Author: Maurice A. Jones , Stanford Social innovation Review

What is the difference between communities that are able to recover from disinvestment and those that cannot? The answer, according to recent research from MDRC, are the presence of strong social networks.

To invest in a place—whether for profit or for public benefit, whether an urban neighborhood or a rural community—is to place a bet on the strength of that community’s economic and social fabric. It’s a bet on the community’s ability to absorb the capital, use it to attract more resources, recognize and make the most of latent opportunities, and persevere to create more opportunity and value. That ability is a direct function of the cohesion and collective determination of the community’s residents, organizations, and political support.

Not every community has what it takes to pay off that bet. And not all investors have a clear idea of how to cultivate the readiness, the absorptive potential, that makes for an investable place. This explains the many communities where public and private dollars poured in, and a building or two rose, or a new service was offered, some new organization hung out a shingle, people in suits cut ribbons and declared a new era, and then… not much changed.

The story is sad, but it’s not inevitable. Over the years, communities that had seemed to lack the wherewithal to make the most of investments have later turned around, seizing opportunity and remaking the landscape, piling value on value. In places that were once thought resistant to change, in sections of Newark, Indianapolis, Oakland, Houston, and Chicago, among many other places, certain neighborhoods have managed to shift the odds. They have fundamentally improved their ability to use capital effectively, transform their surroundings, and build confidence among both investors and residents. The result: visibly better communities—more street life, better schools, stronger commercial strips, better housing, a heightened sense of safety and possibility.

How does this happen? Years of thought and experience—including many influential articles in this publication—have persuasively argued that the key is cohesiveness. It’s more than an initiative or two; you can’t get there just by building a new school or repaving Main Street or opening a job-counselling office. The key is to form the social and strategic ligaments that bind whole neighborhoods and help their centers of strength and energy work in concert.

In stronger communities, local interests find ways to pull together, form networks, share information, take collective action on local issues, and forcefully promote their own understanding of local needs and opportunities to government and outside investors. An improved school is linked to the new clinic; the youth program and the merchants’ association work with police and the parks department; arts groups and economic development programs and housing associations find common cause.

If you find a way to forge these networks, many observers have counselled, you’ll cultivate fertile places for all kinds of capital, public and private.

At the Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC), the nation’s largest and oldest community development financial institution, we’ve never doubted that wisdom—in fact, it’s the driving force of everything we do. When we channelled corporate and philanthropic money, in partnership with public dollars, into well-organized communities, where we’ve worked with businesses and schools and block associations and human-service organizations to hammer out a shared agenda, the return was unmistakable: better education, safer streets, busier business districts, more desirable housing and public spaces. The improvements lasted and multiplied.

A focused partnership led by SWOP with school leadership has expanded community and parental engagement at the school and increased quality of educational performance.

Still, when a wary investor or a skeptical public policymaker said, “Show us the numbers, where are the charts?” we had to rely on persuasive storytelling. We could walk them around a neighborhood, and that often worked. But we didn’t have the quantifiable data that it was the social networks, the integrated efforts of multiple local forces acting in concert,that made the difference. We couldn’t always persuade them that forming those connections was the right place to start and the best way to maximize results.

Part of the reason was that the social science and evaluation field had yet to catch up with the effort in a way that truly measured the work of forging networks. This is because every place is unique; every story is a little different; every successful network has its own mixture of driving forces and moving parts. We didn’t feel that research was able to quantify how disparate patterns of interaction can be galvanized into functioning engines of collective effort. Nor could we point to hard evidence that, whatever the particular variations from place to place, it was the formation of these networks, harnessing the concerted energies of whole neighborhoods, that counts.

Now we can.

MDRC Research Shows Importance of Social Networks

The first instalment in an ongoing series of reports by MDRC, the preeminent social-policy research organization in the United States, has collected evidence from LISC’s decade-long New Communities Program in Chicago. Funded with more than $50 million in grants from the John D. and Catherine T.

MacArthur Foundation, plus hundreds of millions more in follow-on investments from other sources, New Communities Program has fostered just these kinds of whole-neighborhood connections in more than a dozen areas of the city.

MacArthur’s commitment represented one of the largest single-city community development efforts in the country, and their partnership with LISC helped spark a generation of comprehensive community initiatives, including LISC’s own Building Sustainable Communities effort and initiatives in the Obama White House. Focusing on seven of the New Communities sites and two other neighborhoods, MDRC used social network analysis to measure the structure and strength of local partnerships and then assess whether these connections could be associated directly with the success of neighborhood improvements.

Social network analysis is a way of mapping the relationships among people and organizations working in a given place or field. It provides a way of understanding where the strengths of the observed relationships lie and what they can accomplish. The analysis can tell us what becomes possible when the resources of several organizations are combined, in specific ways, compared with what any one of them could have achieved on its own.

Author: Causey Development Trust

To watch a video explaining how the Causey have taken advantage of Sustrans funds – click here

Please let me know if you have any questions or if there’s a potential share our info through other platforms that you’re involved with, then it’d be great to learn more.

The Causey: vibrant, colourful, a place for people at the heart of the community, playing host to an array of engaging and uplifting arts and community events, rooted in history and community, recreating the buzz of this historically significant meeting place. A beautiful inspiring space, enabling people to create new stories for this authentic quarter bordering Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site.

The Causey Development Trust is working at grassroots level to transform a neglected, car-dominated cityscape into a vibrant, people-friendly place that celebrates the history and spirit of the Southside of Edinburgh.

Our aims

·         To create a distinctive city landmark at the edge of the World Heritage Site, drawing visitors beyond its boundary and connecting other key public spaces such as Holyrood Park and The Meadows, that will become an asset to the Southside of the city of Edinburgh.

·         To create an uplifting and inspiring community space that can play host to a wide variety of arts and community events, including farmers’ markets, community celebrations and art installations, and provide outreach space for the nearby Southside Community Centre and other local partners.

·         To complement and enhance the evolving university quarter by creating an accessible urban place, using high-quality design and sustainable materials, acknowledging the beneficial effect of good design in creating a sense of well-being.

·         To celebrate the heritage of this overlooked yet historically significant part of the Southside, providing an engaging learning experience that draws in visitors, increases footfall in and around the area and brings together the diverse local community.

·         To promote positive health and well-being through active travel by prioritising walking and cycling, and by creating opportunities for neighbourliness and community partnership.

Author: MACC

To see a short film about MACC click here

Run by the community, for the community, we are the group that purchased the former RAF Machrihanish on the Kintyre peninsula for £1 from the Ministry of Defence.

Maximising benefit for our local area, our vision is to build a prosperous and sustainable future for our community by unlocking the potential of our properties and assets and acting as a platform for socio-economic growth in Kintyre.

We aim to work with local groups, businesses and entrepreneurs in exploring new ventures, events and innovative uses for the site, whilst steering the future development of the park in order to attract inward investment from diverse industries; creating more job opportunities and long term benefits for future generations.

Our unique properties and assets are available to let from MACC Developments Ltd, the trading arm of our company, with the park offering a secure and flexible location for a vast array of commercial developments, TV, film and events.

Our site has been shortlisted as one of eight potential locations for a UK Spaceport. Please visit Discover Space UK for updates on our bid.

Author: NESTA

How we help each other matters. Some help supports people to feel hopeful, identify their own purpose and confidently take action. Other help does the opposite, undermining people’s confidence, sense of purpose and independence

How we help each other matters. Some help – what we call ‘good help’ – supports people to feel hopeful, identify their own purpose and confidently take action. Other help – which we call ‘bad help’ – does the opposite, undermining people’s confidence, sense of purpose and independence.

In this publication we aim to make a practical contribution. We have drawn on a well-established evidence base and worked with practitioners to understand how ‘good help’ is applied in practice. We outline the key drivers of action and list seven key characteristics of ‘good help’.

Key findings

‘Good help’ is all about helping people to identify and achieve their own sense of purpose. It recognises that when a programme’s purpose is aligned with a person’s purpose both parties are more engaged and motivated to work together to take action.

‘Good help’ is focussed on helping people develop their confidence. It recognises that individuals will find different sources more or less helpful at different times and in different contexts.

‘Good help’ can support people to create a positive cycle of action that helps them move towards their goals. In time, this can lead to transformational changes in their life circumstances.

We highlight seven characteristics of ‘good help’ that can be built into public services and social programmes: power sharing; enabling conversations; tailoring; scaffolding; role modelling and peer support; opportunity making; and transparency

Ryan’s story demonstrates the difference that ‘good help’ can make. He was on and off the streets for 12 years and felt misunderstood by the people trying to help him. He explains how people “always tried to rush me. Telling me what I’ve got to do.” Ryan experienced ‘bad help’. He was given advice and solutions that felt impersonal and irrelevant. He wasn’t asked about his own motivations or what else was going on in his life.

It wasn’t until Ryan met Aisha from Mayday Trust that he started to understand what ‘good help’ was. Aisha found out what motivated Ryan, what he cared about and what he felt confident doing.

Whether people want to find work, improve their health or get the most out of education, ‘good help’ involves understanding what matters to each person. It is about supporting people to build the confidence they need to take action. This kind of work is core to many community and voluntary organisations. Yet despite decades of research and good practice, remains absent from many mainstream services.

The simple truth is that we can not afford to keep providing ‘bad help’. Too much is at stake. Too many people are unnecessarily trapped in negative cycles and lost opportunities perpetuated by ‘bad help’. These negative cycles have acute and obvious consequences, such as homelessness or addiction, but also chronic and subtle effects which erode confidence and mental health, making activities, such as parenting and healthy eating, much harder, and sometimes impossible.

This publication provides a practical contribution to breaking out of these cycles. It is not the only solution, but we cannot ignore it any longer. We urgently need to make ‘good help’ a priority in how we design and deliver mainstream services and social programmes.

Download the report

Author: Gerry Hassan, Scottish Review

The people are continually cited and invoked everywhere in democracies. Not only that, but this is the age of directly asking the population via referendums – such is the disdain mainstream politicians are held in.

None of this is surprising. Politicians, or most politicians, talk a strange, discombobulated, evasive, managerialist language. They show in nearly everything they say and do that they are not to be trusted. Defence secretary Gavin Williamson – he of supposed tarantula fame – cannot even answer a direct question from that pussycat of interviewers, Richard Madeley, on whether it was a wise choice of words to tell Russian leader Putin to ‘go away and shut up.’

Look at what happens when real life bursts into the political bubble. This is one way of seeing the phenomenon that is author and rapper Darren McGarvey on ‘Question Time’ the other evening in Perth. Darren has become a rare voice who is not pigeonholed in modern day Scotland. In his book, ‘Poverty Safari,’ he has written fearlessly about his own journey, weaknesses and mistakes, and importantly, learnt from them – embracing personal responsibility in a way which isn’t simply of the left or right.

On ‘Question Time’ he was that unusual beast: someone talking in a very human way, showing doubt, humour, even a cheeky chap side – particularly in relation to his exchanges with David Dimbleby. More than this, he drew from lived experience – of facing your own shortcomings, of making mistakes and having at critical points little support to draw upon. He talked with passion and insight on the damage that alcoholism and addiction can do, which few politicians have the courage or backstory to draw upon, although Labour MP Caroline Flint, on the same programme, also mentioned having had an alcoholic mother who died at the age of 45.

This brings us to what has just occurred in Ireland. Someone said about Scotland’s indyref that if you ask people an important question there is a good chance that they will respond with dignity and recognise their own individual and collective power. That was true in 2014 in Scotland – whatever side you were on – and it is true of Ireland in 2018.

The Irish referendum did not just emerge from nowhere. Prior to the vote, the Irish Constitutional Convention (set up in December 2012 in the aftermath of the banking crash) ran until March 2014. Comprising 100 members, it had a chair, 33 politicians (29 from the Republic; four from the North) and 66 members of the public, drawn together to act and speak as a representative section of the public, and reflect on some of the biggest affairs of state.

It was the convention which spawned the Irish Citizens’ Assembly which engaged in some of the most powerful and far-reaching discussions and foregrounded the maturity of the process which led up to the 25 May vote. It was the assembly, made up of 99 randomly chosen citizens who, after listening and weighing up evidence from all sides and perspectives, came up with the proposal for legalising abortions up to 12 weeks, which became the central proposition of the referendum. This is what being modern citizens and the act of citizenship feels like. This is what being a modern country and democracy looks like.

The Irish are not on their own. All over the world new examples of constitutionalism are being made that are about more than the end-game and bright, shiny proclamations, and instead about the integrity of the process and people becoming active agents of change.

None of these are perfect, but as well as the Irish there were the Icelandic National Assemblies of 2009 and 2010 which attempted to crowdsource a new constitution. Made up of 1,500 people each, four-fifths (1,200) were chosen by a random process, with the rest representing various interest groups. This led to an official Constitutional Assembly (whose ideas were ultimately blocked by the political classes) but Icelandic democracy was changed as a result and enriched. Another is the Australian Constitutional Convention of which there have been several examples. The most recent in 1998 saw the creation of a body half-directly elected which considered whether the country should become a republic; this led to a referendum the following year when Australia voted to remain a constitutional monarchy.

To return home, Scottish discussions about constitutions, conventions and the people usually invoke the latter but seldom invite them centre stage. Instead there has been a long history of talking shops that can cite the idea of popular sovereignty as an abstract principle, but never actually implement and live it. This was true of the Scottish Convention of the 1940s, Scottish Constitutional Convention of late 1980s and 1990s, and the Scottish Independence Convention of today. Indeed, the latter group, which is an ad hoc convention, is now trying to establish another group – a cross-party campaigning group for an independence vote in a future campaign – when it hasn’t actually earned its spurs, reputation or place as a convention.

The world is changing all around us, including the meaning of democracy, authority, power and voice. This is an age of surprises and disruptions, some benign, some not so benign, and some clearly malevolent. Rather than politicians or alternative politicians citing the mythical power of ‘the people,’ and claiming that they alone are the true interpreters of the popular will, here is a radical thought: why don’t we look at ways we can directly trust the people?

What would that entail? Shouldn’t we just leave it to politicians or after the experience of referendums in recent years in the UK, experts? Look at the mess which the Brexit vote has made, or the unsettled nature of Scotland’s 2014 indyref.

We can do something different. First, we have to understand that the time for talking shops is over. They once served a purpose, particularly in past times such as the 1940s, or when people felt that they had nowhere to turn – faced with Thatcherism in the 1980s. Second, closed or insider conversations which are based on controlling the agenda and scale of debate are not very helpful or likely to win the trust of the average voter who doesn’t live and breathe politics. Hence, a set of conversations defined by which modern day tribe you belong to, and where it is all about whether you are pro- or anti-independence, has limited currency.

More importantly, we have to invest time, energy and resources in deep democracy. This sort of thing is happening in many in Scotland below the official radar and away from formal party politics. Examples include the pioneering work of the Electoral Reform Society Scotland and their ‘Act as if you own the place’ events which have travelled the length and breadth of the country, from Oban and Dalmellington to Dumfries and Dundee; and some of the work with citizens’ juries which the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has undertaken.

Critically, we have to start somewhere and that isn’t at the national or at the constitutional, but at the local. Despite all the national noise and comment, most people find more ways into caring about the place they live in, their immediate surroundings and future. Building deep, living, deliberative democracy in Scotland would involve starting small – in one or more places and being rooted in it. Not scaling up; not being a pilot for a national exercise which would subsequently be ‘rolled out.’ And, in the process, showing the potential of a thousand different Scotlands blooming and being that country of experiment, taking chances and allowing different visions to emerge.

This would entail thinking about democracy, our future and the choices we make in a very different way from the present. This isn’t about a country as a monoculture where what matters the most is whether your tribe comes out on top by vanquishing the opposing tribe, and it would not reduce power and legitimacy to be capturing and running the Scottish parliament. This would be a mosaic nation of many colours, hues, and perspectives. Sounds idealistic? You bet. But it is possible, if we dared to think of our country in different ways and didn’t define politics and power in such a limited manner. It would put us in the vanguard of a universal set of conversations and it would certainly be better than the present too predictable diet offered from the political mainstream.

This is a Scotland of personal and collective responsibility and of actual, lived self-government. Might it be that too many of our politicians wouldn’t like it because instead of putting them centre stage, it would put the people? And who knows where that might end?

Author: CEiS

Social Enterprise World Forum was established by national social enterprise support agencies with the first event held in Edinburgh in 2008. The success of the event in galvanising the global movement of social enterprise, creating a  platform for learning, sharing of good practice, ideas and creating partnerships, led to other countries seeking to host the event. This has transformed SEWF into the international event of choice for the sector. A brief timeline of the events are below.

•           2007 – THE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE WORLD FORUM (SEWF) WAS BORN

•           2008 – THE FIRST SEWF EVENT HELD IN EDINBURGH

•           2009 – MELBOURNE

•           2010 – SAN FRANCISCO

•           2011 – JOHANNESBURG

•           2012 – RIO DE JANIERO

•           2013 – CALGARY

•           2014 – SEOUL

•           2015 – MILAN

•           2016 – HONG KONG

•           2017 – CHRISTCHURCH

•           2018 – SEWF RETURNS TO EDINBURGH AFTER A DECADE

In its tenth year, the event will return to Edinburgh, Scotland where it all began. Scotland is recognised as a world-leader in the social enterprise sector, and part of a growing global movement. With more than a decade of sustained investment in Scotland’s eco-system of support for social enterprise, it’s fair to say there has never been a better time to ‘go social’. Voted as ‘The World’s Most Beautiful Country’ by Rough Guides Readers’ Poll 2017 there has never been a better time to visit Scotland.

A week full of activities has been planned for delegates to experience the rich beauty, culture and diverse social enterprise sector in Scotland and the UK.

Author: Stop Climate Chaos Scotland

Scottish Government’s Climate Change Bill ‘hugely disappointing’

Responding to the Scottish Government’s draft Climate Change Bill placed before the Scottish Parliament today Tom Ballantine, Chair of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland said:

“It’s hugely disappointing that the Scottish Government has failed to live up to its own rhetoric on global climate change leadership, by failing to set a net zero emissions target in the Climate Change Bill published today.

“The Government claims Scotland will be one of the first countries to achieve zero emissions, but the Bill does not commit to that. It sets a target of only a 90 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050.

“By failing to ally with the global momentum towards zero emissions, led by countries like France, Sweden and New Zealand, Scotland is missing a huge opportunity to end its contribution to climate change in a generation, attract clean investment and retain its position as a leader on the global stage.

“We’re now calling on MSPs from all parties to push for stronger targets on emissions – net-zero by 2050 at the latest, 77 per cent by 2030 and the action needed to deliver on them in line with the Paris Agreement.”

The Scottish Government has disregarded the voices of over 19,000 people in Scotland who asked for a net zero target by 2050 at the latest, as well as the voices of eminent global scientists, members of the farming community, faith leaders and those at the front line of climate change impacts around the world. As it stands, this Bill does not deliver on the Paris Agreement, and it does not deliver climate justice to those who already feeling the devastating impacts of climate change.

Author: Scottish Government

Democracy

[dih-mok-ruh-see]

government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

Matters

[mat-ers]

a situation, state, affair, or business something of consequence.

Somebody somewhere is making decisions on your behalf. They could be an MP,MSP, local councillor or public service worker. This involves public sector organisations like the NHS, police, councils, the Scottish Government, and a whole range of public bodies responsible for services like local enterprise, housing and transport. This is important work that affects our lives in all sorts of ways, such as helping us to stay safe and healthy, and access fair work and social care.

In recent years, something has begun to change. There is a growing recognition that it is often better for decisions about the issues that affect different communities in Scotland to be taken with more active involvement of those communities. Whether that is communities in different places organising at a very local level, or communities with a shared interest organising at a more regional level. This enables public services to work in ways which meet local circumstances and reflect the priorities of different communities.

Citizens are also getting involved in many different ways to decide what will most help their community, neighbourhood, or town to thrive. For example, Scotland has a vibrant Community Development Trust movement, community based Housing Associations deliver much more than affordable housing, and early interest in Participatory Budgeting shows people want a direct say over how public money is used in their area.

All of this is a matter of democracy, and democracy matters. But for many people, decision-making can feel like something that happens far away. And for some groups, like disabled people, ethnic minorities or those living with poverty, there are barriers to getting equally involved.

In modern Scotland power must work in a way that involves and benefits everyone. To get this right, we will review how responsibilities and resources can be shared across national and local government in a way that delivers the greatest benefit to Scotland’s different places. However, the starting point must be with our citizens and the power and potential within our communities themselves.

We want to hear your voice and the voices of your friends and neighbours in a discussion about local communities deciding their own future.

We think communities being more in control will create exciting opportunities. If you agree, does this mean communities having a stronger voice when decisions about them are taken? Is it about having the powers and resources to use as they think best?

How could any of this be made to work in your local area or community? And how can we ensure that any changes promote equality and reflect Scotland’s rich diversity?

The questions below are designed to help begin a conversation in communities about the kind of changes they want to see happen. We want to hear as many voices as possible, and in particular those who are all too often under represented. Visit our webpage to find information about how decisions about Scotland’s public services are currently taken, and the different ways you can join the conversation:

www.gov.scot/democracymatters

or email us at: democracymatters@gov.scot

As the conversation builds, we’ll share all that we hear so you can see for yourself the kind of changes people most want. As we understand how all of this could be made to work we will share different ideas at a series of events later in 2018. All who have contributed to the discussion will be invited to attend, and to tell us what makes most sense for their community.

We’ll also be working with councils and a wide range of public services to understand what would make a positive difference to how they work locally. A public consultation on any new laws that are required will follow – probably next year. Please do get involved: you will be helping to strengthen democracy and make Scotland a better place for all.

Join the conversation:

www.gov.scot/democracymatters

democracymatters@gov.scot

Author: BBC

To read full report – click here

Serious organised crime is part of everyday life in many of Scotland’s communities, according to a new report. Less about gangs, guns and assassinations, organised crime is now about preying on the vulnerable, “helping” when there are welfare and benefits shortfalls. Local people described well-known crime “firms, families and faces”.

Findings from the 18-month study are being discussed by Scotland’s Serious Organised Crime Taskforce. Commissioned by the Scottish government, the 100-page document called Community Experiences of Serious Organised Crime in Scotland reports on the local impacts and perspectives of serious organised crime. Ministers said they will consider the recommendations of the study. Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said the report would help to inform how government can support and protect people affected by serious and organised crime.

The study – the first of its kind in Scotland – was led by the universities of Glasgow and Stirling, with input from the University of Abertay, the University of the West of Scotland and the Scottish Community Development Centre. The results show the changing face of organised crime, finding that while serious organised crime continues to have deep roots in territorially-defined communities, other forms have become less visible and more diffuse, partly aided by new technologies.

The report stated that organised crime frequently featured as a relatively routine aspect of everyday life. Those who took part said poverty and inequality were key drivers of crime in their local areas. Anecdotal evidence given to researchers described real situations in communities. Threats, intimidation, and violence were considered routine by many residents.

Criminal groups used local knowledge to identify vulnerable people and seize the “opportunity” presented by the so-called “Bedroom Tax” to pay money to elderly customers with empty rooms to pay the additional charge in exchange for use of the rooms for criminal activity.

Nail bars have been identified as a new outlet for criminal activity, in particular human trafficking The study found diversification in criminal activity, with new sectors being explored such as care homes, child care, nail bars, car washes, funeral care, catering, hospitality, and cleaning services.

Findings stated that in the context of unemployment, precarious work, and zero-hours contracts, organised crime was seen as offering a route to financial reward that was very appealing to some young people, particularly young men in search of respect.

Justice Secretary Mr Matheson, who attended the taskforce meeting at the Scottish Crime Campus in Gartcosh on Monday, said: “Recent high-profile convictions of people involved in organised crime, supported by strong partnership work at the Crime Campus, send a clear message that Scotland is a hostile environment for those who prey on our communities.

“This in-depth report offers personal perspectives on the effects of organised crime locally, particularly on the vulnerable.

“It builds our understanding of the impact of such crime and how best we can support people and protect them from harm.” Dr Alistair Fraser, senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow who was involved in the research, said: “The study shows that while organised crime might be thought of as glamorous it is rooted in deep and enduring forms of harm and exploitation at community level.

“Though the majority of people had no direct involvement in serious organised crime, there were a range of indirect impacts like fear, social exclusion and stigmatisation.”

Organised crime was often found to be portrayed as a meritocratic, “equal opportunity” employer where able young people could find both success and a sense of belonging that they were denied in the legitimate economy. The report suggested tackling the far-reaching effects would have to involve policing, as well as statutory agencies and local community groups.

Dr Niall Hamilton-Smith, senior lecturer at the University of Stirling who was also involved in the study, said: “We need a stronger set of partnerships across policing, community groups and service providers in order to better identify and address vulnerability and exploitation linked to organised crime.

“As well as developing new resources within these communities we also need to change the narrative around how we view organised crime.

“We heard from a range of people who saw the logic in participating in these crime groups as being for ‘flash cars’, ready cash and local prestige when in reality very few individuals attained any material success without detriment.

Author: Propagate

A GROUP of local food producers is aiming to transform Scotland’s cities, and overhaul the country’s food landscape, by creating urban farms on vacant land and in empty buildings.

Their vision for the city includes market gardens selling unusual and high-end vegetables, based in vacant plots in deprived areas, and vertical growing projects in which salad and veg can be produced commercially, or fish farmed, in stacked “towers” in abandoned warehouses.

Last week, campaigning growers’ collective Propagate launched a new report – Roots to Market – calling on local authorities to help urban farm projects by making suitable vacant land more readily available under the Community Empowerment Act.

Report authors Abi Mordin and Kristina Nitsolova claim there is potential for more small-scale urban farmers to supply local businesses such as shops, cafes and restaurants, bringing environmental, social and economic benefits.

Projects in development or already under way in Glasgow include market gardens, vertical growing of micro-greens (nutrient-rich shoots used as side salad in some restaurants) and indoor aquaponics in which fish are farmed alongside vegetables growing in water without soil. The plants are fed by the waste products from the fish and in turn purify the water while the fish grow to an edible size. Other would-be market gardeners are looking to supply eggs, honey and fruit on a commercial scale, or create herbal teas, jams or pickles from market garden ingredients.

Glasgow city council is broadly supportive of plans. Work in Dundee, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, where several projects are in progress, is also being supported locally.

Abi Mordin, Propagate director, said: “We need to fix our food culture in Scotland. The Roots to Market report is a big step towards creating a sustainable local food economy in Glasgow. We’ve talked to lots of people in every part of the chain and we’ve laid out some clear steps for all of us to take. We have a lot of vacant land in cities like Glasgow and we are aiming to identify where there might be potential for growing.”

Propogate’s report called for the council to undertake contamination studies and create a searchable database to be used by potential market gardeners. The organisation is also supporting the establishment of the Glasgow Growers Association, which will take on leases from the council on behalf of small businesses.

Dr Roy Neilson, a scientist at Dundee’s James Hutton Institute, said there was “real potential” for urban growers to supply city cafes and other businesses. “Scale could be achieved through the adoption of vertical growing facilities, an innovative solution to growing food with a minimal footprint,” he added. “Local growing also provides provenance and reduces food miles and so has environmental benefits. Urban growers have the potential to complement, though not directly replace, existing food supply chains for mainstream consumers.”

Pete Ritchie, director of Nourish, an NGO campaigning on food justice in Scotland, said creating short supply chains – such as local growers selling to small businesses – had many benefits. Money stays in the local economy, food is fresher and both city growers and their customers felt more connected to the land.

“Sustainable food is vital to our city’s health, environment and local economy, as well as improving our resilience,” he said. “The issue is that there is still a skills gap – someone who knows what they are doing can get 10 times more out of the land than someone who doesn’t.”

He said a grassroots approach was needed to teach everyone how to grow food, but he would also like to see a college of urban agriculture. “It would look to the best projects in the world for inspiration,” he added. “It should have a hi-tech vertical growing unit – ideally that would be powered off renewable energy. Maybe we could have a turbine in the Clyde? It’s about thinking creatively.”

Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform – who earlier this week visited Locavore, a Glasgow-based social enterprise growing veg on its city-based market garden plots and selling local produce in its new ethical “supermarket”– said: “Our programme for government sets out a firm commitment to promote and develop demand for locally sourced and produced food and drink.

“Under the Community Empowerment Act, local authorities are also required to prepare food growing strategies which include the identification of land suitable for allotment sites and community growing, and how they intend to increase provision where required.”

A hidden market garden

ON the bustling Tollcross Road in Glasgow’s east end it would be easy to miss the alleyway that leads to Max Johston and Andy McGovern’s new market garden. It’s on the site of Parkhead Housing Association’s community garden, which is recent years has become overgrown and rundown.

The deal is that Johnson and McGovern get to use half of the plot for their new venture in return for help in restoring the rest for the community and running sessions for volunteers. It’s clear there’s plenty of potential for it to be transformed. Though covered with weeds, herb-like mint pokes through along with flowering strawberry plants and oodles of rhubarb.

The left-hand side of the space, used by for commercial growing, is much more orderly, though it’s still early days. Johnson shows me the neat rows of salad, with which he has contracts to provide for two Glasgow cafes – there’s oak leaf lettuce and lollo rosso, rocket and peppery red mustard. They are also growing herbs, which could be dried to make teas, as well as beetroot, carrots and spinach. It’s a carefully thought through offering, which he feels confident will allow them to make a basic living.

There is also an important belief system at play here. “As a commercial grower the major thing is to produce food in an environmentally sound way that isn’t stripping the soils and polluting the water,” he says. “We want to do that locally so it’s super-fresh and packed with nutrition. It’s also about culturing shifting people’s perceptions of food so they become used to local, healthy food being an easily available, a staple thing in their diet.”

Longer-term the pair, who grew-up in the east end, are hoping to lease a bigger space that will allow them to scale- up and are delighted to working as part of the newly formed Glasgow Growers Association – they claim working with others ensures efficiency. They believe there’s real potential to transform neglected parts of Glasgow. “People see vacant land around here as waste land that no-one wants,” he says. “What better way to turn it around than to create great big beautiful gardens producing food?”

Nurturing plants – and people – in Springburn

ARRIVING at the tired brick building on the edge of the Tesco car park in Springburn, you don’t expect to see anything growing. But pull back the bolt on the plywood gate and you enter another world. Here there is chard, spinach, kale, courgettes, French and broad beans in some of the 65 large beds tended by volunteers at Saheliya, a specialist mental health and support organisation for black, minority ethnic, refugee and migrant women and girls.

Once this land was abandoned, overgrown. Now there are herbs – sage, rosemary, chives – as well as onions and garlic. There are fruit trees – Fiesta and Katie apple varieties – blackberry bushes and strawberry plants flowering. The produce in this urban haven is international too – there are sweet potatoes and Amaranth green leaves, an iron and magnesium-rich vegetable commonly used in many African countries.

Gently bedding up tiny kale plants is 67-year-old Henriette Koubakouenda, who has been volunteering here since it was established three years ago. Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo where she headed up the country’s fisheries programme, she has lived in Glasgow with her two grown-up sons for 16 years, working with the community and running African women’s organisation Karibu.

A lot has been achieved here already. This all-women growing team are supplying to a local African shop and selling other veg to staff and service users here. There are plans also to expand their reach supplying more shops or running a veg stall. Money raised can go back into the service – a kilo of sweet potatoes will pay for daily bus fares for two more volunteers. The aspiration is to sell 300 kilos of veg a fortnight this summer.

But it’s more than a garden – it’s providing therapy as well as food. “Women using the service come here with all sorts of problems,” says Koubakouenda. “In the garden we can share experiences as we work, but we also talk about vegetables … we try to talk about good things. It’s like medicine. If someone needs to cry, we let them but then we comfort them. We are here to nurture the plants and to nurture the women.”

Staff and volunteers are also serious about the potential to make it economically viable and are investigating ground source heat pump technology for their polytunnels to expand the growing season. Koubakouenda is also applying for funding to set up an aquaponics system, allowing them to grow indoors all year round. Plants will be grown in water, stacked in towers, and fed by the waste produced from fish kept in tanks. The system is cheap, efficient and does away with time-consuming washing and harvesting.

“When I started reading about it I thought, yes, we can do it. We can transform Scotland,” she beams. “I wanted to inspire other women. If I can do this so can they.”

Box out: city projects across Scotland

Edinburgh: Edinburgh City Council has been working on the Edible Edinburgh project for several years and aims to create “a thriving food economy with greater diversity in local food production and distribution” and make better use of available land suitable for food growing.

Dundee: An increasing number of innovative food growing projects are now happening in Dundee with the backing of the James Hutton Institute. In one, the institute teamed up with Lochee Community Gardeners to take over unused council space and produce fruit for local jam-making on a commercial scale.

Aberdeen: Last September, Aberdeen City Council launched its plans to become a Sustainable Food City along with a new food growing initiative which included £145,000 of funding for a food-growing programme targeting the areas in need of regeneration.