Our tenant and community awards night, known as The North Edinburgh Awards, is all about celebrating what makes Leith and north Edinburgh an amazing place to live. This year’s celebration took place at The Bakery on Wednesday 30 September with Leith’s Big Bingo Night and a community get-together before the winners were revealed!
Before the awards, we asked tenants and members of the community to tell us about the neighbours, groups and volunteers who are making a difference to them. The nominations we received were kind, heartfelt and a reflection of the incredible communities we have here in Leith and north Edinburgh.
Who were the nominees?
Good Neighbour
Karina Soltysik
Koorosh Aghabozorgi Chevarko & Matin Ashjari Ganjeh
Zoe Black
Kayleigh MacKinnon
Joan Robertson
Nicola
Community Group
YMCA Edinburgh and Pilmeny Development Project for their girls’ wellbeing groups
Redbraes Community Garden
The Edinburgh Remakery Ltd
Strange Town
The Shed
Earth in Common
Community Champion
Joan Robertson (Leith Walk Police Box pop-ups)
Julie Birkenfield (Volunteer Edinburgh)
Eltaib Daifalla (Street Soccer Scotland)
Lisa Petrie (Not in Vain Campaign)
Jim Oliver (YMCA Edinburgh)
Richard Morrison (The SS Explorer Preservation Society)
The winners
There could only be one winner for each category on the night, but every person or group nominated has made a difference to someone’s life. We congratulate every nominee and thank them for their role in making Leith and north Edinburgh a fantastic place to live!
Good neighbour: Joan Robertson
In the Good Neighbour category, winner Joan Robertson, described by her neighbours as a “lifesaver in many ways”, was recognised for her kindness. Joan often goes above and beyond to look after her neighbours by taking in parcels, looking after pets and keeping contact details in case anything happens. She was also nominated for Community Champion for her work in the wider Leith community, including at the Leith Walk Police Box.
On winning Good Neighbour, Joan said: “I’m absolutely gobsmacked. You just get on and do it. Do as you would be done by.”
Community Group: YMCA Edinburgh and Pilmeny Development Project for their Girls Wellbeing Groups
The Community Group award was shared by the Girls Wellbeing Groups run by YMCA Edinburgh and the Pilmeny Development Project.
Girls attend the groups for many reasons, including anxiety, stress, low confidence and friendship difficulties. The groups provide a safe space to develop confidence, friendships, self-care and life skills.
On receiving the award, Dawn Munro from YMCA Edinburgh, who runs the groups, said: “I think the girls will all be really chuffed with it. It’s really important to empower young girls with life skills. Our group is all about improving physical, emotional, mental and social wellbeing. The world isn’t in a great place for young girls and women. But because our group starts at age eight, we can then transition the girls throughout the key stages of life.”
Nicola Hutchinson, from the Pilmeny Development Project, said: “We’ve worked hard to get the group to where it is and it’s nice to have some recognition in the community because it’s been going for over five years.”
Dawn and Nicola were joined by Robyn, who started out as an attendee at the Girls Wellbeing Group and now works with the group as a young volunteer.
Community Champion: Lisa Petrie
Lisa began campaigning for tighter restrictions on the sale of knives following the death of her 22-year-old son, John McNab, in Leith in September 2025. She is campaigning for all knives to be placed in locked cabinets to crack down on shoplifting and ensure knife sales are carefully monitored.
Her campaigning work caught the attention of the media and people across north Edinburgh, who nominated her for the Community Champion Award.
She has also been distributing bleed kits across Edinburgh. Her work was recently recognised in the Scottish Parliament, where First Minister John Swinney committed to making the kits available at community hubs across Scotland.
On receiving her award, Lisa said: “I’m absolutely delighted. I didn’t expect it. I’m overwhelmed. I started this to raise awareness and to save someone else from going through that, kids and adults. So I’m absolutely blown away by this.”
Lisa is now hoping to get into schools across Edinburgh to tell her story. She said: “I think kids relate more to a realistic story than something from a textbook, so if I need to go around every school in Edinburgh to tell my story and John’s story, then I will. We’re looking at changing the law and we’ll keep pushing for bleed kits.”
Special recognition: The Leith Legends
The final award of the evening went to Harbour Homes’ Leith Legends! The group set off on a 3,070-mile journey from Easter Road Stadium in January this year. Their challenge was to ‘March to the Match’ virtually by walking the distance from Edinburgh to Boston at locations around the city.
They finished in time for Scotland’s first World Cup game, then walked enough steps to get home again.
A huge thank you to everyone who nominated their neighbours and familiar faces in the community. Without your kind words, many of these stories would go unheard. Congratulations once again to all our nominees and winners!