Author: Steven Morris, The Guardian

All young people leaving care in Wales at the age of 18 are to be offered the chance to take part in a basic income pilot scheme under which they will receive £1,600 a month for up to two years.

The money will be given unconditionally and participants will be able to earn from paid jobs on top of the basic income with ministers hoping it will help give some of the most vulnerable in society a better chance of thriving.

Officials, who investigated basic income schemes from California to Finland before designing the Welsh pilot, will study whether those who take part do better in the long term, financially, physically and emotionally, than young people who do not.

Advertisement

The scheme, set to launch in the summer, is believed to be one of the most generous of its kind in the world and will cost the Welsh government £20m over three years.

Those taking part will be taxed and will not be able to claim all benefits they would be entitled to if they were not given the money after the UK government refused to allow this. Benefits are not a devolved area.

The move was welcomed by UBI Lab Wales, which campaigns on the concept of universal basic income, under which every citizen, regardless of their means, receives regular sums of money for life to cover the basic cost of living.

Lowri Walters, of UBI Lab Wales, said: “While this proposal is not for a location-based basic income pilot with a wide range of participants, it represents a huge step forward for the UBI movement and a first for the UK. This will be a sizeable basic income for young people who need financial support at an uncertain and difficult point in their lives, and we’re confident that, if done properly, this pilot will demonstrate that a basic income can transform the lives of care leavers as well as citizens across Wales.”

Welsh parliament member Jack Sargeant who led the Senedd’s first debate on UBI, said: “This is an incredibly bold move from a Welsh government that is leading the world in this area. We now need to ensure that we learn all we can from this trial. This is a real opportunity to show things can be different.”

The Welsh minister for social justice, Jane Hutt, said the Labour-led government was committed to supporting the most vulnerable and tackling the “scourge of poverty.”.

She said: “Too many young people leaving care continue to face significant barriers to achieving a successful transition into adulthood. Our basic income pilot is an exciting project to deliver financial stability for a generation of young people that need it most. Support will also be offered that is designed to build up their confidence to negotiate the world outside of care. This extra support will include, for instance, financial wellbeing training and signposting to all available support.”

All young people leaving care who turn 18 during a 12 month period, across every local authority area in Wales, will be offered the chance to take part in the pilot.

The pilot will run for a minimum of three years with each person receiving a basic income payment of £1600 a month for a duration of 24 months from the month after their 18th birthday.

Almost half of the Welsh parliament signed a pledge calling for UBI to be trialled in the run up to last year’s elections.

Author: Victoria Mackay, CES

This year’s Community Energy – State of the Sector research survey goes live on the 16th Feb 2022.

If you are a member of a community energy organisation or know someone who is, we’d love to hear from you and find out about your work. To complete the survey, click on the links below:

•     State of the Sector Survey 2022
•     State of the Sector Survey 2022 [Welsh]

About the State of the Sector

Building on research carried out over the last 5 years, Community Energy England, Community Energy Wales, and Community Energy Scotland aim to highlight the impact and potential of the community energy sector by developing a robust evidence base for community-led electricity and heat generation, energy storage, low carbon transport, energy efficiency, and wider low carbon initiatives. Data from the survey will be analysed and shared in a UK wide report, as well as a report on the State of the Sector in Wales (thanks to funding by the Welsh Government).

Why should I take part?

The State of the Sector 2022 report will help influence government policy over the next 12 months and raise awareness of the importance of community energy. The research will also feed into the ongoing work of Community Energy England, Community Energy Wales and Community Energy Scotland, supporting and aiding communities to develop their own low carbon projects.

Who should fill it out?

The survey is aimed at community energy organisations involved in low carbon activities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This includes electricity and heat generation, energy storage, low carbon transport, energy efficiency, demand management, fuel poverty work and other low carbon initiatives.

We greatly appreciate the support of every community energy organisation who has previously taken part in our research and look forward to hearing about what the sector has been up to over the last year.

Contact Info

If you have any questions about this survey, please contact Victoria: victoria.mackay@communityenergyscotland.org.uk

Author: GWSF

More than three-quarters of those on the governing bodies of community-based housing associations are local people, according to a survey by the Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations (GWSF).

The Forum said the research is very encouraging as a number of associations have been struggling to replace tenant members of their governing body who have retired.

In a new report, which was based on interviews with nearly half its members, GWSF found that the average proportion of tenants currently on governing bodies was 47%. Whilst there is no past figure on which to base comparisons, most associations said they were finding it more challenging to recruit tenant members.

But the proportion of local people on governing bodies was nearly 77%, suggesting that whilst some people from outwith the area are being recruited to bring specific skills and experience, a significant majority are still local.

GWSF chair Helen Moore said: “It’s a significant finding that our members have been increasingly successful in attracting a wider variety of local people onto their committees and boards, at a time when many have sometimes struggled to replace tenant members.

“To some degree it could be argued that we’re the victims of our own success: whilst much remains still to achieve, our homes and communities are generally in much better shape than they were when associations first came into being to improve things.

“Compare that obvious motivating factor with the prospect of considering whether your association’s level of covenant cover is adequate, and you can see that today’s complex financial and regulatory landscape doesn’t necessarily set the heather alight for any governing body member.

“And the inevitable need to focus on the strategic stuff and less on operational matters does mean it’s becoming a harder sell.

“But what’s really reassuring is that it’s still predominantly local people serving on our committees and boards. Supplemented by additional skills and experience from a relatively small number of people from further afield, the overall balance is looking healthy going forward.

“That said, though, our members will always be extremely keen to attract tenant members despite the challenges, as they bring a critical and unique perspective to how we provide services and support our communities.”

The report includes case study examples of bespoke training programmes and other initiatives which have led to the successful recruitment of both tenants and other local people.

Author: Oli Mould, Adam Badger, Jennifer Cole, Philip Brown, The Conversation

Since the start of the pandemic, communities throughout the UK have rallied to help vulnerable and isolated people. Churches, charities, football clubs, mosques, local councillors and groups of concerned neighbours have distributed food, home-learning technology, emotional support and everything in between.

These initiatives come together under the broad banner of “mutual aid”. This term, coined by anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin, explains how the survival and evolution of the human race depend on us working together, as opposed to Darwinian notions of “survival of the fittest”.

COVID brought mutual aid – a concept with a long, radical history in communist and anarchist politics – to the mainstream. But many people delivering mutual aid during the pandemic may have misunderstood its mission. Much of the supportive work was done by existing charities and faith groups, but as direct giving, rather than mutual sharing.

Mutual aid is when people help each other, exchanging goods and services. Doing this does away with the need for handouts from external bodies, such as the government or charities. Instead, mutual aid has been interpreted by state institutions and the mainstream media more as charity work – giving to those in need without seeking to tackle the structural inequality that created the need in the first place.

As welcome as they were to the people who received food, emotional support and other vital services, many of the pandemic initiatives operated very much as a charity, with all the official legislation and bureaucracy that entails, such as background checks and food-hygiene certificates.

One example of more “mutual” practices of mutual aid – fostering sharing over direct giving – that has played an important role for many during the pandemic is the humble community fridge. Addressing both climate change and food insecurity, the fridge is a place where anyone in the community can leave surplus food, and others are free to take food depending on their need. It’s not always an actual fridge – sometimes old phone boxes have been used.

Our ongoing research on community fridges and mutual aid has seen them become more numerous during the pandemic. Hubbub, a community fridge network set up in 2016 with National Lottery Funding, has grown their network from 150 fridges in 2017 to nearly 500 today, adding 250 in the past year.

Fridges are important in marginalised communities, both in areas of deprivation and wealth. They can help reduce the stigma of going to food banks or asking directly for food as they can be accessed at any time and without the need to register with a local authority or charity. One of our interviewees described setting up a community shopping trolley full of food at a local school in Barnsley:

We put a trolley outside the school reception area with all the food in and it’s open and accessible to everybody and anybody in the community. So there’s no stigma attached to it, you don’t actually have to be at that school, you can just come and help yourself.

In the US, community fridges emerged from – and are deeply embedded in – low-income, often black communities.

In Britain, community fridge initiatives have primarily focused on reducing food waste. Kate Raby, a spokeswoman for Hubbub, says that “community fridges are not food banks, they are very much about food waste”. Their value, she argues, is in bringing the community together.

There will be some people there because they hate food waste, there will be other people there because they need the food.

She explains that those who take out the food may offer cookery demonstrations of their favourite dishes to those who put in, or just offer a chat and companionship.

Sharing, not charity

The power of the community fridge is in blurring the boundaries between giver and receiver. Anyone is welcome to give to or take from the fridge, depending on their level of need. Rather than dependency (the haves giving to the have nots), this fosters interdependency within a community and acknowledges that at any point, one’s role can shift from giver to receiver, or vice versa. The act of taking food is as important to the commonality of the fridge as putting food in because it makes sure food isn’t wasted.

Two years into the pandemic and welfare support in the form of furlough and the universal-credit uplift have ended. As such, the need for community support has continued) – and in some cases, increased. The growth of the community fridge network highlights an increasing need for more equitably distributed food, alleviating food waste and hunger at the same time.

The pandemic has made community fridges more visible, and sadly, more needed. Nobody wants them to exist as they currently do – they show that overproduction is leading to enormous amounts of waste, and they represent a failure of state support and the need for a better solution to food inequality.

But the increased attention to mutual aid highlights the value of a political movement that celebrates community solidarity against systemic pressures, be those poverty, pandemics or climate change.

Author: SIF

 Exciting new post – apply now if you want to help our islands tackle marine litter

We’re sick and tired of marine litter!  This was one of the key messages highlighted at our island marine litter learning exchange earlier this year.

Scotland’s islands are home to the most spectacular beaches in the UK, a huge asset to the whole of Scotland, and yet the enormous contribution of the community groups and volunteers that work so hard to keep our beaches clean, often goes unnoticed and the need for long-term investment, overlooked.  Marine litter is a massive, global issue and for the island communities directly in its path, its relentless. 

Creating an opportunity for island groups to get together for the first time, to share experience and look at ways of working together, 20 participants from across the islands took part in the exchange event. 

The learning from three working island initiatives – Catriona Spink of OceanGives Tiree, Ina Glover of Islay Beach Watch (part of Islay Development Initiative), and Janet Marshal of Clean Coast Outer Hebrides -was followed by discussion around challenges, possible solutions, and collective action that we could take forward.

While international solutions are needed to reduce the volume of plastic entering the oceans, common issues experienced on the ground in islands included the need for greater awareness of the issue and its impact, improved uplift and recycling of material and the urgency of long-term investment in communities to provide capacity, paid jobs, equipment, research and circular economy solutions.

The meeting concluded with the agreement to establish a Marine Litter Working Group to enable us to work together to make a difference, bring greater awareness to the situation in islands, look for solutions, share learning and engage with policy. 

Since then, the Working Group, which includes members from Shetland, Westray and Orkney, Barra, Bute, Islay, Tiree, Gigha, Eigg and Arran, has meet twice and, while still finding its feet, is already proving to be a valuable forum.  A representative of the Working Group has been invited to join the Scottish Government Marine Litter Strategy Steering Group and, following an informative session with Marine Scotland Science and Scottish Association for Marine Science, it was agreed that we work together to explore a new island specific model for beach litter data.

The Working Group meets monthly, and we will regularly share information on the SIF website and social media.  If you would like to get involved with our work on marine litter or join the circulation list, we would love to hear from you – email kirsty@scottish-islands-federation.co.uk

Network Development Officer – Tackling Marine Litter

Author: Wellbeing Economy Alliance

Systems of resource governance set the rules for who controls every resource in our societies, including land, water, labor, knowledge, money, and, ultimately, the dynamics of our economies, including how we select our priorities, how we create value, and how we distribute it.

In our new WEAll briefing paper, Commons in a Wellbeing Economy, we examine the inadequacies of our two dominant systems of resource governance–the market and the state–and argue that a better model of resource governance lies in one of the oldest human systems: the commons. 

In this WEAll Briefing, we invite you to explore the idea of the commons, a millenia-old concept which has recently gained interest as a potential foundation for a transition to a Wellbeing Economy. Because of the incredible range of ideas and systems that fall under this umbrella, we’ll start by offering three helpful ways to conceptualise what the term “commons” means. 

1) The first way to think of the commons is as an alternative system of resource governance1, separate from the two currently dominant systems, the market and the state. Commons-based resource governance systems are designed by communities, democratic, non-hierarchical, and constructed specifically to share resources in ways that meet the needs of community members.

 2) The second way to think of the commons is as an entity. This is what people mean when they refer to something like a park as “a commons.” When thought of as an entity, a commons has two pieces: a shared resource, and community governance structures created around the resource. No resource is a commons on its own – as the saying goes, there are no commons without commoners (Bollier, 2016). 

3) The third – and most abstract – way to think of the commons is as an alternative social paradigm or way of thinking, which is based on the acknowledgement of our connectedness, shared heritage, and shared responsibility for ensuring the wellbeing of future generations (Weber, 2013). 

Many commons scholars believe that commons thinking can not only help restructure our economy, but that it can redefine the way we imagine our relationships with each other, our communities, and with nature. In this paper, we’ll primarily focus on this first understanding of the commons – as a system of resource governance. We’ll explore how the commons differs from state or market-led resource governance systems and provide examples of different ways commons are being used today. Through this exploration, we’ll see how the commons can solve many of the problems inherent to other systems of resource governance and foster a more equitable, sustainable, and caring economic system. 

Finally, we’ll put forth a number of actions communities, governments, and businesses can take to help expand and support the commons. “Resource governance” sounds dry and economic, but in reality these systems determine fundamental dynamics of our economy, including how we determine our collective priorities, how we create value, and how we distribute it. 

We envision a Wellbeing Economy that uses commons to:

 1) transition economic power from corporations and the state to communities and the people; 

2) create value in versatile, non-hierarchical, and cooperative structures; 

and 3) make our wealth of collective knowledge and resources accessible to all of humanity, rather than just the privileged few.

Read Commons in a Wellbeing Economy

Author: ViSEnet-team

After a three-year project collaboration, the international ViSEnet-team has gathered learning resources and best practices in an online free guide dedicated to rural social entrepreneurs: The Rural Social Enterprise Guidebook of Good Practice: Experience from Estonia, Finland, Germany, Romania and Scotland. 

Rural Social Enterprise Learning Material 

Although there are lots of materials available for establishing businesses, there is still a lack of material for community led social enterprise and particularly with a rural focus.  Because of the complex issues many rural areas are faced with, rural community led social enterprises need to gain broad understanding of socio-economic, cultural, political, and environmental factors as well as creative use of communication and project management skills. 

To address these issues the ViSEnet project combined the experience of five partners to provide learning material that is based on the identified best practices in rural context. 

The learning material consists of three chapters: 1) Community involvement, 2) Networking and partnerships and 3) Social enterprise solutions. 

The leading principle has been to keep learning materials very practice oriented and meant for self-study. They primarily take the format of online resources and easily downloadable PDFs, each short and concise enough to be easily overseen and understood. They are also easy to share, reproduce and use within a community context. The learning material can be found from the ViSEnet Online Learning Resources and ILIAS, an open source learning management system used, e.g., in university teaching. 

Join in the International Network of Rural Social Enterprises in the Rural Social Enterprise Hub

The other leading principle in ViSEnet has been the value of peer support, networking and collaboration, which can sometimes feel difficult in a rural and remote context.  To encourage rural communities to interact, the project has organised several virtual community meetings bringing experience from across Europewith different topics. The learning exchange will continue in the Rural Social Enterprise Hub which is a networking platform for collaboration, peer to peer learning, and knowledge exchange between all those committed to thriving rural community led and social enterprise. The Hub welcome interactions with social enterprises and supporters across the globe.  

The Rural Social Enterprise Guidebook of Good Practice: Experience from Estonia, Finland, Germany, Romania and Scotland

The guidebook material will support creating and developing community-based social enterprises, to estimate the benefits and challenges and to find new ideas for developing your own community-based social enterprise. It also offers practical guidelines and methods of establish your community-based social enterprise and to avoid the main pitfalls.

The Guidebook is available in English, also the summaries translated into the project partner national languages. These will are available as PDFs from the ViSEnet Online Learning Recourses in the Rural Social Enterprise Hub. 

ViSEnet stands for Rural Social Enterprise learning material, guidance, and networking

The ViSEnet-project aimed to support the creation and development of community-based social enterprises in rural areas through the designing of a range of learning materials specifically targeted at supporting and developing social entrepreneurship in rural areas. The project had three outputs: Rural Social Enterprise Learning Material, International Network of Rural Social Enterprises, and practical Guidebook of Good Practices for supporting the development of social entrepreneurship (SE) in rural areas.

Website: www.visenet.net and https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/ruralia-institute/visenet-village-social-enterprise-learning-material-guidance-and-networking-0 

Author: The Courier

Angus health campaigners are at a crossroads after seeing their dream of creating a community hub in an old town hospital crushed.

Brechin Healthcare Group says it will now “step back” to reflect on the failed appeal against NHS Tayside’s rejection of a community asset transfer (CAT) bid for the disused local infirmary.

NHS Tayside is spending more than £30,000 a year to keep Brechin Infirmary wind and watertight.

The group has pledged to continue to deliver vital support through its Jenner Centre.

It was set up as a stop-gap while the infirmary dream of creating a community health and wellbeing hub was being pursued.

But the group has just a short lease on the old bank branch in the town centre which is home to the valuable facility.

And chairman Grahame Lockhart has admitted BHG’s future is “uncertain”.

Meanwhile, NHS Tayside say all options will now be considered over what is to happen to the infirmary.

But a £600,000-plus valuation on a cleared development site would suggest sale is the most likely outcome.

Disappointment and anger

Mr Lockhart said BHG met in the wake of the Scottish Ministers’ decision to reject their appeal.

“And whilst there is deep disappointment at the decision, the overwhelming emotion of all of us on the steering group is anger at the way we have been treated by NHS Tayside,” he said.

“Since the decision has been made public, we have received numerous messages from folk in the community expressing their disappointment and anger at the decision.

“People are wondering what’s next for Brechin.”

He hit out at repeated delays in the CAT process from the time it was first submitted in 2019.

More than two years’ later, the board of NHS Tayside rejected the application.

‘Slap in the face’

Mr Lockhart said: “We acknowledge that the pandemic has impacted on the CAT process.

“But from our initial contact with NHS Tayside in 2018 until June 2021 there has been delay after delay, necessitating us to go to the top to get the process moving.

“It makes a mockery of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.

“The support from the community over the six years since BHG was set up has been amazing.

“And raising £12,000 in six weeks to fund building surveys demonstrated folks’ support for the project.

“The refusal of the CAT request and dismissal of the appeal is a slap in the face to the wonderful people in our community.

“We have decided to step back for a period of reflection to consider where we go from here.

“The Jenner Centre with its short-term lease will continue its excellent work.

“However, the future for BHG is uncertain,” said Mr Lockhart.

Project figures and the site’s future

The appeal reporter’s ruling highlighted the potential value of the old infirmary as a development site.

BHG offered £150k – a figure the reporter felt was reasonable given the community benefit which would follow.

NHS Tayside board said that figure fell well short of their £400k valuation for the Infirmary Street site.

And they suggest it will rise to £675k for a cleared development site.

The two sides were also miles apart in their assessment of cost of works required to deliver the new hub.

NHS Tayside forecast the total figure to be around £1.6 million – BHG suggested it would be just over £600k.

The board also say the backlog of maintenance needed was almost £400,000 in 2018.

And they are spending more than £30,000 a year to keep the empty structure wind and watertight.

NHS Tayside did not confirm if the infirmary would now be put on the open market in the wake of the appeal outcome.

A spokesperson said: “We will now be considering all options in relation to the site’s future.”

Author: Flour to the People

Crowd funder for Flour to the People

We want to take better flour to the people, and make bread that’s better for ourselves, our communities and the environment.

To do so, we want to expand Scotland The Bread’s community engagement projects, empowering communities to create, participate in and celebrate a more local and healthy flour and bread supply.

Our Aims 

• More people have the opportunity to become active food citizens: understanding the origins of their daily loaf and possessing the skills to grow and bake better bread.
• More communities have access to Scotland The Bread’s nutritious flour and bread made with it, particularly areas with fewer resources.
• Communities enjoy new activities that promote social engagement and foster community spirit, such as harvest celebrations or the sharing of ‘solidarity loaves’.  
• These communities are connected to and participate alongside a wider network of passionate scientists, farmers, millers and bakers to create a better flour and bread system.

Our Project

We support a growing network of community organisations to bring people together and strengthen skills to grow, harvest, thresh, mill and bake with local flours. Our work empowers local stakeholders to work alongside members of their community and connect people with the local flour movement across Scotland.

As the cost of food and fuel rises, there is a risk that people on low or insecure incomes will face even greater challenges to accessing the food they and their families need to stay well.  The ‘Flour to the People’ project is a response to these concerns, and by empowering people to bake together, seeks to improve access to nutritious food and opportunities to build local and individual resilience. Alongside this, our ‘Soil to Slice’ programme provides communities with the unique chance to gain practical experience and skills to grow nutritious grains for breadmaking, a staple – but often neglected – part of our diet. 

As issues of sustainability, health and the impact of the current food system become of increasing interest to government, schools and individuals alike, we feel that the opportunities for interactive learning will only make these projects more popular.