The home of community development policies, resources and news in Scotland.

Who we are

A unique Scottish charity with a strong coalition of member supporting community development across Scotland.

About us

What we do

We bring people together to promote and implement community development policy and practice.

View our development plan

Led by our members

We’re a coalition of 128 organisations and networks who share good practice and influence decision making.

View our members

 

Thank you for attending our Annual National Conference! Read and download the Evaluation Report below

Wednesday, 25th Sept 2024, The Barracks, Stirling

Thanks so much to all our wonderful membership organisations and subscribers for participating in our conference. You can now read and download the full Evaluation Report below.

Download the evaluation report here

 

Democracy Matters 2 consultation response

We have now published our response to the Democracy Matters 2 consultation, where we outline our views around what the future of local governance and participation could look like in Scotland.

Download it here.

Updated Development Plan & End of Year report

Our newly-refreshed, member-led CDAS development sets out a series of overarching priorities for 2022-25. Our 2023/24 End Of Year Report includes details of all activity and progress made towards achieving the CDAS Development Plan.

View them both here.

 
 
 

Publication: Why Community Development? Our Collective Impact.

A Resource to support anyone working with and for communities

We are delighted to present to you this updated version with a continued focus on practical information for people on how community development happens and also a resource for those who are interested in increasing their understanding of why community development has such a transformative impact when done well.

We hope you will find it a useful resource to use with communities, groups, policy makers and students alike. We re have worked with several of our members and listened to them to shape, develop, and produce this new publication.

Download the publication here.

 

CDAS Annual National Conference 2023

Thank you to everyone who participated in our conference including keynote speakers,workshop facilitators and reverse panel members

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE EVALUATION REPORT HERE.

You can download the keynote presentation from the day here.

Our speakers, workshops and panelists

  • Keynote Speaker: Clare MacGillivray, Director, Making Rights Real/ International Association for Community Development.

  • Keynote Speaker: Sabir Zazai . CEO Scottish Refugee Council, Honorary Doctor @UofGlasg.

  • Keynote speaker, Mr. Tom Arthur, Minister for Community Wealth & Public Finance.

  • Workshops: International Association for Community Development, CLDMS, Scottish Refugee Council, CLD Standards Council and lot's more!!

  • Reverse Panel Discussions: Reverse panel will gave our members the opportunity to pose questions to senior policy makers and influencers in order to affect change.

Read more here.

 

CDAS Bulletin

Every month we bring together to latest resources, news and activity from Scotland and beyond for the CDAS Bulletin. It’s free, informative and everything you need to stay on top of the latest around community development.

View past issues

 
 

Sharing learning, Impact and Influencing decision making

CDAS and its members come together to capture learning and impact from community development practice across Scotland.

We work with representatives from the Scottish Government to raise awareness of the great work of our membership organisations.

Take a look at what the Minister for Public Finance, Planning, and Community Wealth, Tom Arthur, said at our 2021 conference.

View our Development Plan

 

Become a member

CDAS members are partners in a national network of practitioners, lead officers and decision makers seeking to promote community development and influence policy.

Membership is open to national organisations, or networks of regional organisations, whose aims include the promotion of community development and who are willing to endorse the principles of community development practice.

Become a CDAS member

 

Follow us

One way of staying up to date with Scottish, UK and International community development news and all the current policies - and don’t forget to sign up to our bulletin.

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Get in touch

Whether you want to become a CDAS member or have a general enquiry, you contact us to discuss all aspects of community development policy and practice in Scotland.

Get in touch