Chair's report

Looking back over this past year with CTDU, there have again been many changes in the organisation. Scott has left us for pastures new, and we welcome Alexis Stewart who is a 3rd year student working with Iyaah for a few months. A sixth group has successfully completed the active citizens' programme, culminating in the 'Noising it Up!' event on 1 November. Member groups have produced wonderful banners that have been exhibited at several locations. The very popular film nights have returned to the programme.

We continue to receive funding from Falkirk and Clackmannanshire Councils, the Department for International Development and the Community Fund. The staff continue to complete funding applications to increase our capacity to work with groups in the Forth Valley area. (If anyone wins the lottery a 'wee donation' wouldn't go amiss!)

I read with great interest a dissertation written by Deirdre Parkinson. She found our organisation 'innovative and creative':

Continual thanks go to the Board, members, sessional workers and volunteers for their continuing support, work and belief in CTDU.

Last but not least, many thanks to Iyaah, Rosemary and Linda for the continuing hard work and commitment.

Carey Sinclair, Chair

index

Active Citizens - Action for Equality

index

Active Citizen 6

CTDU brought together this very varied and interesting group in April. The members are people from Falkirk, Clackmannanshire and Stirling whose daily lives are a struggle because of low incomes, disabilities, addictions, and isolation. But each of their lives is also an inspiration because of their positive spirit and community involvement. The group has met on a weekly basis in accessible venues to develop their skills and discuss and learn more about:

· community organisations and their purpose
· poverty and wealth locally and globally
· power and powerlessness
· citizenship and difference
· e-citizenship and
· fundraising

The group has made field trips to their local councils and to the Scottish Parliament. The group attended a cross-party group on disability and one member who uses a wheelchair was able to speak about the lack of accessible transport in Clackmannanshire. The group spoke about their lives and their faith in community action at a CTDU gathering on 1st November -Noising It Up!

" We saw a film about racial discrimination called 'A Class Divided'. It was awesome and left me feeling much more open-minded and aware of racism. Made me realise how easily you can make people feel inferior."

" We spent a brilliant day with Sheila Stewart from the travelling people of Scotland. She was spell-binding, teaching us how to speak up for ourselves and believe in ourselves no matter how much other people try to put us down."

" I feel that my confidence has grown in all aspects of the course, particularly speaking in public and reporting back. I'm more confident about contacting councillors and MSPs."

" I enjoyed being with able-bodied people because I've spent most of my life amongst disabled people. The group members treated me the same as everyone else and helped me develop."

" I've made new friends in the group and been invited to other members' homes for parties. I feel proud of myself because I've been able to organise lunch for the group, and I feel part of a community."

index

index

Exhibitions and Workshops The first exhibition of CTDU's banners was for our AGM last year in the CLiCK Centre, Alloa. Since then, the banners have been exhibited in five venues, including The Glasgow Concert Hall at an SCVO's Conference to raise awareness of prejudice and inequality in Scotland: Many thanks to all the banner-makers and speakers and to the organisations which have hosted our exhibition.

Citizen Education with Clackmannanshire Schools

Funded by the Community Fund and the Department for International Development

Inspired by an exhibition of banners made by members' groups of CTDU, 16 young people from Fairfield School (a school for pupils with special needs) and Alloa Academy got together for two full days in December 2001 to make their own banner at the CLiCK Learning Centre in Alloa. The banner-making project was a way of introducing the pupils to citizen education - a subject soon to be included in the school curriculum. The programme was designed to encourage pupils to:

• mix with young people from other schools and other areas
• think about communities, citizens and representatives
• make a banner which says something about being a young person in Clackmannanshire

Thanks to CTDU co-workers Honey Lyon and Elaine Swift.

index

Elaine Swift - Millennium Award

We were delighted when Elaine Swift was awarded a Millennium Award to enable her to run her own project and develop her skills to raise awareness about mental health issues. The grant has enabled Elaine to pay CTDU for one- to-one training on workshop leadership and computer skills. As well as giving presentations to voluntary and community groups, Elaine has supported a group of CTDU members to make a banner about women's issues and is supporting a group of Open Secret members to make a banner about the experience of sexual abuse.

index

Global Citizenship and Local Action

A 3 year global citizenship programme
funded by the Department for International Development.

This year we have been focusing on trade and aid, and in particular the banana trade in Ecuador. Thanks to community artist Jan Nimmo who is a part-time worker and activist with Banana Link, CTDU has first hand information of conditions of life and work for banana farmers in Ecuador. Jan was in Ecuador when striking workers on the Alamos Plantation were attacked by thugs trying to break the strike. The plantation is owned by Alvaro Noboa, one of the richest men in Latin America and candidate for the next presidential election. Ecuador produces one in every three bananas traded in the world but 85% of Ecuadorian people live below the poverty line. The low wages in the country are a direct result of employers' actions to de-unionise the industry.

CTDU members have been shocked by what they've learned about banana trade and agreed to take the following actions:

• make two banners, one in Spanish to send to Ecuador for the workers to carry on the May Day march in Guayaquil next May, and one for ourselves to carry on the May Day march in Edinburgh
• join email campaigns in support of Ecuadorian banana workers at a training event at the CLiCK Centre in Alloa on 25th October
  
• raise awareness about, and raise funds for the Alamos workers and their families at the 'Noising it up!' event on 1st November in Stirling
• look for Fair Trade bananas in the supermarkets and put pressure on the supermarkets to stock Fair Trade products

Capacity Building

CTDU believes that locally managed community and voluntary organisations are important local and collective responses to the experience of poverty and exclusion. In these organisations, people can join together to learn more about the conditions which limit their potential, enabling them to respond with practical, challenging and informed action.

CTDU receives core funding of £9,090 from Falkirk Council and £4,930 from Clackmannanshire Council to support and promote effective community participation and active citizenship in partnership with local statutory and voluntary agencies.

The organisations CTDU has worked with this year include:

In Clackmannanshire: Clacksnet, the CLiCK Centre, the Whins Centre, Clackmannanshire Volunteer Development Agency, Council of Voluntary Service Clackmannanshire, Clackmannanshire Tenants' and Residents' Federation, Reachout, Clackmannanshire Association for Mental Health, Alloa Academy and Fairfield School, Essential Skills Centre, Clackmannanshire Adult Learner Providers Forum and Clackmannanshire Council and partners in the Philosophical Enquiry Pilot project.

In Falkirk: Open Secret, Regener8 Internet Café, Denny Asian Women's Group, The Hope Project, Denny Community Support Group, Linked Work and Training Trust (Central), Central Scotland Racial Equality Council, the Rainbow Group, Greenhill Resource Centre, Bankier Community Education Association Sports Hall Steering group, Dawson Area Representatives Association, the Council for the Voluntary Sector Falkirk & District, Denny Wider Access to School Project, Dawson HNC in Community Work students, Advocacy into Action.

In Stirling: the Volunteer Centre, Stirling, Cornton Community School Parents' Group, Lets Make It Better, Adult Carers Education project, Raploch Community Centre.

Financial Report

• Linda McVicar, our office volunteer, for her careful document proof reading and much needed assistance with information and resource management.
• People who have been volunteer tutors, group leaders and assistants this year: Elaine Swift - banner making, Honey Lyon - citizen education and banner-making, Sally Anne Goldie - active citizens 6, Julie Johnston - banana project, Shamime Mansoori - active citizens 6.
• Volunteer drivers: Julie Johnson, Helen Smith and Maggie Burgess.
• Sessional workers and consultants: Jan Nimmo, Stan Reeves, Anne Emerson Smith, Sheila Stewart, Ewan McVicar, Jean Bareham, Alex Staerck.
• Advocacy into Action
• For catering: all the active citizen students.
• Free use of training and meeting rooms: Linked Work & Training Trust (Central), Raploch Community Centre, Denny Community Centre, the Whins Centre, the Cowane Centre, Council of Voluntary Service Clackmannanshire.
• For support with cultural projects: Kirsteen Macdonald and Dave McDonald of Stirling Council's Cultural Services.
• For CTDU maintenance & repairs and volunteer driving: Finlay Currie.
• Central Training Services, Bo'ness for lending us their mini-bus
• Mary and Martin at Minuteman Press Falkirk for helpful services
• All our students and participants for their inspiring, enthusiastic and thoughtful work with CTDU this year.

  index