Cassiltoun Housing Association (originally Castlemilk East Housing Co-op) is the oldest community ownership Housing Co-operative in Glasgow, being registered with the Industrial and Provident Society in December 1984. Castlemilk is one of Glasgow’s peripheral housing schemes and was originally built on a green field site in the 1950s/1960’s. The area changed dramatically with the decline of manufacturing industry in the West of Scotland. Castlemilk suffered from a lack of facilities within the community and geographical remoteness from the rest of the Glasgow. In the 1970s many Castlemilk properties lay empty and were subject to vandalism and attendant social and economic problems for the community. Founder Board of Management members, among them the Association’s previous Chair, Anna Stuart MBE, set about to create a decent, affordable, clean and damp-free place for local people to live.

Wellbeing and cultural development are also important. The Creative Writing Group at Castlemilk Stables meet once per week and create stories/poems together. The opportunity arose to apply to "Scotland's Year of Stories 2022 Fund". The Community Development Assistant met with the group, brainstormed what the fund could be used for and we applied to the fund collaboratively. We were successful and this enabled us to work with freelancers to create pieces of writing and a short film which included each persons stories, voiceovers and photos.

The film’s premiere took take place in the courtyard of Castlemilk Stables, a 17th Century stables block. It was accompanied by a series of creative writing workshops for all ages(led by the writing group), performances by the Writing Group and a professional storyteller for the children, also an exhibition of photographs which shared local people’s stories/poems.

This event has been supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. This fund is being delivered in partnership between VisitScotland and Museums Galleries Scotland with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players.