Friday 12 January 2024
Welcome to Community, your Dumfries and Galloway community bulletin. We'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year, and wish you all the best for 2024.
As always, if you have any positive stories about things that are happening in your community and would like to see them featured in Community – please email us at communitybulletin@dumgal.gov.uk and one of our reporters will get back to you.
 A to Z of Dumfries and Galloway Council
P is for Patience
This is Dawn Kuehnel.
Dawn is a support coordinator in an Activity and Resource Centre in Dumfries.
Dawn’s role is to coordinate activities and support people with learning and physical disabilities, helping them remain active and as independent as possible. Dawn plans activities like art and drama, cooking and sport while building confidence, developing skills and creating opportunities at the wonderful Burns Street Activity and Resource Centre (ARC) – and around the community of Dumfries.
Supported people, regardless how complex their needs may be, are supported to enjoy all that the ARC offers as a safe environment where they are encouraged to make it their own. A place that they are safe, where they can be their authentic selves, experience different activities and build friendships and life skills.
Dawn uses different methods of communication to interact with clients including Signalong, body language, talking mats, as well as understanding how to use and support people to use electronic devices to communicate. The supported people have a wide variety of disabilities and learning support needs and Dawn has the natural ability to find everyone’s strengths – and goes out of her way each day to bring happiness and joy to all activities.
Dawn’s day-to-day role is full of variety. On a single day Dawn can support someone with complex needs in the community, develop life skills like shopping in town and socialising in the community before heading back to the ARC to then lead on a kitchen skills group before serving up delicious lunches. In the afternoon Dawn could attend a transition meeting for young adults who are considering attending the ARC after leaving school or chairing reviews for those she works with, supporting them to make choices or changes to their lives along with their families. How fun and varied does Dawn’s job sound?
It’s fair to say Dawn goes above and beyond…
One supported person enjoyed playing the tin whistle…what did Dawn do? Learned to play along so they could duet and perform together.
Another supported person was afraid of costumes and masks (Halloween was particularly difficult). Dawn worked with the person to feel the mask, working up to them placing the mask on Dawn’s face, before wearing it herself. This person went on to play the Gingerbread man in the annual pantomime.
Dawn takes her time, is considerate of abilities, creates positive learning aims, produces achievable (and fun) tasks, and quite simply changes lives.
FACT – The Dumfries Activity and Resource Centre supports 61 people a week…all of whom attend on a part-time basis.
FACT 2 – The supported people who attend have a members’ forum. This is a constituted group that raises funds to support activities delivered and who vote on any ideas brought forward by staff, giving them control over what support they receive and how funds are spent. Empowering decision making by those who receive the support is a truly wonderful reality, supported by the service.
The members of the forum voted for a post-covid party for all clients, friends, families and staff to celebrate being back in their much loved and supportive environment – a fabulous display of empowerment and celebration.
Best part of the job? “The people. I adore everyone I work with – supported people and staff. We laugh every day, we bring to joy to each other’s lives, we are creative, supportive and we champion one another to live life to the fullest. Working at the ARC makes me truly happy – there is so much variety to my role and I know what I do makes a difference. I only hope everyone around me understands what a positive impact they have on me.”
Dawn particularly loves leading the drama group each Friday, ensuring she supports the group to take part in either onstage or backstage roles that they are comfortable with each year, creating a performance that is as fun for the people taking part as it is for the audiences watching.
With 18 people attending this group, the creative output and diversity of shows is nothing other than first-class. One person loves to be the ‘baddy’ and brings his energy every year to the stage and loves when the audience interacts with him. Every show has a Spice Girls song in the performance – purely because one member of the group is the biggest fan of the band ever – and it makes him happier and more confident when hearing it. It is for that reason that Dawn used her directorial skills for last year's production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and renamed the forest fairies as the ‘Spice Fairies’.
From set design to production, learning scripts, advertising and performing, Dawn and the whole drama group work tirelessly to create these much-loved pantomimes, and have done so for ten years – fully understanding the impact it has on those involved.
Dawn tells us: “The pantomime is something truly special to all who engage with it. Seeing the reaction of the families who come and watch is emotional. Watching everyone on stage who has worked so hard for so long, smiling and dancing, and more importantly so proud of themselves to perform makes the hard work worth it. The drama performances are up there with some of my proudest moments!”
Dawn, it is true that the smallest of changes can make monumental impacts, and this is what you and your colleagues do for the people you support and their families.
You rush to work because you adore what you do with those that you do it for, and you return home happy because you see the impact you make. It is the smiles you give, the detailed planning of every activity, the pride in your work and the connections you make with all those around you that are precious, important and valued.
 Cost-of-Living Help for Dumfries and Galloway Households
The winter season is in full swing, and keeping our homes warm can be a real challenge. Energy Savers Week 2024 is coming up from 15 to 21 January, and it's an excellent opportunity to learn about low-cost ways to save energy and money on your heating bills.
In Dumfries and Galloway, we're proud to offer helpful resources and links on energy efficiency and cost-saving measures on our partnership website, Cost of Living DG. We're also conducting a user survey to make the Cost of Living DG website even more helpful to our region's residents. Click here to share your valuable feedback.
Citizens Advice also recently shared its Five Winter Warmer Tips, which you can access on the website here. This Energy Savers Week, take control of your energy usage and make a positive impact on the environment and your finances. Check out Cost of Living DG and Citizens Advice for helpful tips on saving energy and money this winter.
 Enrolment for Infant Beginners
Children in Scotland usually start school between the ages of four-years-six-months and five-years-six-months. All children who are four-years-old at the start of the school year can defer and start primary one the following year.
Parents are asked to attend their catchment school to request a place at either their catchment school or to request a place at a non-catchment school for their child(ren). Parents are required to bring along proof of address and the child’s date of birth, between Monday 29 January 2024 and Friday 2 February.
Details of catchment schools can be found on the council’s website (www.dumgal.gov.uk). Enrolment by the appropriate date is particularly important in light of the legislation regarding parents’ choice of school to be attended.
Further information regarding the enrolment process can be obtained from your catchment primary school and on the council’s website.
Parents are reminded of their right to retain their child(ren) at home until the enrolment date following their fifth birthday.
 Rosefield Mills Builds Momentum
The Rosefield Mills buildings, located within the Dumfries Conservation Area, are the last surviving large-scale Victorian industrial buildings in Dumfries, and are therefore of key cultural and historic importance to the town. Dumfries Historic Buildings Trust (DHBT) acquired the most prominent and significant of the former mill buildings that has a colossal Venetian palazzo frontage to the River Nith, in 2018.
The team behind the preservation and development of Rosefield Mills has been working tremendously hard, and gaining positive results. In 2020, funding was secured from the Scottish Government's Town Centre Capital Grants Fund to carry out some essential repairs to the roof, and to consolidate the masonry on the river frontage to ensure the safety of people using the riverside path. A large workshop space was created and let. In 2023, two tranches of funding from South of Scotland Enterprise allowed further roof repairs to be carried out, and more workshop space to be provided.
To showcase the progress so far, two events have been organised:
Midwinter Light at Rosefield Mills, Dumfries
Help to lighten the dark winter nights and come to Dock Park from 6pm to 7pm today (Friday 12 January) to see colourful floodlights switched on to illuminate the beautiful river frontage of the Rosefield Mills building. The ceremony will be performed by the Provost of Dumfries, Councillor Maureen Johnstone.
The floodlighting, delivered by super energy-efficient units, will be on every night until Easter. This is a project by Dumfries Historic Buildings Trust and has been made possible by funding through Dumfries and Galloway Council from the 2023 Community Led Vision Fund.
Open Day, Rosefield Mills
Please join the team at Rosefield Mills from 11am to 3pm on Saturday 13 January for an open day. This is an opportunity to see inside the mill buildings and meet volunteers from Dumfries Historic Buildings Trust. You can also have your say on what you think should happen with Rosefield Mills, and how the Dumfries Historic Buildings Trust can find a viable and sustainable future for this beautiful and iconic local landmark.
Luke Moloney, Chair of Dumfries Historic Buildings Trust, said "This is a great opportunity to celebrate Rosefield Mills, and to focus attention on finding a viable and sustainable future for this iconic building, which is so much a part of the history of Dumfries."
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Rural Youth Phone Photography Competition Open
The Rural Youth Phone Photography Competition is now running with a closing date of 5 February, and aims to reach young people across the region.
The competition hopes to open up conversations by providing a public platform for young people to express their interpretation of identity and rural ‘home’ through an accessible familiar visual medium. Young people must be aged 14 to 25, and either currently living in or having previously lived in Dumfries and Galloway.
There is £100 prize and you have to be in it...to win it. young people are encouraged to get their phones out and capture images of how they see ‘home’ and rural life.
Full details on the competition and how to enter are on www.tidespace.uk and @tidespace on instagram.
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 Ryan Centre Spring Programme Announced
The Ryan Centre in Stranraer has published its new spring programme, with a fantastic range of movies and theatre showings.
Tickets and information for all shows can be found on TicketSource or by phoning the Ryan Centre on 01776 703535.
You can also sign up to the Ryan Centre newsletter to receive updates straight to your inbox. Simply click the link and select the topics you'd like to hear more about.
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