallery and the Tolbooth Art Centre.
The Stewartry Museum exhibition programme followed a successful spring with a summer exhibition on Sporting Prowess in the Stewartry, where local success stories were celebrated. It was particularly noted for the fine selection of trophies and memorabilia of sporting events throughout the last century lent by members of the local community. The autumn exhibition, The Vikings of Galloway developed the story of the Vikings in our region with a spectacular display including an amazing wicker Viking boat by Trevor Leat. This exhibition will run until the end of January.
Special Events
The Stewartry Museum and the Tolbooth Art Centre have hosted highly successful children’s workshops throughout the spring and summer school holidays. The workshops linked the museum team with the Council’s Active Schools team, the Ranger Service and local artists to offer a large range of activities from artist in residence events to Boccia lessons. This was all very well received by the public.
Over the Kirkcudbright Arts and Crafts weekend in August, The Stewartry Museum joined with the Ranger Service to provide paper making and charcoal making workshops on the museum lawns. This was overwhelmingly popular and resulted in a record breaking footfall in the museum for the Monday, and a positive reaction from trail users and organisers.
The Stewartry Museum has also been supported by visits from several WRIs in the region and staff have conducted talks for a range of adult groups. The Museum was also featured in the new series ITV programme ‘Britain’s Secret Treasures’. One of the museum’s medieval horse harness mounts attracted the producer’s attention and news reader Michael Buerk was filmed in the museum discussing its unusual story.
Volunteer Activity
A body of local volunteers have continued to do valuable work on cataloguing the archive collection in the Museum, thereby providing information for family and local history researchers.
Leisure and Sport
Leisure and Sport (Facilities)
The Synthetic Grass Pitch at Kirkcudbright was completed onschedule and is proving a very valuable asset to the region. Birkland Park in Castle Douglas has under gone a large programme of works to upgrade the drainage system. This project was also completed on time and can only enhance the facility for the good and benefit of the local community.
Work is currently ongoing to develop a GP Referral scheme in the Stewartry. Staff have been identified to deliver the programme following relevant training. This programme has been identified as a positive initiative as the number of old and vulnerable people who reside within the Stewartry will be able to access this service in their community instead of having to travel to Dumfries.
Leisure and Sport (Active Schools and Community Sport)
Positive Coaching Scotland Programme
Positive Coaching Scotland (PCS) is one of the initiatives referenced in the Council’s Legacy Plan. It is designed to create a positive environment for young people in sport. It focuses on using sport to help and support young people’s learning and the development of their life skills.
Dumfries and Galloway Council has trained tutors who are actively delivering workshops direct to sports clubs and groups of young leaders in all 4 areas of the region with the exception of football, rugby and Athletics clubs as their respective Governing body delivers this programme due to the specific needs of the sports.
The Stewartry sports club engagement evening promoted this programme in the area to some key local clubs. As a result the Active Schools and Community Sport Team arranged to deliver a Leaders workshop to Stewartry Sports Councilfollowing which a calendar of workshops was established for the wider roll out in 2014.
Disability Sport - Special Olympics
The Dumfries & Galloway Special Olympics team consisting of 22 local athletes and 11 support staff travelled to Bath from the 27th August-1st September 2013 to compete in the National Summer Games to compete against over 2,500 athletes with a learning disability from across the UK. The D&G team did exceptionally well coming home with a fantastic medal haul of 8 golds, 7 silver and 7 bronze medals, a total of 22 medals across the 4 sports.
The team was organised and entered by the Dumfries and Galloway Disability Sport Branches in partnership with Leisure & Sport and many new and lasting friendships were made between the athletes and the coaches from across the UK. The next Special Olympics National Summer Games are in 2017 and the aim is to build on this success and enter a larger Dumfries & Galloway team with athletes from across the region and compete in some additional sports.
Community Engagement
The Stewartry Active Schools and Community Sport Team hosted a club engagement event in May where all local sports clubs, sports organisations and individuals involved in sport were invited to network and find out about the services on offer from Leisure and Sport, the wider Council, and other external partners such as Volunteer Action. The event was hugely successful with over 50 representatives from 34 organisations attending the evening. All sports clubs in the Stewartry were also assigned a key contact from within the Active Schools and Community Sport Team. This has given all clubs a designated point of contact within the Council to provide support and guidance in terms of club development, policy, funding, etc.
Extra-Curricular Activities
The Active Schools and Community Sport Team worked with schools, clubs, volunteers and other partners to offer a wide range of extra-curricular activities accessible to all Stewartry Primary and Secondary Schools on schools sites, at clubs and in other community facilities. One of the highlights was the Stewartry Netball League where 7 schools participated in a 4 week block of matches at Crossmichael school involving over 70 Primary aged children. This was coordinated by the Active Schools and Community Sport Team with all teams attending with volunteers. The volunteers also delivered training sessions before and during the block of competition on school sites.
Legacy - Active Games 2013 Programme and Regional Finals Event
The Active Games Final event included 510 children representing primary schools from across the region, with the young people competing in their respective cluster team as one of 16 different Commonwealth nations. The event delivered by the Active School and Community Sport team on 7th September took place in Dumfries, across 3 different sites at the David Keswick Centre, DG One Leisure Complex and Dumfries Academy site.
1000s of young people participated in pre games activities across the region, taking part in taster and coaching sessions, and competing in new region wide heats and qualifying events. 60 Local sport clubs from across D&G supported the Active School and Community Sport team in delivering the full programme and the Finals event.
Children were joined by national sporting ambassadors: Olympic Swimmer Kris Gilchrist, Scottish No.1 Gymnast Amy Regan, European Boccia Champion and London 2012 Paralympian, Stephen McGuire and Scottish Netball Player, Claire Brownie. Making appearances were Clyde, the mascot for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and ToBi, the Tour of Britain mascot, with ambassadors and mascots playing a key role in opening and closing ceremonies.The event is a key authority Legacy initiative and was staged with funding support provided by EventScotland, Gates Power Transmission Limited, DNG Media and The David Stevenson Trust .
Support a 2nd Team – links to Northern Ireland and Grenada:
Support a 2nd Team is an aspiration by Sportscotland for a programme of events to engage the cultures of Commonwealth Countries and further develop links with Commonwealth regions which was promoted as part of Glasgow’s bid, providing an opportunity as part of the wider Games Legacy. The programme provides opportunities to create partnerships with participating Commonwealth Games countries across the Active, Flourishing, Sustainable and Connected Legacy themes.
Dumfries & Galloway were allocated Northern Ireland and Grenada as our 2nd Teams and the association with Northern Ireland and their Commonwealth Games Council was confirmed at the Active Games in September 2013 when a civic presentation was given as part of the day’s events. 30 young leaders and teachers supported the sport specific delivery at the event. A return leg is planned with the Active Games winners representing as team DG and travelling to Northern Ireland in May 2014 to take on regional Northern Ireland Teams. Leisure & Sport are also working with colleagues in education to try and establish schools links with Northern Ireland and Grenada and are developing a schools competition where children will research the countries, develop a piece of work with the prize being the involvement in the Queens Baton Relay end of day celebration.
Community Learning and Development
Liaison with local secondary schools
CLD staff have been meeting regularly with the four secondary schools in the Stewartry to develop CLD involvement in schools and their wider communities. Discussion with lead officers in schools is moving forward with a focus on a partnership approach that responds to the specific needs of each Learning Community. This includes designing programmes around accreditation of awards, such as the John Muir Award and the Duke of Edinburgh Award, through which 6 people have gained accreditation since June 2013. Other programmes being developed focus on themes such as employability, volunteering, independent living, entrepreneurship and community citizenship. Partners include: National Trust for Scotland, Police Scotland, NHS, Employability & Skills Service and Leisure & Sport.
Scottish Youth Parliament Elections
During September and October 2013 CLD staff supported the Scottish Youth Parliament by-election through promotion in local schools and community groups, awareness raising, assisting with the nomination process and providing candidates with support in writing their manifesto and campaigning.8 young people engaged with the initial process and 3 young people from Stewartry stood as candidates. We continue to support the Stewartry-based MSYP, Sam Glendinning.
Youth Voice
The Local Youth Platform in the Stewartry has been established as ‘Youth Voice’ with the aim of giving young people a platform to raise issues important to them and represent other young people and youth groups they may be part of. This group will focus on building the young people’s capacity through leadership development and contribute to the Curriculum for Excellence capacities of responsible citizenship, effective contributors, successful learners and confident individuals. 7 young people attended the first meeting and we expect Youth Voice to gather momentum through further promotion to schools and other youth groups and through its members spreading the word as advocates. 2 members of Youth Voice will be selected to sit on the Regional Youth Platform at their second meeting in January 2014. In line with the proposals being made in the new Youth Involvement Strategy the intention is to identify priorities and issues that the Regional Youth Platform will help to take forward.
Peer Project for young people/adults with learning disabilities
The ‘Peer Project’ meets weekly on Wednesday evenings at Dalbeattie Town Hall. 16 young people and adults with learning difficulties are supported to meet with others and take part in a wide range of activities such as arts and crafts, cooking, computer skills, indoor and outdoor games. We have been working with NHS Health Improvement team to help participants to improve their cooking skills and support them to develop some independent living skills. The project also offers one-to-one support to more socially isolated young people. Action plans are set between the youth worker and the young person and are regularly reviewed. The project supports this group to experience new activities and develop their own skills. In August 2013young people took a trip to the Galloway Activity Centre to try a range of activities. Since then the group organised a visit to Xscape in Glasgow in November 2013.
Dalbeattie Workclub
Dalbeattie Workclub meets weekly on Tuesday mornings in Dalbeattie Town Hall. At present we have an average of 12 people attending each week. As well as support with using computers to access websites to look for work and apply for vacancies, learners can browse the newspapers, access laptops to study Driving Theory, have a coffee and build up social contacts. This has worked well and is especially beneficial for those with low self-esteem. Since April 2013 2 Basic Computing courses run in partnership with the IT centre have enabled 10 people to improve their skills and confidence using computers. At the request of our learners we are introducing extra sessions in the New Year to give learners the opportunity to have access to the computers and in turn register onto Universal Job Match. According to one learner:
“When I first went to job club in October 2012 I didn't know one end of a computer from the other. The first few times I went on the computer were awful and bewildering - there is so much information on the screen, I felt quite overwhelmed. The staff were so patient with me I gradually learned to ignore the information overload and just concentrate on the relevant bits. An additional 6 week course from the IT centre, held in Dalbeattie over the summer, also helped enormously - most of the time I knew what the tutor was talking about too! Now I can job search online and email friends and family abroad - all without help. Thank you workclub staff for dragging me into the 21st century!”
Support with literacy, numeracy and English language skills
One-to-one literacy and numeracy support is offered through our volunteer tutors. Since April 2014 10 people have accessed this service. Two learners have progressed to independent living and another is now volunteering at a charity shop and attending the
Castle Douglas Workclub.Classes in English for speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) are operating in Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright. 6 learners are enrolled in the beginner’s class in Castle Douglas and 8 in the elementary class in Kirkcudbright. Learners are progressing well and are keen to enrol into the classes again after the Christmas break.
Family Learning
Scotland’s national framework places the Child at the Centre highlighting the significance of health and well-being as an integral part of the curriculum. 28 children in the P3 Class at Dalbeattie Primary are participating in the Roots of Empathy Programme which focuses on building the capacity of the next generation for responsible citizenship and responsive parenting. For 27 weeks the children will be learning how to create more caring and respectful relationships resulting in reduced levels of bullying and aggression later on.
60 Nursery parents/carers and their children participated in a range of transitional family learning activities and/or supported their child’s learning at home during this period. 238 children borrowed learning resources taking them home to enjoy with their families.