We wanted to give an update on the various events and activities that we host across the community, and to help everyone understand a little bit more about what we do!
As a team of three people we cover a lot, resulting in providing services for children & families, older people, new scots and everyone in between.
In addition to the events and activities we provide, we also work with and support local volunteers get involved in the community; we support new local groups to become established and we carry out work aimed at giving local people more control over things that happen in our community through the Gorbals Ideas Fund.
To help us deliver these services we have to apply for funding. This comes from external grant makers, trusts and foundations. We are lucky to have been awarded significant additional money for the Gorbals from these funders; however this money often comes with specific conditions. This means that we cannot make all of our services and events available to the whole community.
Funding conditions often mean that we have to work towards specific issues or target specific groups of people. We must meet these conditions first, which is why some things may not be available to the whole community. If we do not meet funding conditions, there’s a risk to the services and events that we currently provide.
We’re also experiencing a huge demand for our events and activities that is far greater than we can meet. For example, more than 200 families wanted to come to our Halloween Events that could only safely hold 80 people per session.
With Winter 2022/23 set to be a very challenging time for many people in our community we expect demand for our events and services to increase. To make sure that in the future we can direct our services to those who will benefit most, we’re making some changes to the way we allocate places at smaller events and activities.
Places will not be allocated on a first come, first served basis as we’ve done previously. Instead, anyone who wishes to attend will need to register their interest, either online or by contacting us directly. We will then allocate the available spaces in line with the funding conditions. Any remaining spaces will then be allocated to others who have registered interest.
To help us get our services to the people who need them most we need your help. When you register please answer any questions fully and honestly; please let us know if you can’t make something you have booked to free up these spaces for others and please, be kind if we are unable to allocate places to you or your family during these difficult times – we really are experiencing very high levels of demand.
We’re delighted to see so many people looking to get involved with our services and events but with funding conditions and limited community space to hold events, the cap is outwith our control.
There will still be great events for the whole community to enjoy, such as the Christmas Lights Switch On, Street Play Events and Gorbals Fair and as soon as the economy, funding and community space allows we’ll open up access to the rest of services more widely.