The area of Dumbiedykes right next to Holyrood is to be the subject of a social experiment in 2015.
The Clore Duffield Foundation has awarded £50,000 to Comas which is an Edinburgh charity with an office at The Tun on Holyrood Road. (Comas is a Gaelic word which means ‘ability’ and their ethos is ‘do with not to’.)
The idea is to increase the income of every household in Dumbiedykes by £20 a week – for ever. This is clearly a novel approach to helping people out of poverty, and an ambitious one.
What is going to happen is that volunteers from the charity are going to literally doorstep as many people in Dumbiedykes and find out how they can help them increase their income. That may mean increasing income from benefits or it may mean helping some of them to set up businesses. There is as we all know potential saving to be made in bulk buying, and that principle will be applied to broadband for example in some community projects.
Yes you may think or even know that there are people living in the area who don’t need another £20 a week, but they might be able to help others. This is a case of a little goes a long way.
Ruth Campbell is the CEO of Comas and was a Clore leadership fellow. The Edinburgh Reporter met her to find out more about the exciting project she is leading:
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