While on placement at Work Track in Craig Miller it was interesting to see how communities work. Craig Miller has always been a community in itself, hidden behind the beautiful Arthur Seat lays a community full of issues and barriers.
I have only ever driven through Craig Miller and never actually walked the streets and felt the atmosphere and aknowledge the goings on that happen on a daily basis. In a way i did feel quite rude as i always felt it was a place of poverty and hardship.
The Craig Miller area has gone through some drastic changes over the years to try and get rid of the stigma that is attached to the area. They have knocked down housing estates and re build new ones to bring back some life and confidence to the people of Niddry. In doing so the community now houses both private and council property's.
But when i had to undertake a door to door survey and ask residents how they felt about their area, alot of it was negative based and that even though there has been a huge re furb in the area there is still a huge gap between individuals.
The old residents of Niddry are still very much present even though alot of them where re- located else where due to the re development. New members of the community or ones that have made a go of it there are troubled by the rif raf who have basically given Craig Miller the stigma.
It is such a shame that so much hard work and money has been spent to try and give people a chance and support them, for it then to be thrown back in our faces. Community within this area i feel is lacking big time and even with the support of worktrack, adult learning link, the thistle and space arts, its not appreciated enough.
In this case there is a community within Niddry but the wrong type of community,i.e drug gangs, vandels and crime. I feel this is always going to be around and it will be difficult for those not involved to try and build community out with this. So sad!
Inspiration from Graduation!
16 years ago
It's interesting what you say about Craigmillar. My second placement was with West Edinburgh Action in Wester Hailes - somewhere I had never been to properly before (only walked from the car park to the cinema) and I found the thought of it scary, too. (Very scary!!) But when I actually went there, I found the complete opposite to what I'd expected. People actually stopped and spoke to me and the guidance worker as she gave me a tour of the different community centres in the area. The people who came into WEA were exceptionally nice - and most SO motivated to find work (any job, for many of them), I was really surprised, and humbled. I felt there IS a community there, in spite of all the problems and the small minority of people who would spoil things for everyone. Coming back to Morningside Road, it struck me how miserable so many people looked there! - and you know they (I, just as much!) would never stop to speak to anyone they didn't know, nor hardly smile even.
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