JCI Edinburgh community projects are more than just about raising money for charity, even although that is often a natural outcome of our work.
Our work in this area has two main aims- to benefit our members by providing them with professional experience at a level that they would not get in their workplaces, and secondly to benefit our partner charities, by providing free professional advice and services of a standard they would not normally benefit from.
To find out more, or to get more involved contact our Community Director, Alastair Davis at community@ejcc.org.uk.
Streetwork UK were set up twelve years ago to tackle the problem of youth gangs in Edinburgh's city centre but very quickly found many people on the streets in severe crisis, sleeping outdoors, working in prostitution, underage runaways, involved in prostitution, injecting drugs and involved in crime. Today Streetwork are out on the streets every night of the year, in all weathers in the city centre, offering vulnerable people crisis support, making sure they are safe and helping find them crisis accommodation. In Edinburgh's housing estates, Streetwork offer young people advice and support, to help them stay off drugs, away from crime and to make better choices about sexual health.
Streetwork and JCI Edinburgh have a long history of working in partnership. Streetwork have benefited from funds raised at our annual Burns Supper as well as professional advice on marketing and communuications.
Scotland Yard Adventure Centre
The Yard aims to provide adventure play opportunities for children and young people with special needs in an exciting but supportive environment. The Yard are currently fundraising for a minibus to enable new after school provision for children and their families. This will ensure that many more families are able to access The Yard and greatly improve the opportuinites for young people to access other opportunites and services throughout Edinburgh and the Lothians.
In 2005, JCI Edinburgh assisted The Yard by designing and printing a poster to help them publicise their summer festival. By providing this professional support, valauble staff time at the Yard was freed up.
In 2006, The Yard will be the main beneficiaries of our Summer Quiz event.
The OneCity Trust was launched in 2004 to channel funds and ideas from Edinburgh's businesses and individuals for the benefit of the city. Grants from OneCity are made available to organisations and projects specifically working at grass roots level to promote inclusion. The emphahsis is on supporting initiatives that encourage participation and demonstrate potential for future self sustainability. The founding of the Trust was the direct consequence of a report, commissioned by Edinburgh's Lord Provost, which attempted to uncover the extent of social exclusion in the city and provide some solutions.
OneCity are our newest partner charity. As well as benefiting from a share of the funds raised from our annual Burns Supper, we hope to provide the Trust with professional Events Management support during 2006.
