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Tenant volunteers in Edinburgh will tonight receive a civic reception from the City of Edinburgh Council to celebrate 20 years of campaigning for improved housing conditions.
Edinburgh Tenants Federation, which draws its membership from 60 tenants and residents groups across the city, are to be congratulated on its 20th Anniversary by the Lord Provost George Grubb.
Councillor Norman Work, Convenor of the city's Tenant Participation Working Group, said: "I've been very closely involved with ETF for several years now and have seen their excellent work at first hand. The success they have had with their mental health project is a perfect example and I can't think of many more deserving recipients for this civic reception."
Lord Provost George Grubb said: "The Edinburgh Tenants Federation have been provided a valuable campaigning voice on many housing issues for tenants in Edinburgh over the years and there is no doubt that their efforts have helped improve services.”
The Federation has a long history of campaigning, and amongst its recent successes are two national awards for work to improve services for tenants with mental ill health.
In accepting the civic reception on behalf of Edinburgh’s tenants, Betty Stevenson, Convenor of the Federation said: “I’m delighted that the Council values the work done by our volunteers. This event shows how important our work is, and how important tenants voices are in Edinburgh. You just have to look at the work of the mental health awareness group to see how far we’ve come.
"After two years of nagging to get a working group started, ETF finally persuaded the Council that supporting tenants with mental ill health was an important issue. Now the group is winning national awards, and has through the set up of the group over 200 council staff have been trained in Safe Talk suicide awareness by Choose Life.”
The civic reception is part of a year of celebrations for the Federation, which will culminate in a Parliamentary reception and exhibition at the Scottish Parliament on 15th March 2011.
(GK)
