We will do this by:
- Creating a culture of empathy and understanding across Shetland’s services and communities
- Raising awareness of the impact of stigma on people’s lives and access to support
- Building confidence and willingness among staff to listen, support and connect with people from diverse backgrounds
- Embedding compassion and curiosity into leadership, service delivery and everyday interactions
Progress to date includes:
- Running Human Library CPD sessions with around 50 staff and leaders, providing opportunities to hear directly from people with lived experience of stigma.
- Developing the ‘Mair dan Wirds’ campaign to promote compassion and tackle stigma through schools, community posters and digital resources.
- Delivering stigma awareness and compassion training, supporting more empathetic and inclusive services.
- Promoting compassionate leadership and workforce development, embedding care and emotional intelligence in organisational practice.
- Engaging with children, families and services through interviews, focus groups and workshops, ensuring lived experience continues to shape the work.
Delivering on:
The Promise, Trauma-Informed Approaches, Community Justice, UNCRC, Diversity & Inclusion, Nurture and Stigmas associated with Substance use, Mental Ill-health, Gender-based Violence, low-income households and the Justice System. It also contributes to the Shetland Partnership Plan’s vision of reducing inequality and improving wellbeing.
Delivered through:
- The Human Library – hosted sessions for staff and leaders across the Shetland Partnership, Children’s Partnership and Community Learning & Development Partnership. The sessions offered opportunities for honest conversations with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences.
- Stigma awareness and compassion training – delivered to increase understanding of how stigma affects access to support, and to encourage more empathetic and inclusive services.
- Compassionate leadership development – supporting leaders to build emotionally intelligent workplaces where staff are equipped to respond with care and empathy.
- Loneliness awareness and community wellbeing mapping – local engagement to better understand social isolation and inform community-led responses that strengthen informal networks of support.
Looking ahead, the focus is on showcasing progress through Shetland Partnership Network sessions, expanding campaign resources, and developing a network of compassion champions across services, employers and communities – particularly in areas where engagement or awareness of the work has so far been limited.
This is not a one-off project. Compassionate Shetland is a long-term cultural shift embedded in the Shetland Partnership Plan and supported by Shetland Islands Council, NHS Shetland, and voluntary sector partners.
