Feature Project: Lochee Life

Lochee Parish Church successfully applied to the Church of Scotland to participate in "A Chance to Thrive". An initiative intended to support local churches in priority areas to engage with their community in a way that makes a difference to the lives of those who live there. An evaluation of interviews with local people identified that people in Lochee are proud of their history and saddened by the decline of their locality and the problems of substance misuse and unemployment that are prevalent in Lochee.

The aim of Chance to Thrive in Lochee is to encourage social participation of the community in creativity that will contribute to making Lochee a brighter place in which to live and which will contribute to a sense of achievement, pride and belonging in the people of Lochee. We hope to integrate all sections of the community through sharing and recording their story of Lochee - Celebrating Lochee Life, past present and future. Such an undertaking required us to find a substantial sum of money, as being selected as a Chance to Thrive congregation did not entitle us to any special funds. What it did was galvanise us into action. NHS Tayside Cash for Communities fund awarded us nearly £10,000. This funding has allowed us to contract Microdot Films to work with us, meeting people and recording their stories.

We decided to launch Celebrating Lochee Life to coincide with the Lochee Christmas Light night on 5th December. That was the day of the storm in the morning, the snow at lunchtime and the frozen pavements by mid afternoon.

By about 4.30pm the Church hall was full of school children who had completed a treasure trail of Lochee High Street, in which almost every trader had participated enthusiastically. The children from the after school club had worked with our team on posters for the shop windows. The children had a craft session which included drawing round their hand and writing on it their hopes for the future of Lochee. The Hands of Hope are now hanging on a Christmas tree in the hall. As soon as it was dark we projected images of Lochee people onto the exterior wall of the church using a street projector which we had on loan from the City Council. One of their staff volunteered his time to operate it for us. The projection ran for four hours and was appreciated by many, including the Lord Provost.

In the High Street we had a pop up shop where the Lochee History Society, the Lochee Crafters and the Healthy Living Initiative all had displays and information. We handed out hot drinks and Christmas pies, we had a quiz and a colouring competition going on and we had a story wall where we encouraged people to post their stories. The Microdot crew started filming those who were happy to give their story on camera. There was a great buzz and as one lady described it- "it had a real party atmosphere." In the New Year we will be offerring  a variety of opportunities for people to record their stories. We aim to have a book and a film ready to launch at the 2014 Festival of Lochee Life. By that time we hope that we will have some community members in our group and that we will be working towards another community venture that contributes to the lives of Lochee folk.