Across Midlothian and beyond, we’ve been reminded this month of just how many people in every corner of our communities care deeply about building a better tomorrow. Everywhere we’ve been, from local events to national gatherings, we’ve seen people coming together, sharing ideas, and learning from each other.
Close to home, we had many members join our Nature Conservation Learning Day to learn new skills that will help them better protect nature and wildlife in Midlothian, or work to make our Community Meal in Rosewell bring neighbours together over good food and conversation. A huge thank you to Katy from Growing Families and Julia from Midlothian Wildflowers for making it happen. In local halls, we’ve been welcomed by Gorebridge and Eskbank & Newbattle Community Councils to talk about the future of community energy, Midlothian planning and development, and how communities can take an active role in shaping what comes next. Each of those spoke of the local shared hope and commitment to create local change.
That sense of shared purpose continued further afield. At the Community Energy Scotland’s Members Conference, we joined others working to make community energy thrive, learning from projects across the country. During Challenge Poverty Week, a national week uniting people and organisations working to tackle poverty in the country, we joined local groups in discussing how we can keep Sustaining Anti-Poverty Work in Midlothian. Here, we launched two new resources to support groups in their work: one on Adverse Weather Preparation for Thirds Sector Organisations and another on Green Flags on best practice for Climate Funding. And at the Climate Mass Lobby, over 500 people from across Scotland, including many Climate Hubs, came together in the largest event of its type to meet their MSPs and call for stronger government action on climate and social justice.
Everywhere we turn, there are people who are stepping up, showing up, and helping to build something better. Volunteers, organisers, neighbours. The progress we’re seeing isn’t just in projects or plans, but in the growing connections between all those working for change. Together, we’re building not just a network, but a movement.
