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April 22, 2024

CPAR 2 final shared learning sign up

April 22, 2024/ Andrew Paterson

The final shared learning session for CPAR will take place in May 2024 and is a chance to hear what other CPAR researchers have been finding out in their research and also share what you’ve been doing. Attending the event is a requirement of CPAR and is a great opportunity to practice talking about your research to others and to hear and share tips for taking your research forward.

We’d like you to sign up to one of the following days and times:

Monday 13th May 2-4pm
Tuesday 21st May 10am-12pm

Please use this form to say which date you can manage.

Note: it might be helpful for you to attend the same event as other researchers from your group/organisation. However, this isn’t essential.

Name

First Name

Last Name

Email

Group/organisation

Please select which day and time you will attend

Any other info

Please let us know if there's anything else you'd like add, including any accessibility issues using Zoom that we aren't aware of already.

April 17, 2024

Climate Towns show one path towards community-led climate action

April 17, 2024/ Admin

In Edinburgh, the Ripple Project and Craigentinney Primary School set out to use PB to empower pupils and encourage an understanding of how to make difficult decisions about competing priorities in a democratic and engaging way.

April 15, 2024

Participation Request event - 15th May 2024 (9:30am - 3:30pm)

April 15, 2024/ Admin

Name

First Name

Last Name

Email

Organisation

Are you representing:

Local Authority area

This will be an online event, held via Microsoft Teams. Do you have any access needs/ is there anything we can do to help you participate in this session?

Do you wish to receive updates on the Participation Request Process including any changes that are implemented?

Yes

No

April 10, 2024

Participatory budgeting encourages democratic participation in Edinburgh school

April 10, 2024/ Admin

In Edinburgh, the Ripple Project and Craigentinney Primary School set out to use PB to empower pupils and encourage an understanding of how to make difficult decisions about competing priorities in a democratic and engaging way.

April 10, 2024

Explainer spotlight: Understanding community engagement

April 10, 2024/ Admin

In Edinburgh, the Ripple Project and Craigentinney Primary School set out to use PB to empower pupils and encourage an understanding of how to make difficult decisions about competing priorities in a democratic and engaging way.

April 03, 2024

Scotland's health inequalities are getting worse. Where's the outrage?

April 03, 2024/ Admin

In a new piece, SCDC Director Susan Paxton has explored Scotland’s worsening health inequalities, while asking: "Where is the outrage?"

March 27, 2024

Video: How participatory budgeting can better include women — and why that matters

March 27, 2024/ Admin

What happens when women make the decisions about community priorities? That’s the story this short video tells from Santa Ana Tzacuala in Mexico, where PB has enabled innovative ideas from women and children to protect the environment and create spaces for families.

March 27, 2024

Latest figures show failure to tackle child poverty

March 27, 2024/ Admin

To create a fairer, more just society it’s vital that people in all communities can take part in our democracy, use their voice, and ensure their priorities are represented.

March 20, 2024

What does best practice citizen participation look like?

March 20, 2024/ Admin

The International Observatory on Participatory Democracy (IOPD) is asking this question through the annual Best Practice in Citizen Participation Award, which aims to recognise participatory and deliberative activity.

March 20, 2024

How community-led action research is making an impact

March 20, 2024/ Admin

Community-led action research is crucial tool that enables communities to set their priorities and carry out the actions they want to see. We recently set out our vision for what might be next, but what does it look like in action?

March 13, 2024

New guidance sets out how we can value lived experience

March 13, 2024/ Admin

People with lived experience can bring unique knowledge, novel ideas and challenging questions to discussions around the issues they’re experts in – but how, and how much, we really value lived experience can raise significant questions.

March 06, 2024

New article outlines what could be for next community-led action research in Scotland

March 06, 2024/ Admin

Community-led action research is an approach that sees communities deciding what issues needs to be researched, designing and carrying out the research themselves, and making use of the results to affect positive change.

March 06, 2024

How community-led organisations support cash first approaches

March 06, 2024/ Admin

Cash first approaches are becoming increasingly prominent, with many funders, community organisations and the government recognising that providing money, rather than in-kind support, gives people the agency to buy what they personally need, and reduces stigma.

March 06, 2024

An idea whose time has come? Community-led action research in Scotland

March 06, 2024/ Admin

In this blog, David Allan, Deputy Director of SCDC, shares his thoughts around the progress of community-led action research – and what could be next for this approach in Scotland.

February 28, 2024

Democracy Matters 2 consultation concludes

February 28, 2024/ Admin

The second phase of Scottish Government and COSLA’s Democracy Matters consultation closes today, following an opportunity for communities to share their ideas about what decision-making powers could look like, and how potential new decision-making bodies might work.

February 21, 2024

New briefing sets out key actions to eradicate health inequality in Scotland

February 21, 2024/ Admin

Scotland’s health inequalities paint a stark picture. With healthy life expectancy stalling over the last decade, it’s now beginning to decrease.This means that on average the poorest men in Scotland can expect just 44.9 years in good health versus 71 years for the wealthiest.

October 16, 2023

New set of guidance documents for Community Councils published

October 16, 2023/ Sheena Fletcher

A new set of guidance documents for Community Councils have been published by the Improvement Service, Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC), COSLA and the Scottish Government.

June 20, 2023

Plans afoot - help shape our response to Scottish Government consultation on community engagement in local development plans

June 20, 2023/ Andrew Paterson

Plans afoot - help shape our response to Scottish Government consultation on community engagement in local development plans

SCDC will be contributing a response to the Effective community engagement in local development planning guidance consultation and would like to hear from any community organisations or others in our network who would like to help shape our response

May 18, 2023

Income(ing) call - participants wanted for research into income-based policies and health

May 18, 2023/ Andrew Paterson

Income(ing) call - participants wanted for research into income-based policies and health

A new research project is interested in what the public think about different income-based policies that impact on health. For this, they are looking for people to take part in interviews, focus groups and a public panel to help deisgnm the research. People will be given a finacial incentive for their time.