People drinking and taking drugs, litter, lack of shops, lack of things for kids to do, gangs, territorialism and racism; these are just some of the problems facing Gorbals, according to a new study by Doing It For Ourselves.

Doing It For Ourselves is a group of seven people who stay or work in Gorbals. They want to improve the area by involving local people in identifying the problems and providing the solutions.

They got together after a grant from the Craighead Institute. This paid for two consultants to work with local people who want to make a difference. Their first meeting was in March, when they set up a group to train to  carry out research in their community.

During May and June they went to four different locations across Gorbals and spoke to 226 people but only 116 filled out the forms.

The big difference in their research is that they spoke to people living in Gorbals who would never have had the chance to say what they thought of their area. This was empowering the people to help make their community better.

After the research was concluded, they held a public meeting to discuss the findings. Around 30 people attended. They discussed issues around youth, community and environment.

 The main issues for young people were lack of play areas and a community centre, gang fights, territorialism and lack of a secondary schools.

The main problems for the community were the need for two community centres, one in the centre and another further out; to have better and regular bus routes in the area; to have cheap child care so people could work; to stop people affected by drugs using the local chemists and to provide alternative services. There was racism being suffered by the asylum seekers and refugees who live in the area.

The issues affecting the environment were: litter, dog fouling and graffiti.

The group then drew up action plans to implement these findings.

Also in attendance was Frank McAveety, Shettleston MSP who said, ‘Any discussion about making a difference to a community is always welcome. By this group taking the initiative, we hope that we can provide the proper solutions that Gorbals desperately needs.’