July 27, 2016
Island challenges
Earlier this year we reported that the Scottish Islands Federation, which aims to be the collective voice for Scotland’s 95 inhabited island communities, had been boosted with an award of funding. SIF have since recruited a part time development officer and have set about drawing up their strategic priorities for future action. To help them with this exercise, they’re asking island communities everywhere to sharpen their focus by listing what they see as the key challenges of island living. Meanwhile we’re delighted to welcome SIF as the latest national network to join SCA.
What matters most to the islands?
The Scottish Islands Federation (SIF) is pulling together a report on the challenges and opportunities that matter most to Scotland’s island communities and needs as many groups as possible to take part in its survey ‘Meeting the Challenges – Scotland’s Island Communities’.
There are 95 inhabited islands in Scotland and while they share a number of intrinsic challenges many are becoming pioneers in sustainable development. SIF is a network of island community organisations, working on behalf of the islands, highlighting the challenges and sharing and promoting the innovations. A recent contribution from the Scottish Government has given SIF’s capacity a welcome boost and comes at an important and exciting time for island development as the Islands Bill progresses.
SIF’s Chair, Camille Dressler, who is based on Eigg said ‘there are lots of issues that hinder island communities but we also have many unique strengths to harness if the support and capacity is there. With the survey we really want to capture the current thinking from island communities themselves about the main issues and how they have responded or could respond to them. There is such opportunity to work together across the islands and what we gather will help us highlight the things that matter and will form the foundation of the network moving forward’.
The survey will only take a few minutes and you can find the link on the SIF website Facebook