Community Development Support
Increasing opportunities within communities
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) invest in development officers to enable social, environmental and economic development in communities, often in more remote and rural areas. For example, they have invested in a Development Worker for the Community Development Company of Nesting (CDCN), Bressay Development Limited (BDL), and Scalloway Community Development Company (SCDC). Shetland has seen many successful projects from Development Groups over the years, contributing to making communities even better places to live, work and visit. Sometimes there is a case for a paid role in addition to a volunteer board due to the complexity or timing of projects/opportunities and a paid development officer can bring additional skills and capacity to the community, often also creating local employment and skills development opportunities. Development officers will often be able to draw in additional external funding that may not have been possible without them.
In 2023-24, some programmes which local development companies with development workers have initiated, or continued to carry out, include a Community Growing Project in Nesting, and Bressay Community Woodland, by CDCN and BDL respectively.
Funding from HIE and the Scottish Islands Investment Programme (administered by Shetland Islands Council), allowed CDCN to begin their Community Growing Project – community engagement had identified a demand for growing space.
The space will include: several polycrubs, an allotment area for outdoor growing and a small community park with trees and other features such as a picnic table and bird hide. The polycrubs are now available to rent for community members, with allotments to follow. It is thought that this will have many positive impacts for the community, including:
- Access to growing space
- By growing more food, people in the community will reduce their carbon footprint
- Community resilience
- Increasing the range of healthy food people eat
- Contributing to wellbeing by having a place to go and somewhere to engage with
- Small Income generation for CDCN to cover overheads
- The project used local contractors and partners for the groundworks, putting money back into the local economy.
Meanwhile in Bressay, BDL’s Bressay Community Woodland project aims to plant a total of 3000 trees, all historically native to Shetland. BDL has worked with community members, RSPB, Shetland Amenity Trust and the landowner for 4 years to develop the plan. The funding came from SUEZ Community Landfill Fund and the Woodland Trust.
The project aims to:
- Contribute to long-term diversity change
- Create a new recreation space for the community with social, volunteering and educational opportunities
- Provide a play area for children, nurturing an interest in nature and the local environment.
These projects by community development groups with the support of HIE, contribute to all the Shetland Partnership priorities. Public agencies and communities are partnering to deliver improved outcomes for people across the isles; people may feel more connected to their communities and benefit from living in good places; communities are actively involved in shaping their own future resilience and food growing can also contribute to minimising outgoings.
Development groups and companies across Shetland, often working only with volunteers, are undertaking a wide range of community projects whether turning churches into new income generating assets, offering community visitors attractions and services which in turn create local jobs for young people, recycling and encouraging carbon reduction, all of which deliver on Shetland Partnership outcomes.