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Welcome to your one stop shop for all the latest news and updates on the Easterhouse Phoenix Development project's progress, as well as archives and links to related news past. |
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Star Joe vows to act to help Easterhouse
TELEVISION and stage actor Joe McGann has pledged to support an Easterhouse community group.
Liverpool-born Joe, whose three brothers Mark, Paul, Stephen are also actors, has vowed to work with Easterhouse Phoenix Development to help the most vulnerable people in the community.
The group works to combat gang violence in the area but also helps out pensioners and anyone else who needs assistance. Since the group formed two years ago, its charismatic founder Richard McShane has become a national commentator on gangs and youth issues.
Joe will give free drama lessons in Phoenix's new headquarters in Easterhouse's old library, which has not been used in several years. Today Joe said “I am impressed with Richard and Phoenix . Heis working for the people of the community and genuinely cares about their wellbeing. When I go to Easterhouse, I see a community on the up.”
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"When I was last there, an old lady saw me and shouted: 'Oi, McGann! I want to write a play.' So I thought why not?
"Now we've got the library, we could hold workshops that could result in community plays.
"There's nothing I won't do to help Richard."
In the coming weeks and months, Easterhouse Phoenix Development will turn the old public library on Shandwick Street into a community centre. It is currently in the process of raising £60,000 to renovate the building.
CLICK BELOW TO READ FULL ARTICLE.
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A community group in Glasgow’s East End has finally been given the go-ahead to turn a disused library into its headquarters. Easterhouse Phoenix Development hopes to move into the library within months. The Evening Times last year revealed that the charity had been asking for access to the abandoned Easterhouse Library but this had been refused.
But this month the council’s arm’s-length building company, City Building, decided to give them the lease of the library, which will be shared with the Scottish Squash and Racketball Club.
Richard McShane, managing director of Phoenix, said: “We exist to help disadvantaged people in Easterhouse by giving them a chance to go somewhere they can take part in something, show them there are opportunities out there and put them on the right road to achieving those opportunities. “This will be our base so the community can come together.
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“We would like to say thanks to the Evening Times for supporting us in our efforts to use the library.” Drama workshops, held by actor Joe McGann who was impressed by the work Phoenix was doing, will be held in the centre and there will be a pensioners’ club as well as music lessons.
With little funding and no base, the group has worked tirelessly to help out people of all ages.
People on community service orders will be drafted in to help renovate the building and Richard said of that decision: “It means offenders are putting something back into the community.”
Several years from now the library will be demolished along with Easterhouse shopping centre. Until then Phoenix will be bid to raise enough cash to build a centre on the site where Frankie Vaughan made his famous plea for gangs to end violence.
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Viennese Gala Ball 23 June 2012
Easterhouse Phoenix in the Media
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Star Joe vows to act to help Easterhouse
TELEVISION and stage actor Joe McGann has pledged to support an Easterhouse community group.
Liverpool-born Joe, whose three brothers Mark, Paul, Stephen are also actors, has vowed to work with Easterhouse Phoenix Development to help the most vulnerable people in the community.
The group works to combat gang violence in the area but also helps out pensioners and anyone else who needs assistance. Since the group formed two years ago, its charismatic founder Richard McShane has become a national commentator on gangs and youth issues.
Joe will give free drama lessons in Phoenix's new headquarters in Easterhouse's old library, which has not been used in several years. Today Joe said “I am impressed with Richard and Phoenix . Heis working for the people of the community and genuinely cares about their wellbeing. When I go to Easterhouse, I see a community on the up.”
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"When I was last there, an old lady saw me and shouted: 'Oi, McGann! I want to write a play.' So I thought why not?
"Now we've got the library, we could hold workshops that could result in community plays.
"There's nothing I won't do to help Richard."
In the coming weeks and months, Easterhouse Phoenix Development will turn the old public library on Shandwick Street into a community centre. It is currently in the process of raising £60,000 to renovate the building.
CLICK BELOW TO READ FULL ARTICLE.
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Group Gets Booked Into Old Library
EVENING TIMES Monday May 16 2011
A community group in Glasgow’s East End has finally been given the go-ahead to turn a disused library into its headquarters.
Easterhouse Phoenix Development hopes to move into the library within months. The Evening Times last year revealed that the charity had been asking for access to the abandoned Easterhouse Library but this had been refused.
But this month the council’s arm’s-length building company, City Building, decided to give them the lease of the library, which will be shared with the Scottish Squash and Racketball Club.
Richard McShane, managing director of Phoenix, said: “We exist to help disadvantaged people in Easterhouse by giving them a chance to go somewhere they can take part in something, show them there are opportunities out there and put them on the right road to achieving those opportunities.
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“This will be our base so the community can come together. “We would like to say thanks to the Evening Times for supporting us in our efforts to use the library.”
Drama workshops, held by actor Joe McGann who was impressed by the work Phoenix was doing, will be held in the centre and there will be a pensioners’ club as well as music lessons. With little funding and no base, the group has worked tirelessly to help out people of all ages. People on community service orders will be drafted in to help renovate the building and Richard said of that decision: “It means offenders are putting something back into the community.”
Several years from now the library will be demolished along with Easterhouse shopping centre.
Until then Phoenix will be bid to raise enough cash to build a centre on the site where Frankie Vaughn made his famous plea for gangs to end violence.
Click here to view the Article.
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Why can't we use this old library?
A community group has hit out after its bid to set up in a disused council building was rejected. The Easterhouse-based Phoenix group wanted to make the area’s empty library site its temporary home. But it has been refused because the building is due for demolition. Phoenix, which helps keep youth crime down and gives pensioners somewhere safe to meet, is being run from organizer Richard McShane’s home.
And he is angry at the decision, especially since a bingo club has been given permission to set up next door in a shopping centre – which is also due to be knocked down. Mr. McShane said: “it’s hypocrisy with a capital ‘H’. We would be prepared to take the library on an 18-month lease. We are not asking for any money, just the building. What we need is a community centre. Our centre was closed nine years ago, and it was a big loss.”
The Phoenix group has been credited with uniting the neighbourhood. It’s activities include football teams for scores of youngsters and a pensioners’ club that is so popular it has a massively oversubscribed waiting list for membership. Darryn Blair, 16, and Shaun miller, 18, say they have had their lives transformed through joining Phoenix.
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Darryn said: “it’s the only thing that keeps us out of bother. Before I was just walking about the streets and the police would pull me up. But since I joined the football all that has changed.”
Shaun added: “Phoenix has given me a responsibility and I feel a lot better. I basically used to be a wee ned, but Richard has really helped me.”
Fox Bingo will soon open its new club in the Shandwick Shopping centre, even though the centre has also been awaiting demolition for years as part of Glasgow city council’s Easterhouse town centre redevelopment plans. A council spokesman said: “the former library building is targeted for demolition, so this would not be a good option. “the group is being asked to explore other venues as a short-term home, and a very suitable candidate seems to be the former Family Action in Rogerfield and Easterhouse building, owned by the GHA.
“the premises being used by the bingo club were formerly owned by the developers and owners of the Shandwick centre, and were thus available.”But Mr. McShane, “the Family Action premises were in a tenement flat, with three flights of stairs. It is no use for pensioners who can’t manage the stairs.”
EVENING TIMES Saturday February 20 2010
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