UPDATE: The help request form and Govanhill helplines will close from today (Friday 18th December) until Monday the 11th of January. Wishing you a safe and peaceful festive season.
GCDT have set up a form where you can request help from local organisations. Anyone seeking support from local organisations can fill this form in, either for themselves, or on behalf of someone else.
The festival, now in its third year, will take place online and starts on Sunday the 21st of February. The week is jam packed with free daily activities that will explore Glasgow’s linguistic heritage and the vital role of its multilingual citizens, including quizzes, interactive language sessions, talks, and a radio show.
Inaugurated in 2019 by Bangladesh Association, the Bhasha Glasgow language festival is a celebration of the city’s many languages and the people who speak them.
Thriving Places Festival Highlights
Govanhill Polyglot Sessions
As part of the festival, you can learn a language from local native speakers by joining the popular Govanhill Polyglot Sessions. These language taster sessions were originally established to bring together residents of Govanhill and wider Glasgow to mingle in each other’s languages. Govanhill, where at least 88 languages are spoken within a 1 km² area is believed to be the most ethnically diverse neighbourhood in Scotland.
This year languages on offer include Romanes (Romanian), Romanes (Slovak), Polish, Spanish, Arabic and BSL! All sessions will take place via zoom. Head over to the BHASHA Glasgow Language Festival Facebook page to book your spot!
Glesga banter: A celebration of Weegie culture
Glesga banter is an hour of wee stories, poetry and song hosted by Marion Nisbet a community councillor in Govanhill, an antiracist, antipoverty feminist who enjoys growing food, community and resistance. Marion will be joined by; Lesley O’Brien a singer, poet, and professional storyteller who has worked for Glasgow Women’s Aid for almost 30 years and Big Barney fae Carlton studios, teller of terrible jokes, tall tales and founding member of The Carlton Jug Band.
Thriving places have launched a survey to look at community and engagement and access to information in Govanhill. You can make your voice heard via the online community survey: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/MGLP1A/
This short questionnaire explores how the people of Govanhill connect with each other and how they feel about making decisions for their neighbourhood. Results will be published on this site, and go toward shaping the Locality Plan – a vision for a future Govanhill based on the wishes of people who live and work here.
Organisations across Govanhill and the Gorbals are making sure people have better access to information, education, and work during the pandemic by providing families with IT devices such as chrome-books and tablets.
Scottish Government funding will cover a limited number of devices and connectivity packages which will be allocated according to need. This need is being assessed by a survey which you can access online here https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GoingDigital.
The survey will asks questions about what kind of barriers people face, whether this is lack of a device to access the internet, lack of access to the internet or other home circumstances. Training and support will also be available to those who need it in order to the use the devices, an technical assistance will be on hand if required.
Although it is sadly not possible for the public to see inside the church building, thanks to the wonders of modern technology and Glasgow Building Preservation Trust it is possible to take a virtual tour of this fantastic ‘Gothic Revival’ style building.
Trinity Church on Daisy Street was built between 1878 and 1880 in the ‘Gothic Revival’ style, sadly the buildign was forced to close in 2018 due to safety concerns over old wiring. The church was used for worship until 2015 and was used as a community space until it’s closure.
There is a growing need for flexible community spaces in Govanhill. Glasgow Building Preservation Trust are working with Govanhill Community Development Trust, Community Renewal and Glasgow City Council to investigate if the building can be repaired and upgraded for use by the community. We want your help in understanding what the local community needs and would like to see in a new community resource. Your responses will be used to help the project team adapt the building for new user groups and will also be used in support of future applications to funders.
We are using a variety of methods to ensure this consultation is as accessible as possible to everyone, this survey is one of them. The survey is anonymous. Thank you very much for your help.
Take part in our best dressed window competition as part of the Govanhill
International Festival. Decorate your window – let’s
make our neighbourhood colourful! Email a photo of your window to govanhillcdt@gmail.com or share
it in the comments below the post on Govanhill
Community Development Trust Facebook by noon Friday 28 August. Winners
will be announced Monday 31 August on GCDT Facebook page following a community
vote.
Walk round the streets of Govanhill and watch out for our banners
and bunting created from collages of all the amazing photos young people and
other residents in Govanhill have been taking during Lockdown.
Community Renewal & partners
Govanhill Children’s Festival Saturday 22 – Saturday 29 August
We invite children and their families to a whole week of
fun-filled events including a Minecraft day, art and recycling, sports, book
festival, talent show, drama, song writing, video diaries, cookery, kids quiz,
prizes and giveaways and lots more! To book a place, go to Govanhill International
Festival and Carnival Facebook page.
Simon Murphy aims to give an insight into the diverse and vibrant
area of Govanhill with a series of portraits to be displayed in windows
as part of a photo trail during the festival.
Friday 21 – Sunday 30 August Various locations on the streets of Govanhill
Street Level Photoworks
Open-Air Screening of La Belle et la Bête, (Beauty and the Beast )1946, in Westmoreland Street Gardens, 8.30 pm, Saturday, 22nd August. The story teaches us that empathy, creativity and imagination can change us and those around us.
This is a socially distanced outdoor event. Booking Essential.
GAMIS in association with
Music Broth
Adapt and Act Friday 21 – Monday 31 August Queen’s Park Arena
Poster Boards
This exhibitiondisplays artwork and outcomes from Adapt and Act – a climate change and creative protest project by Govanhill-based Rumpus Room’s Young Activist group led by artist Lucy Grainge and writer-activist Rosemary Geary in partnership with Swap Market.
Inhouse in association with Rumpus Room and Swap
Market
NB Some of these events have been organised as socially distant, outdoor events. Please follow FACTS and the Scottish Government Guidance on social distancing when attending these events. Please do not attend any event if you, or anyone you have been in contact with has had symptoms of COVID-19.
Since the start of the pandemic, all Thriving Places efforts in Govanhill have been in direct response to the crisis. Although the lockdown measures have eased now, the virus is still here, and a second wave may be expected in Autumn. We have secured emergency funding from the Supporting Communities Fund to create a part-time role of a Community Engagement Worker to support the Community Connector until the end of October. This additional capacity will allow us to meet the community’s needs and provide key support structures in Govanhill.
The ideal candidate will have experience in delivering projects, a positive attitude and the ability to manage their own workload. The ability to speak a community language would be an advantage!
The postholder will work for up to 21 hrs per week until 31st October 2020 at a rate of £10 per hour.
Applications will be welcomed from anyone with the necessary skills and experience. We will consider those who wish to be temporarily seconded from another organisation and applicants who wish to job share. The post may also appeal to those who are self-employed and wish to carry out the role on that basis.
The ideal candidate will have experience in delivering projects, a positive attitude and the ability to manage their own workload. The ability to speak a community language would be an advantage!
The postholder should be available to start immediately, or as soon as possible in August.
Closing date: Thursday, 13th of August at 10 am. Interviews will be held at the beginning of the following week.
More details about this position, along with information about how to apply can be found here
A new Directory of Services has been created and sent to every home in the G42 area. The booklet contains information about the Govanhill phone lines as well as a guide to local organisations who offer support.
A survey conducted under the Thriving Places* programme has set about counting the languages spoken in Govanhill, the most ethnically diverse area in Scotland.
As much as the presence
of English, Urdu, Punjabi, Romanian, Slovak, Scottish and Irish Gaelic is
common knowledge, not everyone will be aware that Nepali, Vietnamese, Ishan,
Sinhalese, and Tibetan are also spoken in the neighbourhood. It turns out
Govanhill is abundant in polyglots. Out of 222 responders, 182 said they spoke at least
two languages, and quite a few were comfortable using 4 or even 5.
Pie chart showing the wide range of ‘mother toungues’ in Govanhill – there may well be more out there!
People were also asked if they knew how to say ‘Hi’ in some of their neighbours’ languages, the majority said they did and that they were interested in learning more.
The most popular languages that people wanted
to learn were BSL, Spanish, Arabic and Romanes (Roma).
So far,
222 people have taken part. 79.4% of participants said they live here and
further 3.5% used to live here, some for many years. The remainder stated they
work in the area or socialise here. Residents are encouraged to keep adding
their languages. The survey remains open and can be completed here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScqS7l3OfPLSsUdMX0axrPYOYaWXEZz0L74lO4UxMAat70rdA/viewform
Based on The Languages
of Govanhill survey, the records of GCDT and some of the local schools, it
turns out there are at least 88 languages and dialects spoken in Govanhill. As
more people fill in the survey, this number is bound to increase. Contact Marzanna Antoniak at mantoniak@govanhillha.org with
questions about the survey or if you want to participate in any language-based
projects in Govanhill.
The
survey was conducted as part of a heritage-based regeneration strategy for the
neighbourhood that is being developed. Such an impressive language tally is a reason to
celebrate. Enjoy reading survey participants’ reflections about Govanhill
being a multilingual place.
*The Thriving Places approach proposes that local “organisations commit to working more collaboratively with one another and the community to make better use of existing resources and assets to respond to each individual community’s needs.” Locally, Govanhill Housing Association is the anchor organisation responsible for leading and implementing the Thriving Places strategy working with Govanhill Community Development Trust (GCDT).
