Tiphereth’s ‘Colinton Community Compost’ red tipper truck needs your help!
Every Tuesday for more than 12 years, residents will have spotted Tiphereth’s ‘Colinton Community Compost’ red tipper truck doing the rounds of local streets, carrying members of their Pentland Group as they collect bags of green garden waste from around 600 houses in the Colinton area, bring the load back to Tiphereth, and unload it onto the compost heap.
Now the much-loved red tipper truck – absolutely vital for the project to operate – is quickly in need of replacement, and Tiphereth need public support to be able to make this happen.
Tiphereth are a Camphill Community, with residential, day services, and social enterprises supporting the life and work of adults with learning disabilities and autism. The Community Compost work is a favourite activity for physically able members who have a learning difficulty and other support needs, with many hard-working members doing this excellent work for several years. In 2010, City of Edinburgh won a community partnership award for its work with Tiphereth.
Tiphereth has recently faced cuts in income as local authorities are struggling to fund health and social care, and it is an enormous financial challenge just to stay on the road.
When I met with Tiphereth I was struck by the precarity of the situation they find themselves in, as if the tipper truck breaks down, which I’m told it often does, they simply cannot fulfil their commitment to residents until repairs are made.
The impact on members themselves cannot be underestimated, with sudden changes to the structures and routines of their day often very challenging for people with a learning disability or autism.
Tiphereth provide a service that I greatly admire, and I very much hope that as a community we can club together to ensure that they can keep up the excellent work for a further 12 years and more.
More information on the appeal, and a link for donations is here.
