New Scots Connect
We believe in the importance of culture in the widest sense to connect people.
Our New Scots programme supports the sharing arts, sciences, crafts, music, research, culture and stories for, with and by New Scots, including the Syrian refugees and wider migrant communities who live, work and share their talents in Scotland.
History & Aims of the New Scots Project
The programme began in 2017 with a series of “culture jam” workshops, leading to a large New Scots Ceilidh as part of British Science Week with kind support from the British Science Association, Fun Palaces and Edinburgh Napier, and partnering with the Welcoming, the Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council. Following on from this event, a steering group involving both New Scots themselves and support organisations and volunteers including the Welcoming, Scots Faith Action, St Paul’s and St George’s Churches was established and continues to coordinate cultural events over the year with voluntary support from Science Ceilidh team members including supporting music, science activities and games. Events have included religious events along with welcoming “Fun Palace” event for other asylum seekers.
Since then we have run several larger events including being part of the EU Researchers Night - Explorathon - in September 2018 and ran a sell-out New Scots Ceilidh in partnership with the Welcoming. This involved a mix between self-identified refugees, migrants, New Scots, europeans, Scots and Brits as well as those from other parts of the world. We shared research around singing and wellbeing, bilingualism and physics amongst the dances. 55% of participants either weren’t usually interested in research or didn’t go out of their way to engage. Our monitoring of postcodes also suggest we reached a broadly representative group of people from around Edinburgh! You can see photos on our facebook page here.
We also ran small activities linking creativity with researchers as part of the Welcoming’s Creative Space including looking at Scottish music, the link between bilingualism and healthy ageing beforehand.
We are excited to build on this relationship further and will be running future workshops. If you have any ideas, or would like to be involved, please do get in touch!
الاسكتلنديون الجدد: احتفالية ثقافية
فرصة للتبادل الثقافي للاسكتلنديين الجدد في إدنبرة
MCFB Safe Haven Group
We have been working with the Safe Haven group for a number of years now with our most recent project having come to an end in November 2022. This involved collaborating with local engineers and taking a play-based approach to support the young people’s wellbeing, confidence, transferable skills and understanding of engineering.
Through this programme, we facilitated 25 playful engineering sessions and hosted two three-day summer “Connect Camps” with the local science centre Dynamic Earth which culminated in a celebration with young people sharing their learning with the engineers to their wider families. With other partners, we focused on the engineering behind space (Royal Observatory of Edinburgh), plants (Edinburgh Botanical Gardens) and sports (Napier University).
This programme was funded by Ingenious, Royal Academy of Engineering and in partnership with Multicultural Family Base, Napier University and Dynamic Earth.
New Scots Connect Summer Camp 2021
In the summer of 2021, we ran a three day summer camp at Dynamic Earth where we explored engineering through creativity, play, and outdoor learning. We worked with our great volunteers, Amy, Graeme, Cameron and Rosie and the learning team at Dynamic Earth to run this youth camp.
We looked at lots of different types of engineering through making rafts, planes, and trebuchets! We also used teamwork activities to make towers and bridges, and tested teamwork when playing games such as adults vs. kids football!
On the final day, parents were invited to take part in the final buildings of the items before competitions were held to see which plane flew the furthest and which raft was the best designed!
MCFB Syrian Men’s Group
We have now had our first session of the New Scots: Hacklab project! We spent an afternoon in the Hacklab, in Summerhall laser cutting, using the 3D printer and getting to grips with all the different wood and metalwork tools.
“You can see such joy in handling tools again”
(You can read a blog about the event from MCFB here)
The workshop was also a lovely chance to share expertise throughout the group, as we had a large range of different backgrounds, including mechanics, architects and engineers.
We have piloted sessions including Syrian New Scot engineers and architects from local higher education institutes and companies to share experiences from the sector with the MCFB’s Syrian Men’s Group. This event developed as the result of feedback that the men in the group were keen to hear from peers about what’s happening in Scotland, develop their English, maintain and develop technical skills, widen their local contacts, and have a better understanding of employment pathways.
Discussions during the event included sharing different techniques from Syria and Scotland for reducing building work noise, the differences in professional regulations and the challenges the European, French and Greek, engineers who came with English as a second language and tips for both overcoming those challenges and working professionally in Scotland. Feedback was very positive from the New Scots and the facilitators themselves about the interactions and opportunities to learn about each other, including comments about the importance of “Scottish people with practical skills sharing valuable information.” The New Scots further expressed a desire for:
More practical activities developing technical skills
Increased opportunities to meet peers with different backgrounds
A bigger focus on English language learning and key technical vocabulary, as this is still the biggest barrier to employment.
New Scots Youth Groups
Multi Cultural Family Base (MCFB) is a social work and service organisation to which many New Scots in need of mental health and other support services are referred. Science Ceilidh has tested a project with their New Scots’ Youth Group, which consists of several vulnerable young people from both Syrian and local BAME backgrounds. Over the course of sessions in 2019, we have explored science and creative activities with support from University of Edinburgh students including during the Scottish Refugee Festival in June and highlights the importance of curiosity, experimentation and positive role-models from diverse backgrounds.
New Scots Steering Group
We remain a part of the New Scots Steering Group supporting cultural exchange and welcoming events year round too.