We would like to celebrate the successful opening and running of a new community hub for people affected by addiction in Craigmillar and Niddrie, called ‘The Bothy’. This was setup by a group called Let the People Sing who are local residents all with lived experience of addiction and recovery, who have been supported by Connecting Craigmillar, a Thistle Health & Well-Being project, over the last 14 months.
At the end of 2021 a couple of local residents who are in recovery and involved in local CA (Cocaine Anonymous) and NA (Narcotics Anonymous) groups, approached Connecting Craigmillar about the lack and services and support for people affected by addiction in the community, and their desire to challenge this and set something up.
We then assisted them in setting up a local recovery forum that met monthly, which was led by those community members and grew and grew, and started to including third sector and public sector representatives too alongside community members.
They named themselves Let the People Sing after the Helen Crummy phrase (from the Craigmillar Festival Society), inspired by the history of collective action and self-help in the area, and their intention to support people in recovery to have a voice together to shape the support that is needed.
In the summer of 2022 they managed to negotiate with the council to get access to an old shop on the ‘Main Road’ to start setting up this new recovery hub. At the same time they were collectively campaigning to have Local services for people with problematic substance use reinstated, that were removed at the start of Covid and for which there was no intention to return these to the area.
To take this forward they started to receive additional support from Advocard and have met with local councillors, MSP, MP, and engaged with council officers and the NHS/EIJB.
‘The Bothy’ is at 92 Niddrie Mains Road, next to the pharmacy and opposite the East Neighbourhood Centre/Craigmillar library. Thistle Foundation took on the lease on behalf of the group in September 2022 and local community members renovated it entirely themselves, doing all the DIY, painting, decorating, flooring and fittings.
They have converted it into a warm welcoming community space, with open meeting area, private meeting space, small tea/coffee kitchen area, toilet, and storage. It also has a memorial wall dedicated to remembering all those who have been lost in this community to drugs and alcohol.
It was opened to the public on Wednesday 25th January with performances from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, portrait art with local artist Sean Barret, speeches from community members, Connecting Craigmillar and the Edinburgh Alcohol and Drugs Partnership, and visits from MSP Ash Regan, local councillor Jane Meagher, GP practice managers, Turning Point Scotland, and many others. see the short film on the Bothy opening
The group successfully fundraised themselves through a crowdfunder to get money for the rent, and then have secured grant funding and support from Social Action Inquiry and Edinburgh Alcohol and Drugs Partnership to get it going and keep up the monthly costs, and to appoint a full-time Recovery Coordinator, Lisa Macmillan, who has now started.
‘The Bothy’ is now up and running and has a very full programme of activities, that are mostly organised and run by local community members, and some run in partnership with Turning Point Scotland or other 3rd sector providers. Volunteers are also taking part in a 10 week Recovery Coaching course , along with other training, and will be providing peer support and mentoring as well as groupwork.
Let The People Sing has established an interim Board of people with lived experience of addiction, and has applied to become a SCIO (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation) itself, with help from Connecting Craigmillar and the Scottish Recovery Consortium
The group has also welcomed visitors from a similar community group in Dundee and ran workshops with Queen Margaret University. It is going from strength to strength and an inspiring example of community-led action and connection, based on the principles of mutual aid/helping others who have shared experiences.
See the existing programme below, with various groups and drop-in sessions, and there are more groups and activities being added all the time. For more information or if you know anyone living in the local community of Craigmillar/Niddrie, Bingham and Magdalene who would be interested contact [email protected] or [email protected].
Hi Will
The support we have received from CC has been exceptional and it is not exaggerating to say that without the help of Connecting Craigmillar and the Thistle, we would still be near the starting blocks with our project to get better services for people suffering from addictions in the area.
With CC’s help, we have achieved a number of wins in gaining a return of services and moving on getting reprovisioning of vital prescribing services in the area which desperately needs it. But the main thing is making recovery from addiction visible in an area which has been hit hard by addictions and dependencies to substances.
The establishment of the Recovery Forum was only really possible with CC’s help and it has brought key players from the ADP and other service providers to face challenges of woeful service provision in the area from those of us with local knowledge and lived experience of addiction.
Through being an intermediary for us we were able to get premises from the council and get the support of the Thistle in taking out the lease on the premises, so that we could set up there, and get funding working for our community. As a result, The Bothy, a recovery community center is now open and has already provided many hours of community volunteering activity to get it ready.
Many local business people have helped out and provided goods and services as they believe in the work we are doing (many have lost loved ones through addiction themselves). The Bothy project has provided a focus for many community members in recovery and helped to build a strong connected community, that is offering peer support to others experiencing addiction 6 people we know of have found recovery through what we are doing and becoming part of a recovery movement.
Much of what we have achieved would not have been possible or would have taken years to achieve without the support of CC. We have applied to OSCR for SCIO status and should hear back by end of February meanwhile we have opened the Bothy with enough funding to employ a worker and pay the rent for a year.
John Arthur
Interim Chair of Let the People Sing