Friday 24 March 2023

Welcome to Community, your Dumfries and Galloway community bulletin. 

We are always keen to hear of any positive stories about things that are happening in your community and would like to feature them in Community – please email us at communitybulletin@dumgal.gov.uk and one of our reporters will get back to you.

Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III – Useful Information and Guidance

The Coronation of His Majesty, King Charles III and his wife Camilla, Her Majesty, The Queen Consort, as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms will take place on Saturday 6 May 2023, at Westminster Abbey. A three-day Coronation Weekend is being promoted, encouraging individuals, businesses, and community organisations across Scotland to celebrate the Coronation, the first for seventy years.

Dumfries and Galloway Council has launched a dedicated webpage that will be continuously updated as further details are announced and arrangements made. It signposts to all the national celebrations including the Coronation Ceremony, the Coronation Big Lunch, the Big Help Out, and to the Coronation Champions Awards 2023 – as well as other useful resources and signposts to funding for those looking to organise their very own Coronation Big Lunch or street party.

Call for More Foster Carers

Dumfries and Galloway Council's Fostering and Adoption Team is currently recruiting carers to provide temporary and permanent care for children and young people who cannot live with their own families. This can be for weeks, months or for the rest of their childhood.

Carers can come from all kinds of ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds. You need to be over 21 years of age – but there's no upper age limit – have a spare room, and be warm, caring, patient and understanding. All carers need to be committed to providing high quality care and support to vulnerable children. You'll be helping ensure the child is cared for in a safe, stimulating environment so they can grow and thrive as individuals and as part of a family.

Potential carers will undertake an application process and, if successful in becoming a carer, will have an allocated worker from the Fostering and Adoption Team. You will meet your worker regularly, at least monthly, but more often if required. Training is provided through the team, and there are support networks in our region. A fee of £167.68 a week is provided to foster carers alongside a weekly age-related allowance payment to pay for everything the child needs.

If you'd like to find out more about becoming a carer, there is information on the dedicated website at Fostering and Adoption – Dumfries and Galloway Council 

You can also email fosteringandadoption@dumgal.gov.uk to request more information or call 01387 260068 to talk to one of the members of the Fostering and Adoption Team.

Free Training Launched for Organisations Across Dumfries and Galloway

An new programme of free training has been revealed this week for charities and community groups across Dumfries and Galloway. The 46 events will be delivered online by Third Sector Dumfries and Galloway (TSDG) and start next month.

The events will focus on business development, governance, funding, and volunteering. Topics covered will include evaluation, business planning, sustainability, equality and diversity, risk management, financial management, officer bearers and trustees, and managing volunteers.

Returning this year are the popular opportunities to meet both national and local funders; featuring The National Lottery Community Fund, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Robertson Trust, The Holywood Trust, Scottish Land Fund, Foundation Scotland, and Firstport.

Organisations can also tap into TSDG’s experience with a session on how to write a successful funding application.

Place are limited so staff, trustees, and volunteers are urged to book as soon as possible for topics of interest.

Free Holiday Activities

The spring holidays are here again, and we've pulled together a sample of the activities that are available.

DG Culture facilities have a broad range of exhibitions and events. From Jason Wilsher-Mills' exhibition exploring themes of disability to the Hidden Gems of the Dumfries and Galloway Collections, there is lots to see and do.

Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries has the annual Easter Egg Hunt in its gardens on Friday 7 and Saturday 8 April, 11am to 3pm. There is also the opportunity to go indoors and try air-dry clay Easter decorations, and decorate bunny masks and cards. If you'd like to be involved, please pre-book a one hour time slot in advance where possible on both days.

Kids' clubs are also running at Gracefield on:

• Wed 5 April: Melted Crayon Rainbow Art.
• Wed 12 April: Lava Lamps.
• Sat 15 April: Printmaking skills.
• Sat 15 April: Teens: Printmaking.

Big DoG Children's Book Festival Big DoG is the annual family festival for Dumfries. Named in honour of Nana, the big dog who looks after the Darling children in Peter Pan, the festival is based in Moat Brae, home of J.M. Barrie and Scotland's Centre for Children's Literature.  The festival runs from 30 March to 2 April.

Springing into spring As we move into spring, many of the local visitor attractions are opening up. One of these is a newly improved adventure playpark at Drumlanrig Castle and Country Estate – opening 1 April. If you would like to let more people know about your visitors attraction that's opening or reopening, an event or activity, then please contact us at communitybulletin@dumgal.gov.uk

Terrific Twos Entitlement

In those early years, when little ones are learning all the time, Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) can make a huge difference to families with young children. Here’s the really good bit – all three- and four-year-olds, and around a quarter of two-year-olds, can get up to 1140 hours of childcare per year.

This is free to you, funded by the Scottish Government and local authorities. That works out at about 30 hours a week if you use it during school term-time, or around 22 hours a week if you use it year-round. You can access ELC at nurseries, childminders, or playgroups.

The strategy will feature five key themes that have been identified by young people through extensive consultation with their peers across Dumfries and Galloway, and will include actions that will promote women in leadership, sports, education, and challenge stereotypes, media pressure and bullying. At the beginning of March, the group travelled to Blackpool, to meet up with similar young women’s groups from Northern Ireland, Wales and England.

While there, the groups participated in the Fyldecoast International Women’s Day Festival held at Blackpool Sixth Form College, bringing together four Nations of Young Women to learn together, collaborate and share experiences.  Cloe Alison, a member of the D&G Network said: “It was a really unique opportunity to be able to spend time with the young women from all four Nations and be able to learn from each other’s experiences. We have come back feeling really positive and empowered, with lots of ideas that will help us put the finishing touches to our own strategy that we are hoping to launch this summer. It’s a really exciting time!”

The network creates a platform to empower young women, raise aspirations, build confidence and resilience and take steps towards making meaningful change within our communities. If you are aged between 12 and 25 and would like to get involved, please get in touch by emailing youth.work@dumgal.gov.uk or through the Youth Work social media pages – search for @YouthWorkDG

Happy Birthday DG Doing More

DG Doing More launched on 21 March 2022 and aims to encourage and enable people to be more physically active across Dumfries and Galloway.

Since its launch, the DG Doing More website has engaged thousands of people across the region. Over 5500 people have visited the website (4.5% of the adult population of D&G), with page views approaching 18,000.

The Active Communities Facebook page, which is linked to #DGDoingMore, has also seen a huge increase in traffic with the page being visited almost 16,000 times with a reach of over 100,000. 

Led by Dumfries and Galloway Council with the Dumfries and Galloway Health and Social Care Partnership and Third Sector partners, the DG Doing More website has been locally developed to be a one-stop shop for anyone looking to become more active in our region.

There are lots of ways to get involved with Active Communities, and DG Doing More, to get more active, and to meet new people. You can find the right activity and location for you at the DG Doing More website dgdoingmore.co.uk

Kiltwalk for Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes

Five friends from Annan and Eastriggs will be walking 23 miles at the Glasgow Kiltwalk on Sunday 30 April to support Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes. Friends Marie Walker, Linda Richardson, Rosie Mackenzie, Linda Carruthers and Hazel Richardson were trying to decide which charity to walk for as there are so many to choose from. But they wanted to raise money for this area and decided on Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes, a charitable organisation set up by local volunteers to deliver essential blood and urgent medical supplies for the NHS. The organisation operates 24/7, 365 days a year and relies solely on donations. So far the group has raised over £1200 with only a few weeks left to go. The training is hard, but the team are up to 18 miles so far with many aches, pains and blisters to show for their efforts. Any donation large or small would make a big difference.

The RBCFT Film of the Week

The RBCFT film of the week is 1979 sci-fi Stalker, from Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and long considered one of the greatest films ever made. Stalker tells the story of an expedition led by a figure known as the "Stalker", who guides his two clients – a melancholic writer seeking inspiration, and a professor seeking scientific discovery – through a hazardous wasteland to a mysterious restricted site known simply as the "Zone", where there supposedly exists a room which grants a person's innermost desires. The film features a screenplay written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, loosely based on their 1972 novel Roadside Picnic. The film departs considerably from the novel – the film has basically nothing in common with the novel except for the two words "Stalker" and "Zone". Like Tarkovsky's other films, Stalker relies on long takes with slow, subtle camera movement, containing 142 shots in 163 minutes. Upon its release, the film was popular with over four million tickets sold in Russia. However, reception was less than favourable. On being told by the Russian State Committee for Cinematography that Stalker should be faster and more dynamic, Tarkovsky replied: “The film needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts”. Critical consensus now is overwhelmingly positive. The film featured at #43 in last year’s Sight and Sound Top 100 Films of All Time. According to Little White Lies “Stalker is a movie to be watched as many times as physically possible... It really is that astounding”. Stalker is showing at the RBCFT on Sunday 26 March at 2pm. The film was chosen for screening by Dr Connor McMorran, one of the RBC Monday Night regulars. Dr McMorran will also provide an introduction on why he regards the film so highly.