Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland was set up in 2012 to represent Traditional Arts in Scotland.

TRACS brings together the , the and the  to provide a common platform and collective voice for Scotland’s rich cultural heritage, and to improve the knowledge, practice, development and advocacy of traditional arts in a contemporary world, making them more accessible to all.

TRACS is CREATIVE

• Encouraging collaboration across traditional art forms & languages

• Holistic, inclusive & welcoming inspired by tradition to innovate & develop

TRACS is ORGANISATIONAL

• Sharing core resources to ensure effective communication & promotion for Traditional Arts activities

• Showcasing collective assets of artists, festivals and local traditions for cultural and economic benefit

TRACS is DEVELOPMENTAL

• Lobbying for more support for Traditional Arts

• Building partnerships with arts organisations, education authorities and local authorities

The CHEX network comprises 88 locally-led initiatives in low income areas that promote a wide range of activities and campaigns designed to tackle Scotland’s health inequalities. Community-led health organisations are supporting local people to develop solutions that address health and wider inequalities.  Through activities – such as walking groups, cookery classes, support groups, complementary therapy sessions and training in ‘Health Issues in the Community’ – they create a range of opportunities to promote change towards positive health outcomes. Including;

•Health & Wellbeing: supporting mental health improvement, promotion of affordable and quality food, social interaction and the promotion of more active lifestyles

•Co-production:  placing the skills and knowledge of local people on the same footing as professional ‘experts’ in the joint design of health, and other, public services

•Community Development:  empowering individuals and supporting collective community action

•Social Capital: increased as people develop new skills, make new connections and establish new networks of support in their community

www.chex.org.uk

The 38 members of Community Land Scotland manage some 200,000 hectares of land, home to some 25,000 people.  Community ownership is transforming communities previously considered fragile and unsustainable into exemplars of locally-led asset-based rural development.

Community landowners deliver local, accountable control of land and resources and seek to manage these to achieve integrated sustainable development:

•Promoting economic development: from renewable energy projects and land management to tourism initiatives and affordable housing.

•Maintaining local service delivery: from running the local shop or bunkhouse to providing childcare and countryside ranger services

•Protecting and enhancing the environment: delivering, often in partnership, large scale land management and restoration projects,

•Supporting community development: building community capacity, confidence and empowerment through self-determination and local control of assets.

www.communitylandscotland.org.uk 

@CommunityLandSc

Our Vision

Rural Housing Scotland helps rural communities to take practical action to address local housing needs and build sustainable rural communities. We provide expert support to communities from initial feasibility – helping communities identify the need and develop a solution – through to the construction of affordable homes. We help communities secure affordable housing through community trusts and to work in partnership with government, landowners, and housing associations to deliver more affordable housing options.

We help people in rural areas with advice and information on rural housing options; promoting the uptake of grants and helping them find affordable rented housing.We work with communities across Scotland and have helped rural communities from Fetlar in Shetland to Foulden on the border.

Rural Housing Scotland

Scotland’s 190 Development Trusts manage assets worth over £50 million, employ around 750 staff and have a collective annual income of nearly £50 million.  Development trusts are underpinned by a strong ethos of self-help and self-reliance; they work to achieve sustainable community regeneration through management and development of community owned enterprise and assets.

Development trusts are set up to tackle local issues and to improve the quality of life in their community, and can become involved in a very wide range of activities:

•Managing key local services: from the local post office and the village petrol pump to recreation facilities and sports centres,

•Developing businesses: from renewable energy projects and land management to affordable housing, office space, property development and employability initiatives,

•Supporting community cultural life: from preserving the local heritage and restoring and conserving historic buildings to running arts and crafts centres.

www.dtascot.org.uk 

Most Circular Communities Scotland members are social enterprises managing waste resources at a local level. The community re-use and recycling sector diverts in excess of 45,000 tonnes from landfill each year and generates over £20 million turnover. In addition to reducing landfill and cutting carbon emissions, third sector re-use and recycling organisations contribute to a wide range of social and economic outcomes, employing 750 full-time equivalent staff, involving 3,000 volunteers and supporting 2,000 training placements.

Third sector organisations are a significant aspect of Scotland’s zero waste economy:

•Re-using: taking in household and office items and preparing them for re-use before selling them or passing them on.

•Recycling: collecting and collating materials from households and businesses to be processed and remanufactured into new products.

•Composting: collecting and processing green waste or food waste

•Waste education: working with schools, the public, and businesses to promote recycling and waste minimization and effect positive behaviour change.

Circular Communities Scotland

The Scottish Men’s Sheds Association sole focus is supporting Scotland’s Shedders and their supporters to create Men’s Sheds in their community across Scotland. If you need help, inspiration or just a chat, you have come to the right place.

Scottish Men’s Sheds Association

The 31 Credit Unions in the SLCU are democratically controlled, member-owned financial cooperatives, promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive rates, and generating a range of social and economic benefits.  They have 42,000 individual members drawn from across the entire economic spectrum of their communities, hold £32 million in savings and make loans of £21 million.

Credit Unions at present cannot charge more than two per cent interest a month on the amount owed – an APR of 26.8 per cent – the only financial institutions in the UK to have such a cap on interest rates. The activities of credit unions:

•address social and financial exclusion,

•drive community social and economic development,

•offer an alternate corporate structure to the main street consumer financial institutions,

•generate rewards for members and  local communities.

www.scottishcu.org

The Scottish Islands Federation started as a network in 2000 which aimed to bring together people living on Scottish Islands, share information and good practice. It was funded by island councils and councils with islands and employed one project worker.

Today, we are a federation. In 2007, the network became an independent federation representing island development trusts, island community councils and island-based community benefit organisations.

Scottish Islands Federation

Thie network is made up of 74 community led health improvement organisations. These organisations employ approximately 500 staff, involve over 4000 volunteers and engage with over 300,000 local people in a wide range of community-led approaches to reduce health inequalities in some of Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities.

www.shlca.co.uk

This network seeks to empower and enable communities to create a low carbon future, and promote local resilience and well-being. The 60 community members of Scottish Communities CAN are at the forefront of the community response to climate change.  Their diverse range of activities include energy advice and reduction measures, transport, food & growing, composting, waste reduction and reuse projects which deliver significant benefits towards:

• Carbon Savings; from more efficient energy use through education, insulation & renewables; transport behaviour change; fewer food miles
• Health & Wellbeing; from local fresh food; shared community spaces and activities; more active travel
• Local Economies; through creating local jobs; reducing home and transport fuel bills; increasing local resources and produce
• Community Development; bringing people together to deliver projects; building skills and networks; identifying and addressing  local priorities

www.scottishcommunitiescan.org.uk 

@ScotCCAN

We work with community councils, individuals, community organisations and others to identify the problems that people face in planning. Our work is informed by these people’s experiences. Our network is Scotland wide, made up of community councils, individuals and organisations who are involved in planning issues in some way.

Our work is divided into three areas.

Campaigns: We carry out practical and academic research on the state of community participation in the Scottish planning system; we work with many communities throughout Scotland to try to understand where the problems lie and how we can change things; we campaign for a just and open decision making; and promote practical changes for a more equitable, inclusive and transparent planning system.

Community Network: We have a network of around 200 people and organisations.

Our campaign network is made up of people who have been involved in planning issues. Many of them tell us they have learned the hard way and discovered how difficult it is to engage and have your voice heard in planning. They help us to campaign for better rights for communities.

Action Research: this is a new area that we are currently exploring. We will be running a planning academy with the community in North Edinburgh. The aim is to build understanding and awareness about new opportunities and challenges in planning and community empowerment and how they might take advantage of them.

Planning Democracy

This is an important gathering point for all those individuals and communities who care about local and sustainable food in Scotland.  With over 1100 supporters, Nourish aims to create a stronger local food culture in Scotland in order to impact on land use, biodiversity, human health and greenhouse gas emissions.

www.nourishscotland.org

@nourishscotland

Scotland’s 150 community woodland groups own or manage almost 100,000 hectares of woodland and open land, employ 200 staff, and involve 3,000 volunteers. They implement genuinely sustainable forest management practices, integrating commercial timber harvesting with firewood production for local markets and careful environmental management to support Scotland’s precious biodiversity.

Scotland’s community woodlands deliver a wide range of social benefits:

•Education and skills: pioneering forest schools and other education projects and hosting skills and employability training projects.

•Health and wellbeing: serving as venues for projects supporting individuals with mental and physical health issues, from rehabilitation projects working with recovering addicts, to outdoor activities with the mentally/physical disabled and working with young people excluded from school.

•Recreation & culture: receiving well over half a million recreational visits annually, providing specialist trails for mountain bikes and horses, managing designated environmental and archaeological sites, and hosting arts performances and installations.

www.communitywoods.org

@CommunityWoods

Community transport organisations provide safe, accessible and affordable transport solutions to meet local needs, and account for 3.5 million journeys per year with older and disabled people comprising over 80% of passengers. The sector owns or has access to 900 vehicles and an annual income of £10 million.

Individual CT organisations often provide a mix of services, including:

• Community car schemes; a demand-responsive, flexible and accessible service for those who cannot access public transport due to mobility, illness, infirmity or restricted access.

• Group travel services and door-to-door dial-a-ride services; using minibuses operated under section 19 minibus permits.

• Wheels to Work; hiring mopeds and providing other transport services to enable people to get to work, apprenticeships, or to training that will lead to employment and long-term careers.

• Contracted ‘assisted travel’; services such as home-to-school, non-emergency patient or social care transport.

• Demand-responsive or fixed route transport; services operating where commercial bus routes are not viable.

www.ctauk.org

@CTAUK1

With more and more communities owning tourism assets and investing in the local tourism offer there is real scope to experience our world first hand and get to the heart of individual communities across Scotland. Let us introduce you to all the places you can go to experience exactly that. By making a conscious choice of where you stay, eat, buy and do activities, you can be confident every pound spent is also an investment in the host community’s landscape, culture, people and future.

SCOTO is a network of community tourism enterprises located throughout Scotland and led by a team of dynamic individuals who each have extensive and varied experience in community tourism.

“A garden is a solution that leads to other solutions.” Wendell Berry

Get Growing Scotland is brought to you by the Community Growing Forum Scotland, a group of grassroots projects and support organisations sharing information, inspiration, and expertise from communities and partners across Scotland.

Let’s work together to ‘get growing’ so more people and communities benefit from growing and sharing fresh food, learning new ways to connect with nature,  and supporting people to enjoy the physical and mental wellbeing benefits of doing something creative and positive outdoors.

‘’Get growing” and share your inspiration and experiences here: help us ‘get it’ – to better understand how we can start and keep growing and benefit ourselves, our communities and our planet.

Social Enterprise Scotland (SES) is an independent, membership-led organisation and is the voice of social enterprise in Scotland. We have championed the sector for more than 15 years to help create a supportive policy environment for social enterprises. We are the first point of contact for the media and public and promote a positive vision for social enterprise