The Sustainable Kirriemuir team is managing their growing and greenspace, leading to development of ideas on how we can facilitate activities in our own local primary settings.  Emphasis was on primary school reach and how this can be leveraged to gain wider community engagement with BCMG through school newsletters and events. Sustainable Kirriemuir  focused on how volunteer recruitment and retention is successful where they invite their community to come to them with ideas which Sustainable Kirriemuir can support.  By diversifying their activities, they have embedded the organisation through a range of focuses, from health and foraging walks to large scale community events for families.  Going forward the Biggar Community Market Garden team are keen to think of how we can take similar approaches in our area so that we are responding to the needs and interests of community members to invest their time and passion into wider climate resilience goals.

Learning Outcomes

• Gaining insights into funding and support mechanisms – community, local authority and national – utilised by each organisation.
• Understanding the range of approaches of both organisations to volunteer recruitment and retention and extent of impact.
• Understanding the range of approaches to engagement with nurseries, primary and secondary schools and wider community in each setting, including community engagement opportunities and the extent of impact of these approaches.

" Sharing our educational resources and experiences that can be adapted to our setting to support our learning programmes and community engagement opportunities has helped inform our approaches to nurturing good relationships with volunteers that can be implemented in our setting to support retention and recruitment. We have a better understanding of strategies for building positive and sustained relationships with local businesses, local authority and national funders which will result in financial, logistical and organisational support."