Case Studies

Door in the Wall Arts CiC visit to Edinburgh Tool Library

Sharing networks for supporting access, re-use and diversity.

3 people sitting at a table

We feel that the Community Learning Exchange with the Edinburgh Tool Library helped us better understand the processes of lending equipment and how to create a robust sharing network with our access library. It allowed us to discuss the nuances and differences in our sharing library and to create some processes around ensuring that it didn’t burden our staff and potential volunteers with time commitments.

It also allowed us to understand how to effectively deal with organisations who may be borrowing our equipment for events and to create processes around ensuring the equipment is returned on time. We established what we would need to include in a user agreement and what policies to have in place for staff and members. We also discussed how to set up a payment model for the different organisations and individuals that would be using this equipment that allows us to safeguard our services.

It gave us an opportunity to see how we could bring members and staff together to share skills and knowledge, creating a community ethos around making events accessible and learning from this work.

We learnt a lot about carbon tracking and how we can monitor and evaluate the carbon footprint our project has and how we can measure this as well as showcase the benefits of our project on reducing organisations buying these plastic products.

We had the opportunity to discuss the administrative factors around the sharing library such as insurance and the My Turn software. It gave us the opportunity to think about how our other offerings such as consultancy and training in this area might be beneficial to supporting organisations/individuals to create more accessible spaces within their events and the additional support they may require from us and how we can provide that.

We discussed how we can promote our access library to organisations across Scotland, curating information to promote the importance of creating more accessible spaces that we can display at events to raise awareness. It also helped us consider the messaging we use around our access library.

Learning Outcomes

  • Through working with the Edinburgh Tool Library, we feel that we would learn about their processes in lending equipment, creating a strong and robust sharing network with our Access Library. Learning about the policies, paperwork and administrative side of creating a sharing library.
  • This opportunity would aid us in creating hyper-local volunteering opportunities to learn skills and build a community around creating safer spaces and accessible environments.
  • We want to learn how to create learning and community opportunities around our access library sharing the benefits with the organisations and individuals that we collaborate with. The Edinburgh Tool Library is an exemplary example of an organisation that has brought members together to share skills and knowledge and create a community ethos around their sharing network and we would like to learn from their work.

Community Organisation:
Door in the Wall Arts CIC

Exchange Host Partners:
Edinburgh Tool Library

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Circular Communities Scotland

"The team at the Edinburgh Tool Library were incredibly welcoming and supportive and said that we could contact them in the future if we had any further questions so we have contacts with experience within the industry should we need any further support. It was a great opportunity to make connections and see first-hand how things run in a successful and established sharing library."

Case Studies

Community Led Tourism exchanges

From community toilets to courthouses- why community tourism works for local people.

A group of people standing next to a statue of local fishermen

The six different learning exchanges provided great opportunities to visit and better understand current community led tourism enterprises in the Angus area. An important aspect was the value the hosts gained from the exchanges with knowledge, advice and insights provided by all participants as well as the direct learning from the visit. In total 66 people and 56 community groups and organisation benefitted from the exchanges hosted.

We were able to gain an understanding of how nature led conservation in a former and now restored quarry worked with young people, maintained their assets and supported volunteers to ensure reliable revenue streams. Focussed discussions on collaboration between different assets highlighted how Caledonian Railway, Brechin Cathedral, the Aberlmeno Pictish stones and Brechin City hall work to bring in regular revenue streams to sustain large buildings  and attractions, alongside the role of the community in preserving heritage assets.

Visits with Friends of Arbroath Abbey, Fit O’ the Toon Regeneration Group, The Court House and East Haven Together focussed on creative opportunities to animate the community and the value of community led tourism approaches in tackling resilience, particularly in the winter months when footfall to the town is slow and how the community use these times to connect and plan for the coming months. The pristine East Haven community owned public toilets are a shining example of how to bring tourism to an area, attract funding for cycle paths, generate revenue to invest back into community activity and the important upkeep of the toilets themselves.

The Glen Esk museum and Church have much to share from the perspective of a remote location in terms of indigenous and rural crafts for visitor engagement, with good partnerships with transport to bring in trade. The learning from historic building and churches highlighted the realistic uses for these buildings to generate revenue and allow the building to still function as a place of worship when needed.

 

Learning Outcomes

  • collaborative discussions between the hosts and participants on shared themes (eg sustainability, succession, funding, governance etc)
  • interrogations on specific aspects of the project being visited and the host’s approach to different issues
  • first hand experience of what other communities are doing which is relevant to the participants existing community endeavours or ideas for the future

Community Organisation:
SCOTO network members

Exchange Host Partners:
Caledonian Railway, Brechin Cathedral, Brechin City hall, Friends of Arbroath Abbey, Fit O' the Toon Regeneration Group, The Court House, East Haven Together, The Glen Esk museum and Church

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Scottish Community Led Tourism (SCOTO) Network

"An idea our organisation had last year but couldn’t progress due to a lack of local expertise is now moving forward, thanks to contacts made. A follow-up meeting took place today (5 days post exchange!) between both community organisations, and we are now exploring ways to not only implement our original idea but also roll it out on a more ambitious scale to bring bigger benefits to a larger geographical area. Additionally, we are continuing conversations with other community groups. After last year’s Gathering, we engaged in two learning exchanges with organisations we met at the conference, leading to new developments within our organisation."

Art work on a white brick wall
People walking on a path
A group of people chatting
A women with an apron on and a group of people smiling

Case Studies

Stella’s Voice visit to Cunninghame Furniture

Mattress cleaning and reuse exchange

A group of people observing mattress cleaning

Stella’s Voice and Instant Neighbour are about to start a mattress cleaning project with Aberdeenshire Council. By learning from Cunninghame who have run a similar project for a few years, we will be able to start with maximum efficiency and minimum disruption. By being able to effectively clean and reuse mattresses there will be be less waste and landfill – a saving to local authority budgets, more mattresses available for people – we never have mattresses to meet demand for them and ultimately, less situations where children, for example are sleeping on the floor.

Those that went on the visit expressed ideas such as how this could be expanded to include sofas and other soft furnishings, thereby increasing what can be diverted from landfill and put into good use. The trip also was a good time for Instant Neighbour and Stella’s Voice to talk through, learn from and discuss other challenges currently going on in the sector. We also got a chance to sit down with the leadership team at Cunninghame and discuss wider sector issues relating to reuse – an opportunity that is rare and was only made possible because of the grant from the Learning Exchange which enabled this trip in the first place.

 

Learning Outcomes

  • Correct use of the cleaning machine – There are several techniques to using the cleaning machine and the chemicals that are used along with the cleaning machine. There are several different cleaning chemicals – the correct use of the different chemicals for different mattresses and the amount of each chemical required.
  • Correct handling and storage of the mattresses – ensuring the mattress don’t get damp, are dried correctly, etc. Cunninghame have a system worked out that maximises space but ensures quality and drying are not compromised.
  • Labelling and communication to the general public so that they can know using a cleaned mattress is safe and giving them the confidence to do so. Cunninghame Furniture have developed an effective system/process and the visit will allow us to see, understand, partake in all of this and develop our procedures to run a mattress cleaning project. 

Community Organisation:
Stella's Voice & Instant Neighbour

Exchange Host Partners:
Cunninghame Furniture

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Circular Communities Scotland

"Being on site and seeing first hand how the project can work was invaluable. Theory is one thing, but the practical is another. Our team have come away with a real world working knowledge of how to clean mattresses. Learning the 'do's' but also the 'do not's' from the experience of a project that has now been running for a few years. Being able to observe, document, photograph and video all of this will enable us to setup a really good working model that will allow many mattresses to be diverted from landfill and ensure many more people have a bed to sleep in. We now have a launch date of June 2025 to get the project up and running."

Case Studies

Creative Dundee exchange

Using ancestral and creative tools to connect with nature.

A group of people standing outside a thatched cottage

During our day at The Scottish Crannog Centre, we discovered more about the ways of living and sustainable practices from our ancestors 2,500 years ago – how these resonate with and can inspire our current ways of living, making, growing, sharing and connecting with the land beneath our feet, and how we make sense of the world through experimenting and storytelling.
In the village, we also had the opportunity to feel a slower pace of time and get our hands on ancestral tools. We chatted with staff who were demonstrating ancestral making, weaving, cooking, blacksmithing etc. We also had time to reflect in small groups about our own ways of living and connecting with others and nature, how these ancestral ways of being and doing could be applied in our everyday lives, practices and the ways we work together. In the afternoon, we heard more about  Bioregioning Tayside, their past and present actions and projects, their impacts and challenges, and how we need to expand our ways of thinking and care for the natural environment that nourishes us literally and creatively. Through the presentation and discussions afterwards, we gained a better understanding of our natural surroundings and ways to re-inhabiting them – for example, the natural boundaries that define the Tayside catchment area should be more relevant to us than the arbitrary political lines.

Both The Scottish Crannog Centre and Bioregioning Tayside have radical approaches in the way they engage with (and outreach) partners, audiences, and their local communities, making sure that their voices and stories are woven into their work and advocacy for better ways of live together with people from different heritage and cultures, and with nature.

Learning Outcomes

  • Develop and exchange creative, environmental and leadership knowledge and skills within a network of peers.
  • Learn from and make new connections with radical and innovative community-rooted and climate-focused
    actions and projects across the region.
  • Explore and share understanding of community engagement and creative climate work.

Community Organisation:
Creative Dundee, Dundee Change Makers Hub,

Exchange Host Partners:
The Scottish Crannog Centre, Bioreging Tayside

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Creative Lives Scotland

This learning exchange has generated a sense of hope for many participants, and revealed the importance of storytelling. We also had discussions on how to become ‘good ancestors’, what we are leaving behind, and what future generations will carry on or learn from us. It has given us the space to understand what climate action means and to connect with others who are sharing my values and drive for change. The size of our world, what makes up our life, changes how we value things. We need to better connect with the small parts and nature around us!”

Case Studies

The Haven in Stonehaven visit to Kin Collective

Increased community wellbeing and emerging community needs

Two people smiling in front of door signs for wellbeing services

Our journey took us to Leith, where we visited the Kin Collective, a wonderful organisation doing impactful work.

What’s been so rewarding about these trips is the practical insights we bring back with us. For instance, during our visit to Kin Collective, we realised we didn’t have a toddler potty in our bathroom. A small detail, perhaps, but it’s one that makes a real difference when it comes to creating a welcoming, inclusive space for families. We also loved the way the hub engaged beneficiaries by offering an opportunity to win a voucher for the time to give feedback. It’s such a simple and effective way to show appreciation and nurture a sense of belonging. This is something we can easily implement and also support the work of our Havenites, wellbeing co-workers.

One shared experience that stood out during our visit to Kin Collective was the lack of in-person breastfeeding support. Both of our organisations have worked hard to fill this gap, providing essential services that can make a real difference to new parents. We’ve also shared the frustration that, despite our work in supporting NHS aims, the support we provide often only moves in one direction, leaving social enterprises to deliver health services with no funding.

Learning Outcomes

  • Sustainability and Income Models: To gain a deeper understanding of Kin Collective’s sustainability and income generation strategies, exploring how they balance financial viability with community impact, and identifying adaptable practices for The Haven.
  • Best Practices and Community Impact: To exchange insights on successful programmes, tools, and approaches that improve accessibility, inclusivity, and responsiveness to community needs, while maximising the impact of family wellbeing services.
  • Community Impact Strengthening: To co-develop strategies that maximise the impact of our respective services, ensuring they are accessible, inclusive, and responsive to community needs.

Community Organisation:
The Haven in Stonehaven

Exchange Host Partners:
Kin Collective

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Social Enterprise Scotland

"As we continue our journey, we’re excited to see what new insights and connections the next exchange will bring. The bonds we’ve formed with other organisations remind us that, together we can go further than we can alone."

Case Studies

Weekday Wow Factor visit to Sabhal Mòr Ostaig & An Crùbh, the Selkie Collective

Urban – rural learning

A group of people standing beside a mini bus, smiling with their thumbs up

The exchanged helped us to look at ways to increase the confidence and wellbeing, including the sense of connection, for the Glasgow community participants. All our participants are be over the age of 50 have a strong emphasis on tackling ageism, alongside racism and other forms of discrimination. We were provided with the opportunity to share experience of drawing on the rich cultures within communities to promote mutual understanding, wellbeing and economic development (learning partners: Sabhal Mòr Ostaig).

The exchange offered  inspiration from different wellbeing-focused enterprise activities to bring  ideas back to Glasgow (learning partners: An Crùbh, the Selkie Collective). This helped increase awareness amongst participants of the different ways of connecting to landscape, especially for people who have mobility or additional support needs, as a means of improving health and wellbeing (learning partners: Skye for All (Accessible Walks and Experiences).

Learning Outcomes

  • Improve mutual understanding and connections between urban and rural communities, in particular through a women-led enterprise lens;
  • Enhance Glasgow participants’ knowledge of setting up and delivering health & wellbeing social and community enterprise activities/projects for hard to reach groups (in a rural areas ‘hard to reach’ groups will experience barriers arising from the intersection of geographic distance and socioeconomic factors).
  • To learn about the physical and cultural environment, how to protect and look after it and to appreciate its fragility for both the urban community members and the Organisation.

Community Organisation:
Weekday Wow Factor

Exchange Host Partners:
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig & An Crùbh, the Selkie Collective

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Scottish Rural Action

"We are so grateful for the joy we found on the island, the kindness, openness and generosity of everyone we met."

Case Studies

Scottish Islands Federation Virtual exchange

Understanding diverse approaches to marine litter reuse

Flyer promoting sea litter upcycling
  • Understanding Diverse Approaches to Marine Litter Reuse

The three speakers outlined their diverse approaches to marine litter, between them detailing how they galvanise community efforts to clean beaches and promote reuse/recycling; how a common beach litter item (rope) can be repurposed into a practical product (beautiful floor mats); and diverse examples of how art work created using marine litter is a powerful way of raising awareness of the challenges posed by marine litter.

  • Exploring Collaboration Models

One speaker gave useful insight into the collaborative linkages amongst a network of creatives and beach cleaners on the southwest coast of England that we hope to emulate in Scotland, whilst attendees were encouraged to make collaborative links with each other such as offering help on beach cleans, offering to save specific types of litter that could be used by others, and offers of holding workshops detailing how certain types of litter can be repurposed.

  • Fostering a Collaborative Network

Opportunities for discussion allowed attendees to learn from each other’s experiences and identify opportunities for collaboration. A contact list indicating the types of collaboration that people are seeking/can offer was established and distributed to attendees. A mailing list has also been created of those wishing to be kept abreast of further events/collaborative opportunities.

In addition to the more detailed accounts from our three speakers, the discussion section of the event allowed attendees to learn from each other’s shared experiences – outlining the problems they are experiencing with marine litter in their areas, tips on overcoming some of the hurdles, practical advice, sources for further information, and suggestions for collaborative action etc.

There were also numerous suggestions for what the nascent network might do collaboratively, eg a national story gathering collective with groups feeding back on ideas of objects found on the beaches; production of a collection of postcards of marine litter artwork; collaborative beach cleans; a collective art work eg each individual/group making a fish as part of a shoal; creation of a directory of plastic recycling artists.

Learning Outcomes

• Fostering a Collaborative Network
Participants will be able to actively engage in discussions, identifying shared goals and opportunities for forming a sustainable network that connects beach cleaners with artisans to enhance the impact of marine litter reuse projects

• Exploring Collaboration Models
Participants will learn about successful collaborations between beach cleaners, artists, and artisans, understanding how partnerships can be formed and maintained to transform marine litter into valuable artistic or functional materials

• Understanding Diverse Approaches to Marine Litter Reuse
Participants will gain insight into innovative ways marine litter has been reused, recycled, or repurposed through case studies shared by presenters, fostering awareness of the creative and practical potential of marine debris


Community Organisation:
Marine Litter Working Group

Exchange Host Partners:
Beach Cleaners & Creatives, Clean Ocean Sailing, Ocean Gives

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Scottish Islands Federation

"One of the key benefits of the event was the opportunity to bring together individuals who often work in isolation, providing a vital morale boost through shared goals and collaboration, reinforcing the sense of collective purpose and demonstrating that, together, we are making a real difference. The exchange of experiences, challenges, and successes highlighted the strength of our collective efforts, inspiring continued action and resilience."

Case Studies

Twechar Community Action exchange

Wider community engagement and setting up small scale tourist information points.

A fenced entrance to Girvan Community Garden

Our first port of call on our visit to Girvan began at the Biosphere Bike Shop where we were met by Project Officer and Founder. Our reasons for setting up a visit with Biosphere Bikes was to find out how they used cycling activities as a tool to engage with their community, how they financially sustain the project their methods of engagement with disadvantaged groups and any challenges they had met and overcome. After a tour around the premises, we settled down to speak to the Project Officer who explained how the Biosphere Bike Shop came about, the services they run for the community, i.e. the elderly, young people’s volunteering and training opportunities and their methods of generating income through bike hire, bike sales, and bike repair services. After a lengthy discussion we were able to speak to the Founder who spoke in-depth about their day-to-day services, the work carried out by volunteers and their use of government training schemes to train disadvantaged members of their community offering them work experience, certificated training and the opportunity to improve their physical and mental wellbeing. TCA found the visit very informative and having the opportunity to meet with organisation gave us an insight into how we can use some of these working practices to contribute to the potential success of our Twechar Outdoor Pursuit Centre opening in the Spring of 2025.

From the Biosphere Bike Shop we headed down to the Community Garden where we were met by Jim and Julie. TCA have three community gardens within the village, and we were interested to find out how we could turn these working gardens into a community space where the community can use the garden as a social space where events can be held and thus increase the communities engagement outdoors and maximise the use of the gardens. Jim and Julie were excellent hosts, and we had a good discussion on delivering workshops, hosting community events and using the garden for elderly people to meet up with neighbours and friends and enjoy it as a social activity.

After lunch we arrived at the Girvan Tourist Information Point meeting up with the volunteers who run the Centre. Our wish to visit this Centre was a fact finding visit to see how it operated and the role the volunteers played. East Dunbartonshire has never been geared up to promote itself to tourists despite it being the starting point of the West Highland Way, its long-documented association with Roman settlements and the historic Forth and Clyde Canal running through the region. With our new Twechar Outdoor Pursuit Centre opening in Spring 2025 and the influx of visitors coming into Twechar we were keen to learn how the Information point generated income, how we go about sourcing tourist information and the methods they use to promote tourism and the work involved in running a small scale tourist information point.

Learning Outcomes

  • Information Centre To find out how they operate their tourist information centre on a voluntary basis and where do they get all their information flyers knowledge from ?
  • Bike hire for all abilities, To find out what hiring systems they use to mange the bike hire ,costs of bike hire, insurances needed bike servicing and repairs, Level of qualification needed for in house mechanic and storage and security.
  • Community garden, What social events they run, licenses needed ,health and safety for cooking on site etc

Community Organisation:
Twechar Community Action

Exchange Host Partners:
Girvan Tourist Information Point, Biosphere Bikes & Girvan Community Garden

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Development Trust Association Scotland

"The exchange gave us an informative insight into how TCA can maximise the potential use of its existing outdoor community spaces to increase its engagement with the community, how to financially sustain its active travel activities and expand its community learning and volunteering programme and we were able to gather information on the setting up and promotion of a sustainable small scale tourist information point."

Case Studies

COPE Scotland exchange

Fostering collaboration and resilience through self-care

A 7 day self-care score card

Two events were conducted, one with the Rural Social Enterprise network online and another as a hybrid event in Mid Argyll, Kintyre, and the Islands (MAKI). These events brought together over 40 people from 24 different groups, highlighting the diversity of perspectives from both urban and rural settings. We used the Discovery Action Dialogue (DAD) of the Liberating Structures method to stimulate discussions in small breakout groups as this method encourages open dialogue and collective insight to find better solutions to common and shared problems.

The exchange explored some of the challenges experienced both in rural and urban settings based on two simple questions: ‘What are the challenges that you notice in urban/rural settings?’ and ‘What helps in improving wellbeing in rural/urban settings?’. Whilst there were some unique differences, there were also areas shared in common. Such as- transport, social isolation and loneliness, barriers to digital connectivity were shared across both- whereas a lack of anonymity, being surrounded by the community you work in with lots of dual relationships making it hard in rural settings. In contrast, the specific challenges faced in urban settings were about constant business, noise, a lack of green space and funding competition making collaboration a challenge.

The learning exchanged to alleviate some of this included: the importance of connection and close relationships, alongside creating space for informal connections, creativity and having options for independent support. Developing a culture of workplace wellbeing was seen as key through enhancing organisational policies.

Learning Outcomes

  • Being mindful of self-care- sharing tools for practice.
  • How we apply learning in our daily lives and practising it until it becomes a habit.
  • Sharing the challenges across different settings and contexts for improved wellbeing.

Community Organisation:
COPE Scotland

Exchange Host Partners:
24 different community based groups from Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Scottish Communities for Health and Wellbeing

" The learning from this exchange underscores the power of collaboration and shared learning. By brining together diverse groups from urban and rural settings, the CLE creates a platform for mutual support and innovation, fostering resilience in the face of challenges. Together, we can find ways to navigate these challenging times or at least mitigate their impact."

Case Studies

Dunnet Forestry Trust

Meadow management, invasive species & forestry signage with Culduthel Community Woods

A group of people in woodland

On our arrival at Culduthel Community Woods (CCW) we saw the newly installed forest signage and the construction of their interpretation board, they also shared their ideas and thoughts to the content of the interpretation board. This was really impressive and led to thinking how we can make improvements at Dunnet Community Forest (DCF). The discussion and seeing new signage helped to realise how import it is for us to revisit our own signage, keep it updated and relevant for our forest community. To this end we have scheduled time to inspect DCF current signage, document this and any improvements that may come to light. This information will be passed up to my Board of Directors with recommendations for changes/replacements.

Invasive species were a large part of the conversation between CCW and the group, all of us in the group from different woodlands across the country had different plants and species that take time and thought to remove. I had a number of conversations with different group members which helped understanding on how they are dealing with their invasives, the challenges they face with terrain or using chemicals, what has worked or not for them. Learning from these conversations that a more scientific approach with mapping and monitoring the areas that we have invasives could help us to see how much we are actually achieving, rather than feeling down hearted at how much further we have to go.  If we can find a method of visualising the amount of our particular invasives we are removing and sharing this information with our volunteers it will have positive benefits and hopefully encourage more of us to tackle the invasives more often.

Meadow management – it was very interesting to hear about their meadow journey, the research they have done and what they have taken from that research which has led them to the plan they have in place for mowing, raking and planting. CCW’s site is quite different from DCF as we sit on a SSSI we have different restriction even down to the time of year we can mow, but there were a lot of similar issues such as the importance of raking for the meadow fertility and the plants that they are choosing to incorporate in their meadow. It was interesting to see the petrol scythe they have purchased and how well it works, this is information to take back to our Directors as we will need to invest in new equipment in the not too distant future.

Learning Outcomes

• our very recent work on installing signs and interpretation boards.
• our work to remove invasive species, especially rhododendron and
snowberry
• our approach to meadow management, supported by the Nature
Restoration Fund
• our partnership work with local charities to promote education and
awareness of the woods and to help get people more active
• our plans for path and general access improvements


Community Organisation:
Dunnet Community Forest

Exchange Host Partners:
Culduthel Community Woods

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Community Woodland Association

"The learning benefits from this exchange are wonderfully varied from direct information gathered on how to do a specific task for example to discussions on alternative methods of working, making connections and building friendships though a shared passion. The information that was covered on this visit was all encompassing they covered all the different issues and topics to do with running and maintaining a community woodland. It was a fantastic visit and I don’t think there is anything they could have added or done better."