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70TH PARTY. If not now, when? 

Hello, I'm celebrating my 70th birthday with a kind of Ceilidh on the evening of Saturday March 7th, at GalGael in Govan. There'll be friends and family and food and music. There'll be dancing.

I would love you to join me. 

GalGael is where I've been volunteering for the last few years. It has remained an oasis of sanity and stability in an increasingly unpredictable world. And it's a great venue for any celebration!  

GalGael's work has evolved constantly over the years, while sustaining its original ethos (we turn 30 next year!). In 2022, we opened a new garden hosting a range of gathering and growing spaces where we can offer experiences which support learning, healing and togetherness. The addition of outdoor space extends the range of settings for learning activities and experiences as well as offering an atmospheric venue that has hosted events for hundreds of people, indoors and out.

Our new programme - Making Just Futures - is a compilation of decades of experience, learning and observation as part of a bold reimagining of GalGael’s work. It sets out to pioneer modes of social action beyond ‘service delivery’ - modes that more accurately address not only complex needs that exist within marginalised communities but also speak to the complexity of the challenges of our time, such as crises fuelled by rising prices, polarisation or climate change. Making Just Futures cultivates practical know-how and emotional resilience as a participatory response to poverty, poor mental health and loneliness and other forms of vulnerability. Throughout a year, more than 300 people will reclaim dignity and wellbeing as they mend, make, grow, bake, pickle, knit or reuse. Along the way, people learn about self and others or connect with topics from self compassion to critical thinking. Scottish culture offers a rich source of contextual learning that further resources and roots people in place and time - through connection to Gaelic heritage, values and story. It is a motif that runs through much of our work from repairing boats to proverbs that lift up ethics of relationality.

So, please don't think about gifts or cards for me, but any donation to GalGael would be very much appreciated. See the button at the top of this page.

Elaine