We met with Flip of the Coin in Alness and saw their new area and how much they had achieved since November – this is land they now rent from the local bowling club. We discussed the space and how they made it work through various programs and funding. They had volunteers, 6 employees, as well as linking in with facilitators to run specific sessions. This meant they were able to run weekly workshops and support sessions, in creativity and gardening. This gave us lots of ideas of how our space could work. In this project in particular you could see how valuable it was to the community and it had a really energetic vibe.
We then met with Thurso Community Development Trust. They run the harbour toilets which seems to work well with volunteers managing themselves. Their gardening projects were very inspirational, the greenhouses having been as asset transfer, currently running as a nursery to help fund itself, but looking to develop further into workshops/education model. Their community gardens were busy with volunteers and food was grown by them for themselves and to sell to help fund. TCDT was run by a development officer, and the gardens by two part time employees. Both projects also had employability funding.
The biggest issue with both projects was the lack of multiyear funding for current projects, and the fact that each grant you applied for had to have a new project started and were often for a year or less.
Learning Outcomes
- Get first hand experience of somewhere that has gone through the Community Asset Transfer process and see its progress, learn what problems/successes they have had.
- Work out what would work in our space and what is possible by seeing what another group has created. See how they have made their space sustainable and how they work with volunteers and paid staff.
- Learn how he community has embraced their project and what difference if has made in their community ie. are more people being fed, upskilled or passing on their skills. Do they measure impact and what does this look like.