Tag: Scottish Community Development Centre

New resources for Community Councils

A new set of guidance documents for Community Councils have been published by the Improvement Service, Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC), COSLA and the Scottish Government.

The documents, which include a Model Scheme for the Establishment of Community Councils and Good Practice Guidance for how Community Councils should operate, were launched last week. Local Authorities can use this set of documents as the basis for their local versions which set out how community councils will run in their area.

Community councillors and local authority Community Council Liaison Officers (CCLOs) were involved in reviewing the existing Model Scheme and guidance document at a series of meetings in 2021 and 2022. These documents needed to be updated to take into account technological changes in the way Community Councils are meeting, conducting their finances and engaging with their communities.

There is some useful good practice guidance included, containing the latest information on topics such as planning, community empowerment and GDPR.

We felt that it is important that the key documents are available in accessible formats and that these should be available at a national level, to ensure that everyone within our communities can access and use the documents. The Good Practice Guidance for Community Councils, the Code of Conduct and the Standing Orders are now available in a range of formats.

There’s a video with BSL and captions, large print versions of the documents, text only versions that are suitable for braille conversion, and Easy Read. 

The Easy Read versions contain all of the information but break it down into small chunks, with explanations of some of the terms that are used. 

This helps make the information more accessible for people with learning disabilities, people who have memory problems, people who speak English as their second language and anyone who finds reading difficult. 

It can also be useful for people who are anxious or stressed and struggling to take in information because of that or those who have to take in information in a hurry.

All of the documents are also available in Gaelic, and other language translations can be requested.

Access the set of documents on the Community Councils website.

Knowledge is Power: invitation

Dear all,

Scottish Community Development Centre and the Poverty Alliance would like to invite you to attend an online shared learning and celebratory event with community groups supported by the Knowledge is Power programme to design and carry out their own community-led action research – where the community decides on the issue to be researched, designs and carries out the research, and makes use of the results.

The session should be relevant to anyone interested in this approach, including community and voluntary organisations, funders, academics and public sector organisations.

The event will be held using Zoom on Thursday 16th June from 1.30-3.30pm. 

Sign up for the event at https://www.knowledgeispower.scot/news/knowledge-is-power-meeting-wtexa.

Knowledge is Power is a programme from Scottish Community Development Centre and The Poverty Alliance to support community-led action research.

It has been jointly funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and the Scottish Government with additional contributions from the Corra Foundation and Inspiring Scotland.

The two-year programme has supported community organisations across Scotland to develop their own evidence to influence change in their communities – and to take forward actions for improvement.

As Knowledge is Power website has also been developed, featuring a toolkit for groups wanting to carry out their own research as well as examples of where groups have been supported to do this.

Participants at this informal event will hear from community groups who have carried out their own research over the past 2 years. There are some important messages to share, including the benefits community-led action research brings to individuals, groups and services as well as the challenges faced, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kind regards

The Knowledge is Power team

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www.knowledgeispower.scot

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Coronavirus: Community learning the lessons from the RRR Fund

Foundation Scotland have worked with Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) to produce a final evaluation of their Response, Recovery and Resilience (RRR) Fund.

The evaluation offers insight into the difference the RRR Fund has made to groups and communities across Scotland and the challenges that lay ahead. By the time the fund closed in April 2021, it had supported 1190 organisations across the country. Thanks to the National Emergencies Trust and the generous support of our donors, more than £7.4 million was distributed.

This report is the second evaluation of the RRR Fund. The first Rapid Evaluation of the RRR Fund was published in May 2020 and focussed on the first few weeks of the Response phase.

The July 2021 evaluation focuses on organisations who received funding in the Recovery and Resilience phases and includes survey data from more than 150 grantees plus detailed feedback from several focus groups.

The evaluation includes 14 recommendations and learning points within the following headings:

  • Impact on communities and project beneficiaries
  • Impact on community projects/organisations
  • Impact on Community Infrastructure
  • Challenges and Opportunities

The evaluation also includes several case studies from North Edinburgh’s Fresh Start, the Village Storytelling Centre in Glasgow, Headway in East Lothian, Clifftops Project in West Dunbartonshire and the Whitburn and District Community Development Trust in West Lothian.

Joyce Cattanach, Development Officer for Headway East Lothian, said:”Our Funders were wonderful in their response to the pandemic and the impact social isolation and loneliness would have on our already disadvantaged community.

“We sourced additional funding streams that had set up emergency responses; built up a strategy; and changed our outcomes and activities to respond and enable us to continue to work in a different way.”

The survey data, focus group feedback, and SCDC recommendations within the evaluation will help shape future funding and service development at Foundation Scotland. 

To read more, view or download a copy of the full report using the link below:

RRR-Fund-Final-Evalutation-July-2021Download

Link Up: Working Better Together in Place report released

The Place-based Programme Learning Exchange, a collaboration of national organisations that champion ‘place’ in their practices, has released a report highlighting what works and what doesn’t in place-based approaches.

This report aims to share these key learnings to enhance both the scale and quality of place-based working across Scotland, and draws on over 50 years of combined organisational experience and learning across dozens of urban and rural place settings.

Working-Better-Together-in-Place_PBPLExchange_FINAL_290321Download

Student writings show what life is really like living in poverty

A new, powerful collection of writing has highlighted the lived experiences of people living with, and tackling, poverty in their communities.

Disturbing yet timely, this collection of writing from students of the Health Issues in the Community course (HIIC) reveals the corrosive effect that poverty and inequality are having on a day-to-day basis in modern Scotland.

As a society that believes in compassion and justice, the writings act as a call to action to address inequalities and the increasing number of people being swept up in the wake of crushing poverty. 

Public health specialists have drawn attention to the serious impact inequalities have – made even worse by the global health crisis brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Amidst the grim picture that is so minutely described, the writings are also witness to the power of community, of kindness, of the sense of ‘the commonweal’ that is alive in our communities. 

Broadcaster and journalist Lesley Riddoch, who provided the publication’s foreword, said: “From all the grimness of lockdown and the staleness of news comes this wee gem of a collection – words from folk who live at the sharp end of life in Scotland.

“I’ve no doubt that the folk involved in this HIIC course will use the insights and comradeship they’ve gained to start moving mountains – while taking care of one another.”

Health Issues in the Community is an SQA-accredited course for adults and young people that helps students understand what affects their health and the health of their communities.

Running for more than 20 years, HIIC brings a community development approach to tackling health inequalities and reaches more than 300 participants each year.

HIIC is managed by the Community Health Exchange (CHEX) and funded by Public Health Scotland. You can learn more about HIIC here. 

While the HIIC course encourages participants to widen and deepen awareness of health issues in their communities and their involvement, we cannot solve this issue alone. Political action is required by governments to ensure Scotland is no longer defined by poverty and inequality in the 21st century.

These writings provide the voices of lived experience to help make that a reality.

Fiona Garven, Director of the Scottish Community Development Centre, said: “These students’ writings are a stark reminder of the impact of poverty in communities across Scotland – and the power of people coming together to take action on the things that are important to them.

“With a firm foundation in community development practice, HIIC has been tackling health and social issues for more than 20 years. These writings act as further evidence for community-led responses to health inequalities, enabling students to explore and take action to address their own health issues and the health of their communities.”

Bill Gray, Organisational Lead, Public Health Scotland said: “Public Health Scotland is proud to have supported the development of the HIIC course and recognises the need to listen to voices from our communities has never been more important.

“Our Strategic Plan sets out a clear ambition to embed engagement with communities across all of our programmes of work and the experiences of HIIC participants, set out in this powerful new publication is an invaluable resource for anyone working to address health inequalities in Scotland.”

WritingAboutHealthIssuesVol4Download

Ten groups to be supported through Knowledge is Power

Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) is delighted to announce the ten community groups who will be supported to carry out community-led action research and develop their own evidence to influence change in their communities.

We’re also pleased to announce that Corra Foundation and Inspiring Scotland have provided additional funding for projects they support to be involved in Knowledge is Power. This has helped increase the number of supported projects from six to ten. We are also really grateful that Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs will part sponsor one of the local inquiries.

The successful groups are:

  • Aberdeen in Recovery
  • Auchinleck Community Devlopment Initiative
  • Community Action Blackburn
  • Crossroads Youth & Community Association (in partnership with Bridging the Gap)
  • Dunterlie Foodshare
  • Fernhill Community Kitty
  • Friends of Inchyra Park
  • Moray Wellbeing Hub CIC
  • Shetland Community Connections

  • Taking Up Sophie’s Fight
Find out more about all of the groups we’re working with here.

The research evidence generated by the community organisations will be brought together through the Knowledge is Power website and used to help shape policy at a national level across Scotland.

The programme is being delivered by Scottish Community Development Centre and The Poverty Alliance and funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and Scottish Government.

Challenge Poverty Week: lunchtime seminar at Scottish Community Development Centre

Challenge Poverty Week 2019

SCDC lunchtime session, 8th October 2019

As part of Challenge Poverty week 2019, Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) is holding a lunchtime seminar exploring the role of community development in solving poverty. Continue reading Challenge Poverty Week: lunchtime seminar at Scottish Community Development Centre

knowledge is power: apply now

Knowledge is Power will support community groups to carry out community-led action research on an issue that matters to them and to use the research to make change happen.

We’ll be working with six groups from across Scotland, with support consisting of group training and tailored on-site support and advice to help you deliver a community-led action research project. There will also be opportunities to work together and share learning with other participating community projects.

We want to support community groups working with, and consisting of, people from marginalised and excluded communities. These could be people living in a neighbourhood experiencing poverty or people who face barriers, share an identity or equality protected characteristics, such as being disabled, LGBTQ or Black and Minority Ethnic (BME).

As this work progresses, the research evidence generated by the community organisations will be brought together through our website and used to help shape policy at a national level across Scotland.

Find out more and apply here