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Springboig and Barlanark Thriving Place

The Thriving Places area covers Queenslie, Wellhouse, Barlanark, Budhill, Greenfield and Springboig and Easthall. The area is bounded by the M8 to the north and the railway line to the south.

Thriving Places was introduced in Springboig and Barlanark in 2017 to help improve the quality of life of people who live and work here. This can mean trying to improve health and wellbeing, community safety, education, employment, income, housing, the local environment or access to services. It can also mean encouraging local involvement in decision making. This 10-year plan will tell you more about what Thriving Places is doing in Springboig and Barlanark.

 

 

How You Can Get Involved

If you would like to get involved or for further information on Springboig and Barlanark Thriving Place, please contact your Community Connector Ola Pawluk at Glasgow Kelvin College: olapawluk@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk

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2020/21 Update

2020/2021 began with the COVID-19 lockdown and the main project activities consisted of supporting local community members, groups and organisations with the COVID-19 response. This included supporting Glasgow Girls FC to identify and apply for funding for emergency provisions for the community. Additionally, toys and produce were distributed to community through Glasgow Girls, the Buddies, Springburn Church, RYA and Kinship Carers. Connect Community Trust were also provided with funding towards COVID-19 response. This work was co-ordinated by the maternity leave cover for the Community Connector, who returned on a phased basis in June 2020. The summer months were spent planning how to deliver the project work under the current and changing restrictions due to ongoing pandemic.

Thriving Places partners and the Community Connector attempted to reach as many residents as possible to talk to them about local neighbourhoods and identify areas residents would like to improve. Local residents were asked about their experiences of lockdown and what support may be needed going forward as restrictions are relaxed. This was achieved by a range of methods which, due to ongoing pandemic included largely one-to-one conversations and interviews (on the phone or messenger), group discussions (MS Teams, Facebook groups), an online survey and discussions on social media.

The Community Connector also carried out in-depth interviews with community members which contributed to research led by the Social Renewal Advisory Board and Glasgow Social Recovery Task Force. Twelve in-depth phone interviews with local community members including those on the shielding list were conducted.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions the format of planned consultations was altered to allow for more informal conversations with people on social media. This soon became a key way of engaging with local residents, as many people were found discussing local issues and voicing their frustrations online. Litter, the disrepair of playparks and anti-social-behaviour were among the main issues discussed. Initially community members were encouraged to report these issues via MyGlasgow app and also to speak to their local councillors. However, one-to-one phone calls were arranged to better understand the issues of anti-social-behaviour around Greenfield Park. This information was then collated and sent to Police, Fire Rescue, NRS, Glasgow Life and Glasgow Kelvin College. 

The online survey was co-designed by the Community Connectors in Easterhouse and Springboig and Barlanark to gather views of residents about local priorities. 198 responses were received from the survey. The results indicated the following local priorities:

  • clean and well-maintained green spaces,
  • improving access to information and
  • community spirit and engagement.

As a result, the Greenspace Group was set up with local people as an initial way of addressing all three of these priorities. In March 2021 the group had their first virtual meeting, attended by 14 people (11 community members, 2 elected members and a Health Improvement professional). The group aims to take action on improving and celebrating green spaces. This was initially set up as a Facebook Group and people were encouraged to discuss their vision for green spaces along with any concerns and issues for immediate action. This information then was fed into the consultation data for the local action plan and issues for immediate action were fed back to Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability (NRS) within Glasgow City Council. Conversations about how to improve information sharing has led to a noticeboard being identified by community members, which will be brought back to community use.

The Community Connector has provided information to communities in various ways, for example providing reports to Baillieston Area Partnership and East Centre Area Partnership to update the members on progress in 2020/21 and locality planning has now been put as a standing item on the agenda. Information has been made more widely available to local communities through the online map-based directory, Pathfinder (https://www.northeastglasgow.co.uk/). Due to the rapidly changing landscape of service provision, community groups and organisations it was decided that publishing a Pathfinder booklet with all local services would not be effective as the information would soon be out-of-date. Instead, an information leaflet was produced to give details on local services. Leaflets were distributed at Easter time to 200 members of Easterhouse Baptist Church in Easterhouse and Easthall.

Regular social media posts along with the use of e-mail distribution list were used to keep local communities informed about self-isolation support, food distribution, digital access, mental health support as well as what is happening in the local areas, job openings and opportunities for getting involved in the local groups. The number of followers the Facebook page for Springboig/ Barlanark Thriving Place has risen from 262 to 477 over 2020/21.

A number of local projects were supported by Thriving Places over the year and some examples are shown below. Due to the lockdown and ongoing restrictions the progress in setting up a Spingboig/Barlanark community council was paused in March 2020. However, the need for a local community council is still evident and the Community Connector has been contacted by some people who signed the petition, keen to see progress. This work will continue to be supported and a community council will be established for the local area.

The Leafy Garden is a new community project in Greenfield, started by a group of residents who during the COVID-19 lockdown started cleaning and maintaining their immediate neighbourhood. They were supported to organise a socially distanced Halloween Party for children following COVID-19 regulations at the time. They are now a constituted group and are planning to develop a community garden and to provide a welcoming space for community activities.

Springboig and Barlanark Snowman Trail 2020 was an initiative by a community member in Springboig to organise a festive window trail. Thriving Places supported initial meetings during which a small group of residents brainstormed, planned and organized the trail. The group also applied to Thriving Places for a small grant to purchase jingle bells and Santa hats which were given out along the trail in contact-free manner following COVID-19 precautions.

The Barlanark Easter Egg Trai lwas organised by the Greenspace Group and the Community Connector. They received a small grant towards the purchase of the eggs. Additionally, Gardeen Housing Association provided a donation towards Easter Egg Prizes and Greyfriars Youth Project agreed to host the funds and help with poster design.

The Jiggly Joggers Egg Trail in Springboig and Budhill was supported through a small grant from Thriving Places and signposted towards applying for a Wee-G community grant for future community events. Additionally, Jiggly Joggers wanted to incorporate local histories into their trail. To support them with that a mailout through Thriving Places helped to collect information on local history from local partners such as Glasgow Life and Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership.

The Barlanark Community Garden began with a local resident approaching Thriving Places about setting up a community garden in Barlanark. An initial meeting with Glasgow City Council was arranged to identify ownership of the land and outline support available and next steps the group could take to establish the community garden.

Easthall Residents Association received funding towards their outdoor activities for adults which will help local community members to re-gain confidence in going out and meeting people post-lockdown.

Greyfriars Youth Project received funding towards development of their outdoor facilities for young people including pizza oven.Additionally, GYP received advice on funding opportunities for refurbishment of their youthwork room.

East End Flat Pack Meals received funding towards hire of their community vehicle as well as advice on funding and guidance on recruiting board members.

2019/20 Update

A new Community Connector, Ola Pawluk, was recruited in April 2019 by Glasgow Kelvin College. Ola spent the first couple of months getting to know the community through walkabouts, meeting community organisations, groups and mapping out the community assets. Ola was on maternity leave between November 2019 and June 2020. During this time Sharon Keenan, who also works at Glasgow Kelvin College, took on the Community Connector role.

Ola and Sharon spoke with over 213 local residents to find out how they felt about the local area. This was done at numerous local events including Greyfriars Summer Fayre, Newhills Street Party, Blairtummock Gala Day, Shettleston Fun Day, St. George's and St. Peter's Summer Fayre, Cranhill Development Trust Fun Day, Greyfriars Fun Day, FARE Summer Gala, Wellhouse Gala and Calvay Coffee Morning. In addition, 394 local people were consulted by placement students from Glasgow Kelvin College during Budhill and Easterhouse Winterfest.

Children and young people were asked about life in the local area at the Glenburn Summer Programme, a youth event in Springboig and Greenfield, and a community litter-pick in Wellhouse. A 'What matters to you' consultation event was also held for local people with disabilities, in partnership with Glasgow Disability Alliance.

The Community Connectors visited and spoke with many community groups including Calvay Volunteer Group, Springboig and Budhill Allotments, Burnmouth Court, Glenburn Centre stall, Tollcross Walking Group, Wellhouse Allotments, Wellhouse Sewing Club, Wellhouse Lunch Club and Easterhouse Baptist Church Café.

Weekly information stalls were trialled at Barlanark Community Centre and Calvay Centre. The stalls were used to share information about services and activities available in the local area. The benefit of a regular stall was that there was a set time and place where residents were able to access information, chat to Community Connector and learn about Thriving Places. The stalls were located at the entrance of the centres' and took place at the busiest time, as identified by staff members. The aim of these stalls was to engage with community members who may not be already members of groups, parents who are dropping off kids to clubs or afterschool care. The stalls were also used to engage with community members or consultations and locality plan, with printed copies available.

The stall at Barlanark Community Centre was used as a point of contact, as people could pop in at the set time each week to pick up leaflets, have a chat and sign petitions. This stall continued on weekly basis from June until October 2019.

These conversations with local people will help shape a refreshed locality plan and group of community representatives was set up to help produce the new plan.

 

Springboig and Barlanark Thriving Places Steering Group

 

2019

pdf icon November 2019 Springboig and Barlanark Thriving Places Steering Group [65kb]

pdf icon October 2019 Springboig and Barlanark Thriving Places Steering Group [76kb]

pdf icon August 2019 Springboig and Barlanark Thriving Places Steering Group [74kb]

pdf icon June 2019 Springboig and Barlanark Thriving Places Steering Group [178kb]

pdf icon May 2019 Steering Group Springboig [322kb]

pdf icon March 2019 Steering Group Springboig [292kb]

pdf icon January 2019 Steering Group [726kb]

2018

pdf icon November 2018 [431kb]

pdf icon October 2018 [476kb]

pdf icon August 2018 [507kb]

pdf icon June 2018 [526kb]

pdf icon April 2018 [335kb]

 

Further Information

The locality plan for Springboig/Barlanark can be found here. pdf icon Springboig Barlanark Locality Plan [1Mb]

Website: https://northeastglasgow.co.uk/springboigbarlanark

Twitter @TBarlanark

Facebook:www.facebook.com/TPSpringboigBarlanark

Information on this webpage is provided by Springboig and Barlanark Thriving Places steering group, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Glasgow Community Planning Partnership.