Since the beginning of the year the Communities Team have been developing a new partnership with The Ripple, in Restalrig (North East Edinburgh). Read on to hear more about The Ripple, what’s happened so far and our future plans for the partnership.

Started by local people, The Ripple harnesses the skills and enthusiasm of its dedicated volunteers to provide a wide range of well-used services in the community of Restalrig, Lochend, and Craigentinny. These areas are amongst the most deprived in Scotland and the community faces the challenges that poverty, health, and social inequalities bring. The Ripple provides targeted programmes for young people and older adults, as well as being home to a thriving community café.

We have been working closely with The Ripple’s Older People’s Service Manager Todd Bioletti to programme a series of events for The Friday Club (a weekly social club for older adults). In our first session, poet Ken Cockburn joined the group in March to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Ken shared Irish poems, tales, and songs with the group, who were enthralled and even joined him in a sing-song of It’s A Long Way to Tipperary at the end of the session!

In May, author Sara Sheridan joined the group to talk about The Many Stories About Where We Come From. Sara shared her own journey into storytelling and writing, plus she treated the group to a reading from her novel The Fair Botanist. Hearing that the book was set in Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens the group had lots of stories to share and questions for Sara. As part of our collaboration with The Ripple, the Book Festival provided free copies of Sara’s books for the group. We ended the session over tea and cake, with Sara taking the time to sign everyone’s books.

Both sessions were very well attended with around 25 people at each one! We are now planning to make this a monthly programme of events at The Ripple, plus we will be bringing the Friday Club to an event on our site during the Festival. We can’t wait to see how this partnership continues to grow.