Main discussion

Tracey Slaven of the Scottish Government’s Third Sector Division and Chris Higgins of Highlands and Islands Enterprise each gave a presentation and took part in discussion on their work and the relationship between ‘enterprising communities’, social enterprise and community development. Summary of presentations and discusion.

CDAS activities

CDAS is seeking to carry out and stimulate work:

• On the overall role of community development. The note of a meeting on how to develop a ‘strategic framework’ is available here. It has been agreed that the additional work suggested in that note will be taken forward.

• On the relationship between community development and each of the Scottish Government’s strategic priorities, and initially specifically:
  • ‘Safer and Stronger Scotland’: there would be continuing dialogue with the Scottish Community Safety Network, which was currently reviewing its role
  • ‘Greener Scotland’, initially through dialogue with the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC)
  • ‘Wealthier and Stronger Scotland’, through discussions such as this meeting and a planned joint Forum with the Poverty Alliance. It was suggested that later in 2009 there might be a specific discussion of the role of community development in a recession.

Empowerment approaches under review

A list of the twelve very varied local approaches to empowerment which are being studied as a contribution to the Scottish Government/COSLA work on community empowerment is available here.

Scrutiny Review

Finance Secretary John Swinney has announced the conclusions of the Government’s review of scrutiny bodies. These include:

• • A new health scrutiny body will bring together the functions of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and the Mental Welfare Commission, and the scrutiny of independent healthcare currently undertaken by the Care Commission
  • A single body will look at care and social work, taking on the functions of Social Work Inspectorate Agency, the Care Commission and HMIE’s current responsibilities for child protection.

Allotments

Cabinet Secretary for the Environment Richard Lochhead has announced that he is asking a number of public bodies to consider how the land they manage for the Scottish Government could be made available to local authorities to increase the number of allotments in Scotland. The Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society said that the announcement “will lead to many more allotment sites and many more individuals and local communities growing their own food”.  The overall number of plots currently available in Scotland is around 6,300 with 3,000 individuals on waiting lists.

Publications:

Delivering Outcomes In an important contribution to policy and practice, the Scottish Government has published the reports of the outcome-focussed practice support programme delivered to Community Learning and Development Partnerships. Each of the three main components of Community learning and Development has its own report, and some significant differences as well as similarities between them are identified:

Adult Learning                                 Report Summary
Community Capacity Building           Report Summary
Youth Work                                    Report Summary

Worth Doing The Scottish Government has also published “Worth Doing: Using the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework in Community Learning and Development”. Despite the perhaps less than exciting subtitle, this contains some useful practical examples of projects that have recognised the achievements of young people, community activists etc, often in informal settings.

Get in There CDF’s My Voice in Europe project and is aimed at helping women and young people to participate in Europe. It has published “Get in There“, a short guide to achieving representation and participation, with a resource guide.

Poverty Consultation responses The Consultation Responses to the Scottish Government’s  Discussion Paper on Tackling Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland (including one from CDAS) can now be accessed.

Community Philosophy The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published the report (full version available on-line) ‘Promoting intergenerational understanding through Community Philosophy’ by Sue Porter and Chris Seeley. Community Philosophy is a way of mutual learning which emphasises the importance of questioning and enquiry in the development of understanding. This study explores Community Philosophy in an intergenerational and residential environment, rather than the more usual context of schools and young people only. The report looks at how Community Philosophy can open community conversations within and between generations about ‘nuisance’ behaviours and the fear of crime.

Community worker gets top job

Congratulations to former community worker Barrack Obama, whose first job was with the Developing Communities Project on the South Side of Chicago, said to be inspired by the writings of Saul Alinsky. “Over three years, Obama led countless meetings on street corners and school gymnasiums, pulling together a coalition of churches, struggling middle class residents and public housing tenants” (Guardian).