Social Support and Migration in Scotland

 

The “Make It Happen Café” was a collaboration between SSAMIS, Modo, The WEA, Peterhead Projects, Aberdeenshire Community Learning and Development, and Caged Beastie, creative artists.

Make It Happen Peterhead was a creative multilingual space where everyone could meet, chat with someone new over a coffee, make art, or contribute to the plans for a longer term community café right in the heart of town. Although some sessions were tailored towards the Eastern European community, the focus was on integration, both between diverse communities and also between different generations.

A week-long programme of language, animation and art café workshops was trialled to see what would be popular. We also asked participants to fill out a simple questionnaire, as market research for future plans. The participants could add to our ‘Living Map’ highlighting significant places or mapping their route from Eastern Europe to Peterhead using photography, comics and newspaper clippings. Other workshops included stop go animation and film-making. These artworks have formed the basis of ‘Journeys’, an exhibition in the Arbuthnot Museum, running until 9^th January 2017.

The surprise hit was the Politics Café, led by Mindaugas Zaleckas. Make It Happen was shortly after Brexit, and there was a real appetite for political discussion. The group have subsequently met again, without any SSAMIS support. A great example of participant-led activity.

Since July the Make It Happen experiment has yielded great results. The model we developed in Peterhead was the inspiration for Make It Happen Arbroath in October. Also the collaboration between Ssamis, Modo and the WEA has led to a weekly Language Café, joint funding bids, and aspiration to continue working together even after the Participatory Action Research phase is over.

 Blog for MIH Peterhead 

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First published: 18 August 2016