In summary, with our activities centred on Leith Community Croft at the NW corner of Leith Links, we connect people with each and the land/nature and promote responsible global citizenship.
Our founder and CEO is a former addictions counsellor, and our approach to mental health is congruent with that of psychologist and addictions expert, Bruce K. Alexander, as detailed in his book, 'The Globalization of Addiction, A Study in Poverty of the Spirit'. Marshalling impressive evidence, Alexander argues there is no such thing as an overwhelmingly addictive substance or behaviour; instead, there is ‘psychosocial dislocation’, predisposing to harmful addictions. Psychosocial dislocation is related to lack of community and sense of meaning/purpose. It follows that the best approach to addressing poor mental health (better: to fostering good mental health!) is to connect people with others and give them meaning/purpose. Accordingly, we have several aims. Our integrated suite of projects, most centred on our pioneering urban croft, supplants a dysfunctional food system and offers crosscutting solutions to individual/societal/environmental woes, engaging people together in meaningful activities and campaigns, addressing the major ills of our time, such as the biodiversity-loss and climate crises as well as inequality, and (seamlessly part of this) addressing mental health issues. This is especially effective as, for many, mental health is impacted by a sense of powerless in the face of these existential issues.
With support from the NLCF, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund and others, we created Scotland’s first modern urban croft on a piece of wasteland, offering experiential, volunteering, training and employment opportunities via a suite of integrated projects centred on community-building and connection to the land. Urban crofts are more than community gardens and distinct from allotments. They foster a collective spirit and, as a nationwide network, would be a powerful force for good in a world of growing inequality, loneliness and environmental catastrophe. A key element is a ‘community home on the croft’ – a multipurpose community hub building with meeting/training rooms, office space, a café and kitchen, accessible toilets, etc. After years of campaigning and co-development of plans with the local community, we finally received most of the funding for this from the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund. Though construction was delayed, and costs escalated (partly due to Brexit and COVID-19), the building is now virtually finished and we look forward to bringing it into full use in May 2023.
Despite the model urban croft vision not yet having been quite fully realised (which it should be when the building is fully operational), we have proven many positive social and environmental impacts, established important partnerships, and been part-funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to roll-out the concept (with at least two other local authorities keen to adopt it).
Our activity is aimed primarily at densely populated urban areas (e.g. Leith). The Croft offers extensive free community days and volunteering opportunities, and the space is entirely free to access at all times. We tackle disadvantage variously, offering something for everyone, trying to avoid overt targeting (potentially stigmatising) but discreetly supporting marginalised/disadvantaged individuals and groups, which include vulnerable children (referred by teachers for therapeutic gardening work), adoptees (in our ‘Minecroft’ outdoor adventure/survival skills programme, run in partnership with Adoption Scotland), and the economically marginalised (in one of Scotland’s most deprived SIMD areas), plus those with mental health or behavioural issues (e.g. autism). We wish to expand such work through partnerships with others, such as a local GP practice (for ‘Nature Prescriptions’) and Volunteer Edinburgh/CAMHS.
Together with many partners (all of whom benefit), we have offered a range of ‘green-’ and wellbeing-related workshops, courses, events and opportunities for all ages. Environmental, community-building and wellbeing impacts (exceeding targets) have seen us receive multiple Climate Challenge Fund grants. We won the Youth and Education Award in the Nature of Scotland Awards 2016/2017 and were shortlisted in the Engaging Scotland category of the SEPA VIBES Awards 2019. Our CEO has received much recognition, recently being named one of The Herald on Sunday’s ‘21 Local Heroes of 2021’ and delivering a talk on ‘Grassroots Leadership – Growing Communities Collectively’ for Collective Leadership Scotland (March 2022).
In the next couple of years we hope to (1) continue and further develop community services and maximise the benefits of the new building for the local community and (2) document the elements of an urban croft and share this information, mentoring others as they establish their own crofts.
We are very active members of the Scottish Food Coalition, and our campaigning with them for a Good Food Nation Bill (now enacted) led to us being invited by Edinburgh University's Prof. Mary Brennan (the SFC Chair) to be co-applicants in what turned out to be a successful multi-partner bid to the Wellcome Trust to inform the optimal roll-out of this Act.
We are also proud of our membership of the Leith Links Activity Park Coalition, which seeks to transform the underused former bowling green site adjacent to Leith Community Croft into a multipurpose recreation/active transport hub (See <https://www.facebook.com/LeithLinksActivityPark/> and <https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/edinburgh-planner-want-revamp-park-21083710> ).
Last but not least, we mention our membership of Scotland's International Development Alliance (which we joined thanks to our participation in a multi-partner , multi-school project in the north of Malawi, a country where we have partners to this day) and our ‘restorative climate justice’ concept (see tinyurl.com/rcjust), which seeks to champion the rights, wisdom and knowledge of Indigenous peoples the world over. This feeds into our urban crofts concept as the latter incorporates the Gaelic concept of ‘dùthchas’, which can be described as a sense of belonging to a place and of taking responsibility for it.
Web: https://www.earth-in-common.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/earthincommon
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthincommon/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarthinCommon
