Annual Report
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Education For Active Citizenship In The Forth Valley

The Bothkennar Centre for Citizen Education

Chairs Report

Active Citizens - Action for Equality

Standing up for ourselves

Disability Equality Training

Global Citizenship and Action

Film 4um

Volunteers' Mentoring Support Project

Capacity Building

Income and Expenditure

Thanks

Directors and Company Secretary

Previous Annual Reports available online

Education For Active Citizenship In The Forth Valley

CTDU aims to be a resourceful ally to enable groups and individuals to:

act together effectively and co-operatively, by offering skills training and information to people who want to take an active role in running their organisations

build vibrant democratic communities, by running citizen education courses to help people learn new ways of connecting with and representing their communities, looking into and presenting local issues and being heard at local and national government levels

understand the past and the present, and shape the future by holding gatherings of participants from CTDU's member groups to network, to learn more about history, cultures and present day experiences, and to develop confidence and capacity to work for change.

With core funding from Clackmannanshire and Falkirk Councils, CTDU offers capacity building training to grassroots members of community and voluntary organisations. CTDU currently has three projects:

Active Citizens - Action for Equality, funded by the Big Lottery.
Volunteers Mentoring & Support Project, funded by the Voluntary Action Fund
Global Citizenship and Local Action, funded by the Department for International Development

The Bothkennar Centre for Citizen Education
We are very fortunate to be based in the beautiful setting of the RSPB Bothkennar reserve, a peaceful and interesting environment for our members to learn from and enjoy. RSPB are particularly interested in protecting the coastline and the many birds which overwinter on the reserve and feed from the mudflats. Several species of endangered birds, and some whose numbers are falling dramatically, live at Bothkennar. Tree sparrows and yellow hammers can be seen feeding in our garden and at the nuts and seed we provide for them, and grey partridges and skylarks inhabit the fields behind the centre.

Chairs Report

Time to write my wee bit for the annual report. How time flies - it's been another busy year at CTDU.

Equality has been the key theme of our work in 2004. Much of our work has focused on supporting disabled people and people with a learning disability to fight for the same rights other citizens enjoy, like access to transport, public buildings and education.

We've also been very busy developing our garden at Bothkennar, as those of you who have visited our centre have seen. I even tried my hand at drystane dyking, which was hard work but great fun - breaking up rocks is a great way to relieve stress! We've even had meetings outside when the weather was good!

In January, the students' association organised a fund raising ceilidh which enabled the students to contribute funding towards our educational programme. My thanks to everyone who helped to organise the event or gave donations, as well as to those who bought tickets and enjoyed themselves on the night.

Funding from the Voluntary Action Fund for a Volunteers' Mentor enabled CTDU to employ Fiona last June. Fiona's work really compliments our training and development work and this is proving to be a very useful project.
We are currently in our third and final year of funding from the Big Lottery for our very popular 'Active Citizens - Action for Equality' project. In recent months, we have been busy submitting applications for funding to allow us to start new projects and allow CTDU to grow and develop further.

My thanks as always to our funders, to the members of the Board, the students' association, volunteers, sessional workers and of course the staff, Iyaah, Rosemary and Fiona who all contribute to making CTDU such a successful organisation.


Carey Sinclair
Chair

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Active Citizens - Action for Equality

CTDU receives a grant from the Big Lottery to offer citizen education programmes with a particular emphasis on tackling inequality. In the second year of this grant (2003 - 2004), CTDU worked with a total of 255 people in 48 organisations. Since April 2004, the main focus of the project has been work with people with a learning disability, and that has enabled CTDU to develop skills in graphic facilitation.

Advocacy into Action
CTDU has worked with the committee of Advocacy into Action on the aims of the organisation, the role of the committee, their memorandum and articles of association, running effective meetings and assertiveness training. CTDU and Advocacy into Action are now working together to create a range of documents in accessible graphic forms.

The Clients' Committee of the Alloa Centre
CTDU ran a citizen education programme for the Clients' Committee of the Alloa Centre which focused on building skills for representation. The group visited Clackmannanshire Council, made a presentation to councillors and observed a committee at work. They also visited the Scottish Parliament and met with their constituency MSP, Presiding Officer George Reid.

Seaforth House, YMCA
Student community worker Finlay Robertson and Iyaah Warren worked with a group of homeless young people who live in a unit in Langlees, Falkirk. The young people made a banner to show their experience of homelessness and how they feel Seaforth House residents are perceived by their neighbours.

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Standing up for ourselves . . .

The Queen opened the new Scottish Parliament building on Saturday 9th October. Two community groups from each of the eight Scottish regions were invited to make banners for the “Riding of the Parliament” from the old Parliament Hall down the Royal Mile to Holyrood. Iyaah was part of the Scottish Parliament team that facilitated the project. Each of the banners displayed a phrase to express ideas and values the groups wanted to share with the parliament as it moved to its new home.

Iyaah invited 10 people with a learning disability from the Falkirk and Clackmannanshire areas to make a CTDU banner. On Friday 10th September, the group put the finishing touches to their banner and showed it to MSPs George Reid and Dennis Canavan. A BBC news crew, the Scottish Parliament press office and local press also attended and reported the event. John Whyte from Sauchie and Jason Wallace from Stenhousemuir were elected to carry the banner in the “Riding of the Parliament”.

CTDU's banner says, Standing up for ourselves. There is a growing social movement of people with a learning disability claiming their right to the same opportunities as other citizens, to develop their abilities. They are getting organised in self-advocacy groups such as the Clients' Committee of the Alloa Centre, and Advocacy into Action and our own students’ association.

Disability Equality Training

CTDU's banner says, Standing up for ourselves. There is a growing social movement of people with a learning disability claiming their right to the same opportunities as other citizens, to develop their abilities. They are getting organised in self-advocacy groups such as the Clients' Committee of the Alloa Centre, and Advocacy into Action and our own students’ association.

Global Citizenship and Action

This year, the programme funded by the Department for International Development has been supplemented by additional funding raised by the students association at the January ceilidh. Twenty-one people attended nineteen full-day workshops on global and local poverty, refugees and asylum seekers and ecological debt:

Dungavel
On 18th February, Mick Eyre, assistant to Rosie Kane MSP, visited CTDU to speak and answer questions about Dungavel and the experience of refugees in Scotland.

Palestine and Israel
On 19th May, Janet Powney of the organisation Women in Black brought a photographic exhibition about the effect of the Jerusalem wall on the lives of Palestinian people and spoke of her recent visit to Palestine.

Stand Together Oppose Poverty
On 17th October, the students' association attended a rally in George Square, Glasgow to mark International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and presented poetry/drama work.

Ecological debt
Teresa Martinez of Friends of the Earth Scotland led three workshops, on international trade rules, renewable energy and wind farms, and ecology at home.

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Film 4um

Two Film 4um events were run in 2004 in conjunction with Falkirk Town Hall. The format of the evening is to watch a movie which raises relevant social issues, have some food and a drink, then discuss the movie in a structured way. The total audience figure was 78.

Thirteen is an explosive portrait of teenage girls at their very worst. The film starts off with one of the teenage girls desperately wanting to be liked and accepted by the most popular girl in school. They form a close friendship, and are soon confronted with issues of insecurity, confusion, and a feeling that it is time to grow up fast.

Fahrenheit 9/11
Academy Award winning Michael Moore examines the Bush administration's financial ties to Saudi Arabia and the Bin Laden family. The documentary also considers the presidency of Bush and where it has led us! A well researched, fast-paced, highly controversial, and important documentary.

In addition to the above Film 4um events, there are plans to run a Film 4um with a group of young people in Falkirk. The film will be Sweet Sixteen.

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Volunteers' Mentoring Support Project

Funded by the Voluntary Action Fund

The project offers one-to-one and small-group mentoring work. The aim is to work with members who have gone through our Active Citizen programme, supporting them to 'put their learning into practice'. This may be taking on new roles in a community organisation or developing challenging grassroots projects.

So far this year …

The Disability Awareness Group delivered the first training session to raise transport operators awareness of disability access issues (ROAD). The session was very successful with positive feedback from bus operators and taxi drivers. The group gave feedback about the training at a ROAD seminar and presented their video on disabled access to an audience of professionals, councillors and George Reid MSP.

At present, the group are preparing for the launch of their second video, the Wheelchair Challenge, which will be shown at Clackmannanshire Council.
The students' association is now firmly established, with a management committee and regular meetings.

The students' association got off to a flying start at the beginning of the year by holding a very successful fund-raising event that raised £1300. The money went towards funding the students' own educational programme and they were also able to donate some money to a youth group in Ecuador for banner making materials.

The students have also been involved in Risk Assessment and Drystane Dyking training as part of the development of the Bothkennar garden. The garden development is now in the final stages and it is looking braw!

And finally, in July CTDU heard that we had been awarded a grant from the Scottish Community Action Research Fund for a research mentor and we could start our participatory action research project. The project involves members who have a history of mental health problems, focusing on their experience of mental health services.

Capacity Building

With financial support from Falkirk and Clackmannanshire Councils and direct commissions from voluntary organisations, CTDU works with volunteers and community activists to develop skills, knowledge and confidence to represent their communities, run grassroots community organisations and participate in local initiatives. The organisations CTDU has worked with this year include:

In Falkirk . . . Advocacy into Action; Bankier Community Education Association; Cluaran (Barnardos); CVS Falkirk & District; Dawson Area Representative Association; Denny Community Support Group; Falkirk District Association for Mental Health; the Reference Group; Falkirk Lesbian and Gay Society; Falkirk SIP Community Arts; Falkirk Training Consortium; FrienDS Befriending; Greenhill Resource Centre; Linked Work & Training Trust (Central) Limited; Parents Alone Lending Support; Sad, Alone, Depressed Mums; Shieldhill Out of School Care; Volunteer Network; Wider Access to School Project; YMCA Seaforth House.

In Clackmannanshire . . . Advocacy into Action; Alloa Centre Clients' Committee; Clackmannanshire Community Access Volunteers; Clackmannanshire Volunteer Development Agency; Clacksnet; Community Partnership Team; Community Planning in Clackmannanshire pilot; CVS Clackmannanshire; Disability Awareness Group; Linked Work &Training Trust (Central) Limited; People First (in Clackmannanshire); Reachout; ROAD project; Tullibody Residents Association; Whins Resource Centre.

In Stirling (no Council funding). . . Cornton Action Partnership; Cultenhove Opportunities Partnership; CVS Stirling; Stirling Pakistani and Welfare Association; Stirling Users and Carers Network; The Volunteer Centre Stirling; Lets Make It Better, the Sunlite Café. Forth Valley-wide organisations . . . Central Scotland Racial Equality Council; Forth Valley Disability Forum; Open Secret; Wisecrack; Workers Educational Association in Forth Valley.

Other groups . . . Artability; Centre for Human Ecology; Edinburgh Refugee Centre; Enact; Friends of the Earth; Coatbridge GOE group; Popular Education Forum for Scotland; The Scottish Parliament; The Welcoming; and Women in Black.

Income and Expenditure
April 2003 to March 2004

A full set of accounts is available on request.

Reporting Accountants
ATN Chartered Accountants
Greencornhill
38 Falkirk Road
Bannockburn
Stirling
FK7 8AG

Bankers
Bank of Scotland
138/140 High Street
Falkirk
Fk1 1NR

Thanks to

Volunteers

• Finlay Currie for countless hours of centre maintenance, garden development and driving this year.
  
  
• Nigel Ramage for collecting and transporting student association members throughout the year. Well done Nigel and Finlay for gaining your advanced Midas certificates.
  
  
• Ann Gray for shopping and preparing lunch for our students' association and Global Citizenship events. Well done Ann for gaining your Food Hygiene certificate.
  
  
• Lisa Sinclair for clerical assistance and typing congratulations and good luck in your new job, Lisa!
  
  Garden development
  John Diment, BP Grangemouth, Falkirk Environmental Trust, The Co-op Community Dividend Award.
  
  Community Work Students
  Grateful thanks to Finlay Robertson (January March from Linked Work and Training Trust (Central) Limited) and Bill Webster (September December from University of Edinburgh) for their enthusiastic and excellent work for CTDU, particularly on the Global Citizenship programmes.
  
  Ceilidh fundraiser
  Finlay Currie, Liz Johnston, Allan Thomson, Kevin Mochan, Carol Gray, Steven Watson, Drew Wilson, Franny King and the staff at First Group Cumbernauld, Cathy Peattie for singing at the Ceilidh, Raymond McArthur for piping in the haggis, Billy McChord for his fine performance as Holy Willie.
  
  Volunteer tutors and presenters
  Norman Phillip, Friends of the Earth FV; Mick Eyre, Scottish Parliament; Janet Powney, Women in Black; Allan Thomson, Central Training Services.
  
  Sessional workers, consultants and other services
  Jan Nimmo, Jean Bareham, Teresa Martinez, Dan Barlow, Matt Rowley, James Gibson, Alex Staerck, Clare Harwood, Kenneth Knowles, Mike Trubridge, Joette Thomas, Allan Thomson, Andy Hilton, Fraser Currie, Christine Arjun, Gina Alexander, Mary and Martin at Minuteman Press Falkirk.
  
  And finally ….
  All our students and participants for their inspiring, enthusiastic and thoughtful work with CTDU this year.

Previous Annual Reports available online:

2003