Museum and Galleries Scotland along with partners BEFS and greenspace scotland have launched the Surviving to Thriving programme to support Scottish greenspace and heritage organisations develop their leadership, governance, business and community engagement skills

The programme will deliver a comprehensive resilience and leadership training programme for approximately 40 greenspace and heritage organisations (approx. 80 individuals) across Scotland from April 2021.

Deadline for applications to take part in the programme is 12 noon, Thursday 3 December 2020.

Sign up here 

Since applications opened Fiona Skiffington, the Buisness Support Programme manager, has had many conversations with interested groups and organisations. She has out together the FAQs below - why not have a look to see if the programme is for your organisation?

We are a small organisation – is this programme suited to us?

Yes, of course. The programme is open to heritage organisations of all sizes throughout Scotland, as long as you identify as ‘at risk’ and feel that the programme will be of real benefit to you. We are aiming to reach a wide range of heritage organisations across all fields with this programme and will work with participants to create training that is tailored to your individual organisation.

We rely heavily on volunteers – are we eligible?

We do appreciate that some organisations rely on volunteers to deliver their work, which is why you can nominate volunteers to take part in programme for the strands you see fit. This programme is all about supporting and upskilling individuals – paid and unpaid.

Who can we nominate to take part in the training?

For each of the four strands, you can nominate a maximum of 2 people. This means that potentially, 8 different individuals can take part in the programme. It is completely up to you as to who you nominate for each strand and the flexibility is there for you to shape this how you see fit e.g. you may only want to nominate one person for a strand or have the same person attend more than one.

The Leadership strand would best suit senior managers and the Governance strand would be best suited to Trustees/Board members. Business Planning and Local Community Engagement may be more suited to other team members. To clarify, nominated individuals can be a mix staff, trustees or volunteers – just whoever you feel would see most benefit from the training, both for them and for your organisation.

We don’t own any physical ‘assets’ – can we apply for this programme?

Yes, you can. Although the programme has a specific focus on those organisations with tangible assets, it is open to all heritage organisations in Scotland across all fields.

If your work benefits another heritage organisation that does own assets, or your organisation is vulnerable and you can demonstrate a clear need for the support offered by this programme, then please do make an application. All we ask is that you provide us with as much detail as possible in your application form.

We are receiving funding/training elsewhere – does this affect our ability to apply?

Receiving other training and/or funding does not affect your eligibility for the programme therefore please do go ahead and apply if you are interested in participating.

We have little capacity to take part in the programme – is this still for us?

We do appreciate that capacity in terms of both staff/volunteers to take part and time commitment is a concern for some organisations. This is why each organisation can nominate different people to attend each strand (e.g. senior managers, trustees, volunteers).

Not only does this provide a fantastic opportunity to upskill up to 8 staff and volunteers over the 18 months, but the aim of the programme itself is to help build capacity within participating organisations.

Can we select which training strands to participate in?

We do expect all participating organisations to complete all 4 training strands throughout the 18-month duration of the programme (approx. 20-30 days of training in total).

We appreciate that certain strands may be of more interest to some organisations, however we do believe that all 4 strands will be of great benefit to all participating organisations and together will build increased confidence, knowledge and organisational resilience.

Sign up for the programme here 

Read the application guide here