About our organisation
Our organisation incorporated as a SCIO (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation) in January 2017 with the following charitable aims:
The SCIO’s purposes are to benefit the community of GRANTON (North Edinburgh) which comprises the area bounded by (and inclusive of the streets mentioned), the sea, Wardie Steps, Granton Road, Ferry Road (numbers 400-740), West Granton Access Road, and Waterfront Broadway with a line extending directly to the coast. (“the Community”) with the following objects:
1/ To support the advancement of a well functioning community with an increasingly healthy social, environmental, and economic fabric. Particularly by creating opportunities for people to meet together around food (growing, cooking and eating) and by supporting those who take initiative on this.
2/ To promote environmental improvement, including protecting and increasing biodiversity, by creatively imagining the best uses for our open spaces, and by caring for these spaces, particularly community gardens.
3/ To advance health and wellbeing, both physical and mental, by:
-facilitating and supporting access to gardening opportunities, and other community events.
-contributing to improved diet through increased access to, and availability of, fresh local produce.
4/ To advance education and skills, particularly related to food (growing, cooking, and eating).
These are written in formal language, as they show what our organisation is set up to do, and why we qualify to be a charity.
Granton Community Gardeners (GCG) has been going since 2010. A huge number of people have been involved in different ways over the past 11 years!
In 2017 we set up a charity (a SCIO: Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation). This decision was made because we needed to have a more formal set up for some of the things we were wanting to do, like applying for larger amounts of funding and employing people.
We have a board of 7 great Trustees, who are formally responsible for the running of the Charity.
GCG is registered with OSCR (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator). Our charity number is: SC047087.
We also qualify as something called a ‘Community Controlled Organisation’. This means that for the long term, it will always be people living in Granton, who get to decide what the charity does. It also means that our organisation is eligible to hold community ownership of land or buildings.
Overall control of our organisation is held democratically by voting ('ordinary') members: anyone over 18, whose home address is within our area of benefit. Membership is free. Anyone who supports our organisation and aims can join, but if you're 12-17, or don't live within the exact defined area of benefit, but you won't have formal voting rights.
Being a member means:
-We will keep in touch with you and invite you to our events.
-You can let us know if there are particular things you’d like to get more involved with
-You are showing that you support the aims and work of Granton Community Gardeners.
If we can show that we have lots of community support, we’ll be able to make a stronger case for what we’re wanting to do (eg. when applying for funding, or acquiring ownership of land).
-You will be invited to our AGM, and (if you are an ‘ordinary member’) you are able to vote for people to join the Board of Trustees.
You don’t need to be a member to come to our events etc. Everyone is invited!