16 - How do I help improve my local community, including its greenspace?

See also Q5: helping to take care of your local greenspace

Involving your community

Community Action Planning

Community-led action planning involves a community working with partners to explore what the community is like at the moment, how they would like things to change and who will do what to make those changes happen. It often results in a 5 year Community Action Plan being produced, and many Community Development Trusts (or "community anchor organisations") have been established to take that plan forward. The community anchor organisation is constituted so as to be able to actively involve the community in delivering on the Community Action Plan.

Many of these community-led organisations are members of DTAS (Development Trusts Association Scotland) which offers networking and support, plus case studies and members' stories.

Community Land Scotland is the membership and networking organisation for community groups who own, or aspire to own, land and buildings.

For inspiration and ideas, take a look at some of these Community Action Plans:
Aberdeenshire | East Ayrshire | Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park communities | Coalfield Community Futures covering communities in Clackmannanshire, Dumfries & Galloway, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Falkirk, Fife, Midlothian, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian | Local Energy Scotland supported communities 

Placemaking

Involving communities in influencing the place they live in is increasingly seen as a key part of Placemaking in the work of planners and professionals. 

The Place Standard tool provides a structured way for a community to have a conversation about what is good about their place, and what could be improved. It covers physical things like buildings, greenspaces and transport, as well as social aspects like how safe a place feels, and the sense of community.

The Town Centre Toolkit produced by Scotland's Towns Partnership, contains ideas and examples of how people and organisations can make their town centre more attractive, more active, and more accessible. It should be used as a source of inspiration rather than a set of recommendations.

Community placemaking - greenspace scotland

greenspace scotland has been working with communities on placemaking since 2005 - find our more and read some case studies   

Our Young Placechangers projects put young people in the lead role – bringing together the wider community to look at local spaces and plan improvements. The Young Placechangers programme has used a co-production approach to develop and pilot a training and support programme enabling young people to transform both the place they live, their relationship to it and the wider community. and supporting young people to take the lead - case studies

ParkPower explores the role that parks and greenspaces can play in decarbonising Scotland's energy systems. We have created a ParkPower Community Guide for community groups interested in using greenspaces for green energy projects - case studies

Communities Channel Scotland

The Communities Channel Scotland is supported by SCDC (Scottish Community Development Centre) with funds from the Scottish Government and aims to bring together all things community development.

Funding

The greenspace scotland funding webpage is regularly updated with information about current funding programmes and grants that are relevant to community activities in parks and greenspaces

MyParkScotland is Scotland's only crowd funding platform specifically for parks and greenspaces helping you raise funds for your project online and through text-giving. 

Scotland's Towns Partnership updates a regular STP Funder Finder which summarises a wide range of funds, including those for undertaking community consultations, as well as implementing some of the actions  

Sustran's Pocket Places Scotland supports communities to find simple, quick solutions to improve the look and feel of their streets. 

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