Welcome to SCCAN's November 2018 Newsletter

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Hi <<First Name>>,
In this month's newsletter read about:

Thanks for coming to SCCAN's Annual Gathering
Podcast Listening Party
Spread the word: Training on Podcasts & Community Journalism
SCCAN action for keeping Scotland warm this winter
CCF Awards Nominations
Funding
Upcoming Events
Invitation to contribute to our next newsletter

Inspirational Quote of the Month
“If you ever think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito” - Dalai Lama

Thanks for coming to SCCAN's Annual Gathering

It was fantastic to see over 30 of you come along to the "Politics as though People & Planet Matter Workshop" on the 3rd November in Glasgow which also served as our Annual Gathering. See for yourself.
The workshop tied into the Scottish Government's Democracy Matters Consultation which aims to gauge the policy areas where citizens and communities would like to get involved more.
The main topics that participants felt they wanted to be involved in more were food, local energy supply, transport, citizen engagement and land use planning. You can read the detailed notes here.

Meanwhile, SCCAN will take forward your contributions from the day to feed them into the governmental debate. We'll report back on our progress on this asap.

Find out about participants' priorities here

Podcast Listening Party

As part of our Annual Gathering we held a parallel Podcast Listening Party session. During the session we showcased a compilation of our first self-recorded podcasts and highlighted the benefits of using podcasts for community activities, e.g. as a focus for stimulating discussion and debate at community events. Here are a couple of examples to wet your appetite:
A short podcast put together by Kaska Hempel of Member Tayport Community Garden as part of the #myclimatechanges consultation (7 mins), PLANT voices: https://tayportgarden.org/2018/10/01/plant-voices-on-my-climate-changes/

Mary Robinson, first female president of Ireland hosts this series about feminist solutions to climate change, Mothers of Invention. Listen to the trailer here: https://soundcloud.com/user-716066709/introducing-mothers-of-invention

You can find more podcasts in our compilation document here.

Spread the word: Training on Podcasts & Community Journalism

You may have already heard about ‘Future Voices’ - SCCAN’s participatory podcast project. The project is intended to:

kick-start the collection of stories from across Scotland that show how community-led projects across Scotland are starting to make aspects of our vision of a community-led, zero-carbon Scotland a reality,
cascade skills in podcasting (using your smartphone and freely available editing software) across the network to ‘give voice to those at the frontline of community-led climate action’,
provide you with another tool to communicate and share stories about what you are doing. If you are interested in receiving podcast training and joining our fledgling ‘SCCANpod’ community of practice then please get in touch with Philip: philrevell@gmail.com

If you have a good story from your activities you can also send them to Community story journalist Lesley Riddoch for publication in the Sunday National. Strontian Community School and Portpatrick Harbour were among the first projects covered in Lesley Riddoch's new 'Power of Local' column. Read more about Lesley and how to get in touch with her here.

SCCAN action for keeping Scotland warm this winter

On behalf of our members, SCCAN has just submitted feedback on the Scottish Parliament Local Government and Communities Committee's Call for Evidence on the Fuel Poverty (Target, Definition and Strategy) Bill, calling to end fuel poverty by 2032. The Government's current target is to reduce fuel poverty to 5% by 2040.

Read SCCAN's full response to the Fuel Poverty Call for evidence here

Spotlight on Community Action

Several of our SCCAN members also already work on the ground in their communities to tackle fuel poverty through making home energy advice visits and carrying out outreach work to engage vulnerable groups. One example is the South Seeds energy team in Glasgow: South Seeds resolve the electricity and gas issues of residents and conduct over 200 home energy audits to identify efficiencies per year.
They also have a successful pay-for energy saving handyman service, free for vulnerable residents. While South Seeds service is for everyone, over 70% of their clients would be considered fuel poor.
Cosy Kingdom – a partnership service run by SCCAN Members Greener Kirkcaldy and St Andrews Environmental Network - makes over 1,200 home energy advice visits per year across Fife.It offers income maximisation support and help with fuel debt as well as advice on energy efficiency, behaviour change and switching to a better tariff. Cosy Kingdom works closely with the Fife housing associations and is part-funded by Fife Council.

You can get involved by contributing to Ofgem's Consultation on Fuel Poverty (see Events below).

More info on Fuel Poverty: Energy Action Scotland or End Fuel Poverty

Click on the image to watch this short film about the Cosy Kingdom home energy advice service

CCF Awards Nominations

#CCFAwards Nominations are in!
It's fantastic to see that a lot of them are our Member organisations. Out of 3 (max. 4) nominees here are our very own SCCAN nominees for each category:
Energy: Central Scotland Regional Equality Council
Travel: CSREC & Woodfarm Education Centre
Waste: no SCCAN members
Youth Engagement: Broadford and Strath Community Company & St Paul's Youth Forum

In the following two categories even ALL nominees are SCCAN Members -
Food: Broadford and Strath Community Company, St Paul's Youth Forum and Strengthening Communities for Race Equality Scotland (SCOREscotland)
Outstanding Contribution: Greener Kirkcaldy, South Seeds, Transition Stirling and LEAP Renfrewshire

See all nominations here.

The winners of each category will be announced at the CCF Awards in Perth on 12 December 2018. Tickets to attend the CCF Awards are open to all that are interested in taking community-led action on climate change. So don't miss your chance to immerse yourself in the CCF Community and book your free ticket.

Fingers crossed to all!

Funding

Communicating about Climate-related Action and getting people involved can take very different shapes. Here are some funding programmes to help you finance some of your core actvities:

Regional Screen Scotland - Local Film Festival Challenge fund - Ever thought of setting up a Film Festival in your community? This small, one-off fund has been set up with funding from Screen Scotland, and is intended for those who need less than £5,000, and who are at the early stages of developing a new festival, or a new strand within an existing festival. Deadline 10 December, see RSS website for application and further details.

Transform Foundation - Up to £18,000 grant covers strategy, design and development to build a new website. The grant covers 100% of the upfront costs. Your organisation will only need to fund ongoing costs. See website for further information.

Chance to Succeed - a “grant giving” charity supporting projects that focus on employability and employment skills, helping to deliver a productive future for our young people. Three levels of grants available: You can apply for a small grant (up to £2,000), a medium grant (up to £20,000) or for a large grant (up to £50,000). See website for criteria and application form.

Trusthouse Charitable Foundation - Trusthouse is interested in applications for capital projects at community centres in the most deprived urban areas and village halls in remote and economically deprived rural areas and will consider applications for new buildings; upgrading, renovating or extending buildings; improving or creating outside space (but not car parks). SIMD criteria applies, see Trusthouse website for further information.

Upcoming Events

Fuel Poverty & self-rationing
Thu Nov 22nd 9.30am - 12.30pm
Ofgem Glasgow office at Commonwealth House, 32 Albion Street, Glasgow, G1 1LH
Organised by Ofgem.

Ofgem Call for Evidence: calling for evidence from all interested parties on the scale of prepayment meters (PPM) self-disconnection and self-rationing, the groups of consumers most at risk of experiencing detriment and the impact on these consumers. We also seek views and evidence from stakeholders on the quality of support and supplier practices in this area, including how self-disconnection and self-rationing is being monitored; and how suppliers and other organisations can work together to achieve good consumer outcomes.
If you are interested in attending this workshop, please email CDconsultations@ofgem.gov.uk to register or if you can’t attend, send in your response by 10 December 2018 to the same email address.

More information

Big Lottery Scotland - Meet the funder roadshow
Various dates and locations across Scotland - FREE

Interested in applying to the Big Lottery for funding to make a difference in your community? The Big Lottery will be at a number of events across Scotland until December, where you can chat to them about your ideas and get advice on applying.

See BLS blog post for your nearest location

We regularly update our facebook page and twitter with the latest news and events, make sure you are following us!

Interested in hearing more about community action across Scotland? Check out the Scottish Community Alliance, which SCCAN is part of, and subscribe to their fortnightly briefings!

European Week for Waste Reduction
17th – 25th November
Europe-wide (including the UK!)

The European Week for Waste Reduction is an initiative which aims to raise awareness of sustainable resource and waste management during a single week.

Why not support the week's aims by taking part in the

Buy Nothing Day - Friday 23rd November

Black Friday is about shopping – help reduce all of the issues this brings by ‘doing nothing’! Buy Nothing Day is about buying nothing. The rules of Buy Nothing Day are simple – avoid buying stuff for 24 hours. Anyone can take part, and by participating in Buy Nothing Day, you are saving yourself money and also help reduce future waste.

Share your experience on social media using #BuyNothingDay

Note for your diary:
People, Place and Power - World Community Development Conference 2019
23-30 June 2019
Dundee

The nature of the relationship between people, place and power is changing and community work practices across the globe need to be able to influence these new global dynamics. Global challenges of climate change, forced and economic migration, increasing levels of mental ill health, isolation and loneliness alongside the rise of right-wing populism and threat to human rights mean that we need to find new ways of disrupting, challenging and revealing structures of power.

Following the main conference, delegates will have the opportunity to take part in a two-day themed learning journey to see community development in action in the east coast of Scotland. This will enable a deeper understanding of the context and practice of community development in rural and urban settings in Dundee and neighbouring areas.

With the key note speaker announced, registration is now open.

Key Dates

23 June 2019: International Reception and Welcome

24-26 June 2019: Main Conference

27-30 June: Optional practice exchanges and learning journeys in East Scotland

More information and registration

Join our growing network here!

Invitation to contribute to our next newsletter

Do you have a project, event, or story that you would like to share here? Please email us on info@scottishcommunitiescan.org.uk with your text and ideally also an image by December 14th.