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2nd December 2020
The origins of community enterprise can be traced all the way back to the first stirrings of the cooperative movement. Although there’s still some debate about where the first cooperative was formed, the purpose and principles of cooperation have remained pretty much unchanged down the years – local people responding collectively to injustices or challenges that face their community. While the language of cooperation and mutuality may have fallen out of fashion in recent years, it is those very same principles that have been dusted down and given new meaning during this pandemic. And now that our instinct for cooperation has been reignited, the challenge must be how to sustain and nurture it when the crisis eventually passes – to reimagine a cooperative movement for the 21st century. A simple idea conceived by SENScot could well be a forerunner. Simple, because it converts what we already have in abundance – a highly networked social economy – into an ‘internal marketplace’ by building cooperation and trust between those networks. In this case, tiny amounts of public funding are facilitating ‘transactions’ between community based health projects and social enterprise providers of mental health services. Peer to peer exchange – costs next to nothing, delivers extraordinary outcomes.
In the most recent briefing…
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On the ground
Read moreWhile a small number of aspiring community land owners have suffered setbacks of late, many more have tasted success with a string of awards from the Scottish Land Fund just announced. These awards are often crucial elements of a complex jigsaw of careful planning and local development. Assynt Development Trust and Knoydart Foundation will be using their awards to purchase land for new affordable and social housing. Whatever their consultation processes were, they were clearly successful. Perhaps a repository for successful (and unsuccessful) consultation exercises should be established as a resource for other to learn from.
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On the ground
Read moreAt a time when unprecedented numbers of people are queuing up at the nation’s food banks, it says something about our land use priorities when the amount of land allocated to the game of golf is ten times that which is allocated to allotments and community growing projects. A major new community food project in Glasgow is aiming to establish Green Assemblies across the city to encourage hyper-local food and growing projects. It’s also planning to develop what will be Scotland’s first urban farm – by acquiring one of those golf courses.
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On the ground
Read moreThe Craigmillar Festival Society was a pioneer of community arts in the UK and became internationally renowned for its approach to tackling poverty and disadvantage. Formed in 1962, it ran for 40 years. This short film won best documentary at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. While the energy and passion of the organisation had understandably waned after forty years, its legacy and that of its founder, Helen Crummy has endured to this day. Last month, a new grassroots arts project emerged. If not quite a phoenix from the ashes, certainly a rekindling.
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On the ground
Read moreThree years ago, Voluntary Arts Scotland participated in a UK wide series of conversations investigating creativity in every nook and cranny of the country and asking whether it is being adequately supported. The findings were published earlier this year. The report, Common Ground – Rewilding the Garden highlights what policy makers should do to allow our creative instincts to flourish. And it wasn’t a plea for cash. Showcasing the vibrancy of our voluntary arts, the annual EPIC awards were announced last month. Scotland’s shortlist was as strong as ever but there can only be one winner.
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Policy talk
Read moreThe leader of North Ayrshire Council, Joe Cullinane, has become Scotland’s champion for the latest zeitgeist of economic development – Community Wealth Building. Faced with a multitude of social and economic challenges created by years of austerity and exacerbated by Covid, he clearly believes the principles of community wealth building represent the only realistic way forward. Indeed, they are hard to disagree with – using land and assets for the common good; recycling the public pound within the local economy and so on. It begs the question though, why haven’t these always been guiding principles?
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Policy talk
Read moreFinding the time to step away from the daily pressures of running an organisation in order to think and reflect on the bigger picture is notoriously hard. Some time ago, Scottish Community Alliance secured some resources to enable its members to do just that and each to their own, some deep thinking has duly occurred. One of those who took up the offer was Community Land Scotland who neatly wove together the practical challenges facing community landowners into a manifesto for next year’s election highlighting in particular the interconnectedness of land reform and the climate emergency.
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Policy talk
Read moreApproximately £1billion was raised from dormant bank accounts after legislation permitted these ‘lost’ assets to be put to good use. At the time, we argued that Scotland’s share of this windfall should be passed directly to the most disadvantaged communities in the country, giving local people direct control over the resources with which to tackle whatever issues faced them. Needless to say it didn’t happen. Now an even larger sum could be raised by identifying other forms of dormant assets – potentially many billions – and there is a growing lobby across civil society in England to create a Community Wealth Fund. What’s happening here?
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Policy talk
Read moreSome recent results of community ballots held to gauge support for land buyouts have been a sobering reminder that nothing can ever be taken for granted and that community consultation is a complex and difficult process to get right. Even with supportive legislation and public funding on offer, there are many reasons why a community might question the wisdom of assuming the responsibilities of becoming a landowner. If the proponents of community ownership could research and unpick some of the reasons for this hesitancy, it might pay real dividends further down the track.
Featured anchor organisation:
Twechar Community Action
A former mining and quarrying village, Twechar is one of Scotland’s 15% most deprived areas. Twechar Community Action was formed in 2001 as a response to the closure of the Local Aurthority owned recreation centre in Twechar. Twechar Community Action transformed the centre into the Twechar Healthy Living and Enterprise Centre – a community hub which houses a full time pharmacy, a satellite GP surgery, café, sports hall and meeting rooms, and a vast range of activities and services. Twechar Community Action has its origins in the desire of local people to retain and improve one of the few facilities…
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