Welcoming news – the cinema club starts again

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Great news in from the west.  That’s the west of Edinburgh, where the Welcoming centre runs a terrific programme of events bringing together local communities with refugees and asylum seekers – sharing ideas and learning together through art, film, music, discussion and food.   The cinema club starts again next week with an exciting list of films (and new comfy chairs).  But that is not the only good news…

As Stan Reeves explains, after a year of uncertainty, the Adult Learning Project which runs The Welcoming migrant support programme, has been awarded a contract to supply migrant employability and social integration services on behalf of the City council. “We will start back a full Welcoming programme just as soon as the money is released.” emails Stan.

Leith Open Space visited The Welcoming in Tollcross Community Centre earlier this year. The centre is an important meeting place for new Scots from all over the city (“to learn about Scots society and culture and also practise their English”, as the website puts it). These are ideas very much after our own heart so we were delighted when Jon Busby of The Welcoming enabled Mike Cowley (a member of Leith Open Space who runs the Red Eye Cinema club) to include the film A Long Way from Home in this year’s film programme at Pilmeny Youth Centre.

Now there’s a great line up of films starting at The Welcoming 6pm Thursday 19th November with Tehran Has No More Pomegranates, an experimental documentary from Mahmoud Bakshi, about the capital of the Islamic republic,  one of the most polluted cities on the planet.

The weekly programme (free) continues on 26 November with The Flower of My Secret and 3 December The Age of Stupid. All films have English subtitles and are followed by refreshments and discussion. [see more about The Welcoming below the poster, and on their website]

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A little background information about The Welcoming

In the beginining The Welcoming was a health and literacies pilot project set up in February 2003 by the Adult Learning Project (ALP) in partnership with the Minority Ethnic Health Inclusion Project (MEHIP) in order to bring together refugees, asylum seekers, Scottish and people from local minority ethnic communities.

The aim of the project was to socialise, share cultures and learn together. Newcomers to the society wanted to learn about Scots society and culture and also practise their English. The project was successful and funding has been secured from Communities Scotland to continue the project as a literacies Pathfinder Project.
For more information see the website: www.tollcross.edin.org/alp

Or contact Stan Reeves at:

117 Fountainbridge
Edinburgh EH3 9QG
0131 221 5800

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