Issue 8: Community Capacity and Empowerment

Stewart Grant

ISSUES

• Ensuring appropriate support structures are in place to help build community capacity, encourage empowerment and support community planning;
• Ensuring representativeness, improving communication and encouraging greater participation from community bodies to undertake regular engagement activities;
• Ensuring each community has enough volunteers to take advantage of new opportunities and proactively address issues;
• Supporting and identifying opportunities to enable communities to take control of income-generating assets; and
• Establishing local community planning structures within the five Community Planning Partnership areas.

TARGETS / PREFERRED DIRECTION

• Offer support to communities through locally based support organisations, with a presumption in favour of collaborative working;
• Support communities to review and update their Community Action Plan at least every five years;
• Work collaboratively through community planning structures to provide consistent and clear support and communications to communities;
• Work collaboratively on and jointly resource shared priorities, involving communities of place and interest;
• Offer support and advice to the Association of Cairngorms Communities and use it as a forum for broader engagement; and
• Identify a new Spatial Priority Area to provide an enhanced level of assistance/collaboration over a focussed time period to the Dalwhinnie, Kingussie, Laggan and Newtonmore area.

MECHANISMS FOR DELIVERY

• The LEADER Local Development Strategy
• Community Development Officer network
• The provision of external support and funding from regional or national bodies
• Association of Cairngorms Communities providing a leadership role as a key organisation for National Park wide community-led activity
• The creation of appropriate local community planning arrangements in each of the five Community Planning Partnership areas

Mark Hamblin/2020VISION/CNPA

When most recent Community Action Plans were produced

ISSUE 8 | KEY QUESTIONS

• Are there sufficient support structures available to help build capacity and encourage empowerment, particularly in the most fragile communities?

• How should communities be supported to maximise the opportunities provided by the Community Empowerment Act and Land Reform Act?