Scotland: National Rural Network
Connecting Rural Scotland - Promoting Rural Growth

On 26th June Jim Mather will be opening a seminar on ‘Progress to Sustainability for Social Enterprise Service Providers' at the Atlantis Leisure Centre in Oban.

This seminar is the culmination of four years of rural action research supported by Carnegie UK Trust and Big Lottery. The Carnegie UK Trust has been working with over 40 partners from around the UK and Ireland who represent the very best in rural community development practice, with research focussing on:

• Community led service delivery
• Community led planning
• Sustainable management of community assets
• Building inclusive communities
• New skills for rural communities
• Meeting the needs of remote and peripheral communities

Hosts Atlantis Leisure, have completed their action research study and, along with other Scottish RARP partners including Pultneytown People's Project in Wick and Plunkett Foundation with a community owned village shop in Uig, will be sharing their insights into the factors that assist the long term sustainability and success of social enterprises in delivering rural services.

Atlantis Leisure carried out research into successful community led provision of social and leisure services, using cases studies from throughout the UK. Their final report details the approaches that created that success and draws policy implications from these, such as the need to improve inter-agency working to provide constructive support to social enterprises. Having initial strong community support was key to the success of all the case studies, and maintaining that support and involvement vital for the long term sustainability of their business. One of the policy suggestions for maintaining community involvement was that the tax system could be used to provide support to businesses that allowed them to make time available for owners and staff to be involved in community development.

The Atlantis Leisure paper also outlines their research method, which could provide a useful template to other community-led enterprises wishing to look at their own strengths and weaknesses and to plan for the future.

And as one quote in the report advises, "Believe in Incremental Radicalism. Keep the big goal in mind, remain a radical, don't lose sight of that, but know you must get to it with small steps, one after the other"

If you would like to know more about the research or the seminar contact Kirsty Tait at kirsty@carnegieuk.org.uk