Facts & Figures

Residents from Balornock East, an area of multiple deprivation in North Glasgow, established the Association in 1979 to represent their interests and it now provides a hub, café and range of holistic services.  The Association is moving towards community ownership of a new, sustainable centre and in the process aims to increase its income. 

Charity - becoming a company limited by guarantee.

Presently 10% approx. – see ‘Biggest Challenge’ below.

see ‘Aspirations’ below.

Roots & Links

In 1979 local residents came together to form a group to represent the community’s interests, particularly in negotiations with landlords. In 1982 a café was started and the Committee began to develop other services and facilities. Volunteers remain the backbone of the project but as it has expanded it has taken on paid staff to allow it sustain an holistic range of activities.

Membership of BERA is open to all residents of the Balornock East area. The Management Committee currently has 14 members; 75% local people.  

BERA’s Mission Statement is ‘to help support the people of Balornock to become all they can be’ … through its range of services.

include:
*    Ruckhill Youth Project
*    Possil and Milton Forum on Disability - building links between disabled and non-disabled children in the area.

include:
*    Community Planning Partnership – the BERA coordinator is on its sub-groups
*    Culture & Sport Glasgow - Council’s Development and Regeneration agency
*    Development Trust Association Scotland
*    Home in Scotland - Housing Association
*    NHS.

Activities

Brompton Community Shop and its neighbouring units form the community hub, providing an advice centre, café, meeting rooms, IT suite and therapy room.

BERA builds local capacity through:
*    its Management Committee of local people
*    providing training and youth services – see below
*    sustaining community strength – see ‘community rolling programme’ below.

BERA provides the following services:

Community hub: including advice centre and café.

Young people:  youth activity club and youth art club.
 
Older people: pensioners club.

Training and employment opportunities: including IT training suite and classes.

Health and exercise: dance classes, smoking cessation support, stress management, and health-eating.

Families: including mother and toddlers group.

Community rolling programme: using local people’s comments and feedback, the Association provides a ‘roll on-roll off’ programme of community events and learning, including: bingo, fun days, psychic nights, coffee mornings, sign language classes, bollywood dancing.

Also:
*    room hire and office services, e.g. photocopying, laminating.
*    a local business provides beauty therapy, hypnotherapy and reiki on site at a cut-price to complement stress management activities at the hub.
*    space for other organisations to provide services/ information, for instance: Credit Union, Culture and Sport Glasgow, Literacy and Numeracy Support, Lifelink Support Services, local housing providers, NHS.

See ‘Biggest Challenge’ below

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Holistic range of successful services: success is different for each Committee member: some have committed to work that supports children or teenagers and they can see how well this work is developing; others have supported our work on training and learning for adults and see their successes too.

Sustaining community:  you notice the difference here in north Glasgow … people talk to each other and it’s got a real family vibe.  Many people here haven’t got a lot so it’s very important that they keep this.  Our rolling programme of community events helps by keeping the community coming together and fundraising for BERA and other organisations.

What Next

Getting the new build right – a new community centre to replace the existing one:  we’re applying to the Big Lottery Fund for technical assistance so that we can contract an architect to look at re-designing the existing buildings.  We’ve begun talking with the whole community and understanding all their needs so that it will be used by everyone.  We’re looking at community ownership of this new centre and renting back units to the Post Office, butchers, hairdressers and general store to raise income.  It’s been scary at first for the Committee but talking to other organisations has built their confidence.

Empowerment: it takes time for local people to gain their full power.  Sometimes the Committee hasn’t been sure of itself but by acting together they are realising what they can do.  For instance, recently a local resident was going to be evicted, the Committee responded by writing a reference for them and helping them keep their tenancy.
 
Importance of moving onto the next stage:  we’re learning about moving from grants to earned income, the importance of having clear outcomes, and how to raise money for posts that don’t directly connect to our outcomes.  We’ve joined the Development Trust Association Scotland and we’ve been supporting another Tenants Association in getting started and understanding these new approaches – it’s a very different kettle of fish.

Community ownership: the area is about to go through significant re-development and housing regeneration in the near future. Meanwhile, we’d like to be less reliant on the ups and downs of funding and stand on our own two feet .  The new centre can help the Committee achieve this.  

Sustainable centre: we’d like the centre to be a sustainable project and at ‘the high-end’ of sustainability too. We’re taking advice on the different technologies that can help. We want to have an impact so that people from round about come and see whether or not they like it and make their comments.

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