Transforming Participation
What has the project done to date?
Opportunities to participate have been embedded into the Shetland Islands Council ‘Your Community’ webpages.
Projects such as ‘Voices for’ and the partnerships first Locality Plan, ‘Shetland’s Islands with Small Populations’, have worked to improve relationships between service providers and communities. One such example is the Council and Skerries community representatives working together on the removal of bulky waste from the islands.
Community Conversations
Community Conversations took place with 21 communities across Shetland, with 166 individuals taking part. The concept of ‘Community Conversations’ is based on discovering, connecting and mobilising the capacity that exists in every community. Community conversations is about informal opportunities to meet up with members of the community, wherever they are, to hear what life is like and what matters to them. It is about increasing interdependence in communities, and helping build connections and relationships within communities that make life better for local people.
Listening Events
On behalf of NHS Shetland, young people were supported to participate in listening events. These events helped to determine support around health and well-being.
Social Renewal Advisory Board
Support was also given to people living in Shetland to participate in the Social Renewal Advisory Board. This fed into the Scottish Government’s ‘If not now, when?’ report. Individuals and organisations in Shetland contributed to the work of the Board, through a number of listening events. Voices for Equity (Shetland’s Poverty Truth Commission) participants also took part in two separate discussions to help inform this work.
Shetland Partnership Website
More recently this Shetland Partnership Website was launched, moving Delivery Planning online. The aim of this is to more readily showcase what the Partnership is doing. This in turn can help to inspire partners and open up more opportunities for both communities and partners to engage in participation activities.
Nort Natters
In autumn 2022, Shetland Islands Council, partners across public services and voluntary organisations, and over 500 community members came together as part of ‘Nort Natters’, to better understand what communities in Shetland’s north mainland want and need, now and in the future to improve local outcomes. Nort Natters’ is using a place-based approach which recognises that every place is unique, and that where we live has a significant impact on our life, work and wellbeing. A report will be available early 2023.