Menu for All: Local Food Connections 
 🗓️ Date: Thursday 8th May 
🕥 Time: 10:30 AM – 2:30 PM 
📍 Location: Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 36 Dalmeny Street, Edinburgh, EH6 8RG 

Are you a food grower or distributor committed to building a better, more sustainable food system in Edinburgh? Join them for a networking event aimed at fostering collaboration, sparking new ideas, and strengthening the local supply chain in line with the Good Food Nation vision. 

This gathering will bring together key players from across the food sector - growers, distributors, and food systems advocates - to explore opportunities for collaboration and shared impact. Together, you’ll discuss how we can work towards a food system that is resilient, equitable, and climate conscious. 

Part 2 of the Anti-Oppression and Inclusivity Training

Join us for a two-part training designed to support community-led climate organisers to deepen their understanding of oppression, power, and inclusivity in their movements and groups.

This training is offerred by ECCAN (Edinburgh Communities Climate Action Network) in collaboration with Tripod.

Over the span of 2 days, this training will:

• Support us in building a shared understanding of systemic oppression and anti-oppression frameworks.

• Explore how oppression can show up in our initiatives and the common barriers to inclusivity.

• Discuss practical ways to navigate and challenge oppression when it arises in groups.

The sessions will be interactive and reflective.

Who is it for?

This training is for anyone involved in ECCAN’s member groups who wants to explore how to make their work and spaces more anti-oppressive and rooted in justice.

It may be especially useful for groups looking to ensure their campaigns, communications, and actions are inclusive and equitable.

Dates:Wednesday, 7th May 10:00 am – 2:30 pm in person (with a free lunch break in between)

Location: Tuesday 8th May online, 10:00-2:30pm. (You will be sent the confirmation email soon after signing up for the in-person event)

Please note you need to be able to commit to both dates to complete this training.

Important – Registration Process:

To register, you’ll need to complete a short pre-training questionnaire to help us tailor the sessions to your needs.

Deadline to complete the form: 23rd April. Please fill this questionaire as soon as you register for this event to help up in making this a swift process.

Note for Racialised Participants: If you are a racialised person planning to attend, the facilitators would like to speak with you ahead of the session to ensure you feel supported during the training. These conversations are optional and confidential. Please indicate this in the pre-training questionnaire form or email info@tripodtraining.org.

Access:Please let us know in the pre-training questionnaire if you have any access needs. We want to do our best to make the space as welcoming and supportive as possible.

If the cost of transport or other financial barriers get in way of your attending the event, please get in touch with the ECCAN team regarding access the participation fund. You can find out more about accessing it here.

We look forward to learning and exploring together!

Join Climate Psychology Alliance on Wednesday, May 7th from 6 - 8pm GMT+1 for an interactive workshop led by Caroline Hickman and Elouise Mayall, experienced in supporting young people’s mental health in relation to climate change. The workshop will explore how adults (educators, parents, and others working with children and young people) can provide meaningful support to help youth navigate the challenges of climate anxiety. The facilitators will be joined by members of CPA’s Student and Young People group who will share their experiences and be on hand to answer attendee questions.
 
Aims of the Session:
To deepen understanding of how climate change impacts children and young people.
To provide guidance on supporting young people’s mental health during climate-related stress.
To empower adults with tools and strategies for helping youth live with the strong emotions that come with connecting with the climate crisis.
 
Who Should Attend:
Educators, caregivers, mental health professionals, and anyone working with young people
Young people (16-25) and those interested in climate psychology are encouraged to attend
 
Ticket Information:
Free for young people (16-25) and CPA members
£15 for general attendees
 
Secure your place via Eventbrite and share with your networks!

Join us for a two-part training designed to support community-led climate organisers to deepen their understanding of oppression, power, and inclusivity in their movements and groups.

This training is offerred by ECCAN (Edinburgh Communities Climate Action Network) in collaboration with Tripod.

Over the span of 2 days, this training will:

• Support us in building a shared understanding of systemic oppression and anti-oppression frameworks.

• Explore how oppression can show up in our initiatives and the common barriers to inclusivity.

• Discuss practical ways to navigate and challenge oppression when it arises in groups.

The sessions will be interactive and reflective.

Who is it for?

This training is for anyone involved in ECCAN’s member groups who wants to explore how to make their work and spaces more anti-oppressive and rooted in justice.

It may be especially useful for groups looking to ensure their campaigns, communications, and actions are inclusive and equitable.

Dates:Wednesday, 7th May 10:00 am – 2:30 pm in person (with a free lunch break in between)

Location: Tuesday 8th May online, 10:00-2:30pm. (You will be sent the confirmation email soon after signing up for the in-person event)

Please note you need to be able to commit to both dates to complete this training.

Important – Registration Process:

To register, you’ll need to complete a short pre-training questionnaire to help us tailor the sessions to your needs.

Deadline to complete the form: 23rd April. Please fill this questionaire as soon as you register for this event to help up in making this a swift process.

Note for Racialised Participants: If you are a racialised person planning to attend, the facilitators would like to speak with you ahead of the session to ensure you feel supported during the training. These conversations are optional and confidential. Please indicate this in the pre-training questionnaire form or email info@tripodtraining.org.

Access:Please let us know in the pre-training questionnaire if you have any access needs. We want to do our best to make the space as welcoming and supportive as possible.

If the cost of transport or other financial barriers get in way of your attending the event, please get in touch with the ECCAN team regarding access the participation fund. You can find out more about accessing it here.

We look forward to learning and exploring together!

This workshop is running on April 28th, May 5th and May 12th

"Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart." (Robin Wall Kimmerer) 

Join Sarah Gittins for one or more of these walking and drawing workshops responding to signature trees in Craigmillar Castle Park. The focus is on drawing but walking will be part of the pleasure. No experience of drawing necessary.

Sarah Gittins is a visual artist and educator, working across a variety of media, with a particular focus on drawing, painting and printmaking. Her work explores issues of social and ecological justice and pays close attention to the wonders of the living world. Sarah is interested in the capacity of image making to enable engagement, conversation and action for change. Alongside making and exhibiting work, Sarah has facilitated creative workshops and taught drawing, painting and printmaking in a wide range of community and educational settings over the course of two decades.

Everyone is welcome. No prior experience necessary.

A collaboration between Art Walk Projects, Bridgend Farmhouse and Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust

The Queer Gardening Group will be out at Gracemount Community Garden all 5 Saturdays of May, 10am-2pm 🏳️‍🌈🍃 Lots of learning & exploring planned this month, and lots of gardening to do!

This Saturday 3rd we'll have seeds, compost & knowledge for growing stuff in your windowsill or tiny outdoor space, alongside our usual weeding, watering & planting.

This is a 2 day workshop for anyone who is feeling desperate about the need for deep social change. It's an invitation to bring your sense of desperation, failure and frustration and, using processes and insights from Forum Theatre, process work, meditation and liberation anthropology, spend a couple of days exploring what's not working and why - and what we could try instead.

‘Failure’ is a loaded word. You’ll pay attention to what you’ve been conditioned to feel about success and failure, and the feelings those generate in us. You’ll be exploring specific experiences of failure in our lives, work or collective struggles. You’ll be using theatre and process work, possibly with puppets, to map and explore this territory, before harvesting what you’ve learned, and rehearsing how you are going to put this into practice.

For more information or to book your free place, click here.

This is a 2 day workshop for anyone who is feeling desperate about the need for deep social change. It's an invitation to bring your sense of desperation, failure and frustration and, using processes and insights from Forum Theatre, process work, meditation and liberation anthropology, spend a couple of days exploring what's not working and why - and what we could try instead.

‘Failure’ is a loaded word. You’ll pay attention to what you’ve been conditioned to feel about success and failure, and the feelings those generate in us. You’ll be exploring specific experiences of failure in our lives, work or collective struggles. You’ll be using theatre and process work, possibly with puppets, to map and explore this territory, before harvesting what you’ve learned, and rehearsing how you are going to put this into practice.

To read more or book your place, click here

Join the Conversation: Edinburgh's Future Without Gas

What will our homes and workplaces look like when we move away from gas heating? ECCAN’s Community Heat Group asked people in North Edinburgh, and now they want to share what they heard.

If you're worried about climate change and how Edinburgh will adapt, come along to this next event! Hosted by the ECCAN Community Heat group, they'll be discussing the real-life impacts of transitioning away from gas.

This follows their successful February session, where they explored the different heating options for the 2030s – heat pumps, heat networks, and more. In this session, they’ll delve deeper into what this means for our community.

Be part of shaping Edinburgh's greener future!

AGENDA

1. ECCAN to present a short introduction about the background of the event

2. Clean Heat Edinburgh Forum and Eala Impacts CIC report on the outcomes and learnings from the deep dive engagement with pathfinder groups in North Edinburgh

3. Breakout groups to hear thoughts of participants' views on the what has worked / what was difficult and feedback for the Community Heating group
   + Creative roleplaying to unpack the drivers and the blockers

4. Conclusion and plan for the next steps of the sub-network.

This event will take place both online and in-person. Come along, listen in, and find out how YOUR community can benefit from the Clean Heat revolution!

To book your place or to read more, click here.

This workshop is running on April 28th, May 5th and May 12th

"Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart." (Robin Wall Kimmerer) 

Join Sarah Gittins for one or more of these walking and drawing workshops responding to signature trees in Craigmillar Castle Park. The focus is on drawing but walking will be part of the pleasure. No experience of drawing necessary.

Sarah Gittins is a visual artist and educator, working across a variety of media, with a particular focus on drawing, painting and printmaking. Her work explores issues of social and ecological justice and pays close attention to the wonders of the living world. Sarah is interested in the capacity of image making to enable engagement, conversation and action for change. Alongside making and exhibiting work, Sarah has facilitated creative workshops and taught drawing, painting and printmaking in a wide range of community and educational settings over the course of two decades.

Everyone is welcome. No prior experience necessary.

A collaboration between Art Walk Projects, Bridgend Farmhouse and Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust

Join them for a spring foray at St Marks Park with Johanna (@foraging.gardener)

Their last foraging walk was so successful that they were lucky enough to be able to organise another one!

As you stroll through the park, you’ll discover an array of edible and medicinal plants and fungi beginning to wake up with the season. You'll cover how to identify and use them, as well as any associated folklore.

To wrap up your lovely walk, you’ll gather together to savour some delicious foraged snacks.

You will meet at the police box for 11am before setting off on your walk to the park. Please dress appropriately for a Scottish spring wander, which could potentially be a bit muddy or damp!

You will be walking some woodland paths with light inclines. You’re welcome to bring your own basket.

Apple Blossom Day at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre
Drylaw Good Apples (a Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre project) is delighted to invite you to their community orchard celebration on Apple Blossom Day, Sat 26th April, 2-4pm.
It will be a family friendly event with free drop-in activities, food, and hot drinks. There will also be some live music from Jed and Jo, of Tinderbox. All welcome to  celebrate Spring at Drylaw! For more information, you can contact the Centre directly.

Come sit with them & tropical rainforest plants and learn more about their environment, how biodiversity loss is affecting them and how connected they are to people living in Scotland. 🌴 🌳 Through an interactive conversation, with origami, painting, smelling and tasting we will allow plants to tell us their stories, and imagine a possible future for both people and our biodiverse world 🌎

Date: Friday 25th April
Time: 13.30-15.30
Meeting Point: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, West Gate, John Hope Gateway, Arboretum Place, EH3 5NY
Language: English (Polish translation available)
Registration: https://forms.gle/1G1XjJR4NgHunQAu9

Stronger Voices is a Media Trust programme designed to strengthen the voices of equality organisations. The programme aims to support equalities organisations to strengthen their strategic communications to improve representation of marginalised communities facing inequality. 

Accessibility isn’t just about disability – it's about creating content with a range of audiences in mind. Whether your audience includes blind or d/Deaf users, neurodivergent people, or even just someone scrolling quickly on a busy commute, making small changes to your social media best practice can have a huge impact. 

This masterclass will give you the tools to create clear, inclusive social media content that reaches more people and focuses on building a great user experience. From improving readability to ensuring good colour contrast on graphics, this session will cover practical steps to remove digital barriers and make your social media user-friendly for everyone.

To book your free place or read more, click here.

Experience a unique mycological workshop within the historic Barnton Bunker, Scotland's preserved Cold War nuclear shelter. This immersive session offers participants the opportunity to learn practical mushroom cultivation techniques applicable for culinary enrichment.

Workshop Highlights:

• Oyster Mushroom Log Inoculation: Participants will inoculate logs with oyster mushroom spawn, initiating growth within the controlled environment of the bunker.

• Straw Pellet Fruiting Block Creation: Learn to construct straw pellet fruiting blocks, enabling at-home oyster mushroom cultivation.

• Lion's Mane Hardwood Pellet Inoculation: Master the inoculation of hardwood pellets with lion's mane mushrooms, a gourmet variety, enhancing your cultivation skillset.

As an ECCAN member, you get £5 off the total workshop price with the promo code ECCAN!

To read more and book your place, click here.

We are at a vital crossroads in the future of our land and seas, Why Not Scotland? explores the Scottish landscape through the eyes of Flo, a young Scot from Glasgow. Seeing the depleted state of nature across her own country, Flo feels dispirited and increasingly fearful about an uncertain future like many of her generation. However, on a journey around Europe, Flo encounters a different story, finding places where nature is making a dramatic comeback, revitalising human communities. Encouraged by these stories of hope and renewal, she is prompted to wonder: if this is possible elsewhere, then why not Scotland?

Find out more: https://www.scotlandbigpicture.com/why-not-scotland

Climate Action Event! What you’ll find:

• Swap Shop

• Climate games & energy stalls

• Energy saving & efficiency advice

Free light lunch!

At Open heavens Edinburgh, 75 harvesters Way, Wester Hailes, EH14 3JH

Go Deep Scotland are a community-building team that promote connection, inclusion and empower all by facilitating activities and engaging with communities. ​They engage participants in transformative actions that build resilience, address challenges, and promote collaboration. By creating spaces for dialogue and action, these projects have contributed to stronger, more connected communities.

They’re launching their new website and are inviting people to join them online to get to know their team and how to get involved.

Sessions are free and open to all. You can join April 9th from 6-7.30pm or April 12th from 11.30-1pm.

To read more or to book your place, click here.

Go Deep Scotland are a community-building team that promote connection, inclusion and empower all by facilitating activities and engaging with communities. ​They engage participants in transformative actions that build resilience, address challenges, and promote collaboration. By creating spaces for dialogue and action, these projects have contributed to stronger, more connected communities.

They’re launching their new website and are inviting people to join them online to get to know their team and how to get involved.

Sessions are free and open to all. You can join April 9th from 6-7.30pm or April 12th from 11.30-1pm.

To read more or to book your place, click here.

By buying a ticket for a workshop with them you are supporting their young social enterprise to survive and thrive, making it possible for them to offer more community activities in the future. However, they know times are tough, and we don't want their ticket prices to be a barrier to you taking part, so if you do find the ticket price a challenge at the moment please contact them. To learn more about their work please visit https://www.earth-in-common.org/soilidarity

Join them on the croft for a hands-on, beginner-friendly workshop designed to help you get started with growing your own produce.

Tom will guide you through the essentials of vegetable growing, including planning how to use your space, choosing the right soil and containers, mapping out your growing calendar, and caring for and maintaining your edible garden.

Whatever space you have available, whether it's your own allotment or croft plot, a shared garden, a balcony or even windowsill, you will leave with skills to identify suitable plants to grow and the confidence to get started on your growing journey.

While the session is suitable for beginners, growers of all abilities will benefit from the tips and advice, and the chance to meet other keen gardeners from the local community.

Join Pianodrome’s Tim Vincent-Smith at the Gasholder Park opening and take part in a community song!

Tim has written a song for the official opening of this epic new public park, and Pianodrome are inviting you to sing it with them. You can join in for a short group practice and perform it straight after for the community.

There will be ice cream, face painting, and more wonderful piano sharing and piano dismantling activities run by Pianodrome.

Free event, and all welcome!

To read the song lyrics and for more information, click here.

Through matchmaking events and sharing resources and experiences, Third Sector Lab are making it easier than ever to connect charities and professionals from tech, data, design, IT and other digital backgrounds.

They hold regular online matchmaking events which are a fantastic opportunity for third sector organisations to meet a variety digital professionals.
The session will include an introduction by the founder of Third Sector Lab, Ross McCulloch. This will be followed by a series of rotating breakout rooms to let participants meet in smaller groups.

To read more or to book your place, click here.

This online workshop is for community organisers and residents interested in the issues. It will inform future funding applications and support for community organisations looking to take control of their journey to a low carbon future.

DRAFT AGENDA

1. What is coming down the tracks? See background info HERE

2. Breakout groups to share participants' views how to respond

3. Capturing the main concerns arising for sharing more widely.

Come along, and chip in your views so that YOUR community can benefit from the Clean Heat revolution! An exhibition giving background to these issues is now available.

For more information and to book your place, click here.

Join them for a spring exploration of their Orchard and an introduction to the arts of noticing. Their theme for this month is regeneration.

The Art of Noticing

Throughout 2025 and early 2026, join them for a monthly exploration of the Leith Links Community Orchard - learning to notice what is usually overlooked, diving into the worlds of the plants, animals and fungi we share this city with and understanding how key natural processes relate both to them, the wider ecosystem and to us as individual humans.

In these times of ecological and social struggles, constant distractions and a cultural focus on endless productivity, practicing the arts of noticing is a radical and nourishing act of slowing down, tuning in and paying attention, of reconnecting to our role within our communities and ecosystems.
The sessions will combine identification practice, discussions, practical nature-based tasks and caring for the orchard, storytelling, reflection, observation and tastings, and are open to everyone - no prior knowledge required, just curiosity!

They particularly invite participants who find themselves in need of hope, who feel disconnected from nature, or who are seeking peace in the natural world. Come and put down roots in the orchard and find your place in this ecosystem.

March Workshop: Regeneration

With the spring equinox just past the days are now longer than the nights, the sap is rising, fresh new leaves and flower buds are unfurling and the soil is warming up encouraging the seeds to sprout. For many of us the return of colour and birdsong to our green spaces also marks the return of more of our own energy. 

Their theme for this month is regeneration both in the natural world and within ourselves and our communities. Through reflective prompts, creative plant ID and a wee bit of spring foraging we will get to know the plants and animals returning to activity in the orchard, learn about regenerative foraging practices, reflect on what this time of year means for us and our place in the ecosystem, and discuss the smaller and larger-scale ecological restoration projects happening around us. 

Dress for all weather conditions and bring a mug for a seasonal herbal tea tasting.
No experience necessary, all materials and tools provided.

Location: Leith Links Children's Orchard (next to Seafield Place)

Tickets and more info via: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-art-of-noticing-march-workshop-regeneration-tickets-1272506504209?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl