In 2010 we undertook a scoping studying looking at the range of different approaches to community growing in Scotland and the geographic scale of activity.

The report Community Growing in Scotland – Towards a Framework for Action:

• summarises the range of different approaches to community growing in Scotland and provides brief illustrative case studies
• maps the organisational landscape of the community growing sector
• identifies the range of guidance and support materials that are available
• highlights a number of barriers and constraints which are currently limiting action on community growing proposes a framework for action to address these.

The report drew on a range of scoping research carried out by greenspace scotland which involved: desk based research to identify and review different growing models, assess the scale of geographic activity and audit guidance and support materials; consultation with stakeholders to map the organisational landscape of the community growing sector and identify barriers and constraints which are limiting the potential for community growing, together with possible solutions; and, one-to-one interviews with key 'experts' focusing on barriers, challenges and solutions to support the development of a framework for action

The Grow Your Own Working Group (GYOWG) acted as a reference group for this study. GYOWG was established in November 2009 to take forward the actions on growing your own food which were identified in the Scottish Government’s Food and Drink Policy. This report complements, supports and underpins some of the actions identified in the report of the Grow Your Own Working Group which was presented to the Environment Minister in February 2011. Download the GYOWG Recommendations Report here

next steps – visualising our food growing community

The report identifies an outline framework of actions to support and develop community growing. A key action that greenspace scotland has identified is developing a resource pack to help communities to visualise their growing community. We’ll work with growing groups to develop a visual plan of a typical Scottish town which illustrates the range of different community growing models and ‘matches’ these to the different places where community growing could happen – illustrating how we can make an ‘ideal growing community’.  This will help people think beyond isolated growing sites and beyond just traditional allotments to develop communities that are growing everywhere – in the flowerbeds outside the office, on the edge of the school playing field, on that bit of derelict ground…

We’re working now to raise funds to support this project. Can you help?