Rural Community Gateway

In Off the Shelf, we highlight some recent additions to our library. There are hundreds of documents in our library, from research documents to community newsletters. You can search our library by title or keyword, making it easier to find what you are looking for.

Guide to good practice in rural areas

Dumfries and Galloway LEADER+ have published their second Good Practice Guide called Making a Difference in Rural Areas. Their first good practice guide was published at the end of 2005 and was such a success that it was agreed a second guide should be produced featuring projects that came on stream with Leader in later funding rounds.

The achievements of communities across Dumfries and Galloway are celebrated and explored in a series of case studies. These are split into five categories:

• Champions of Culture
• Vibrant Communities
• Reinvigorating the Local Economy
• Interpretation, Access and Enjoyment of Rural Areas
• Caring for the Environment

The publication was launched at the Dumfries and Galloway Rural Awards, with winners in each of the categories above. You can read more about the awards in Rural Round Up 87.

To request a hard copy of Making a Difference in Rural Areas please call 01556 504 906 or email Roslyn McNay at Rosyln.McNay@dumgal.gov.uk.

Is rural Scotland’s voice being heard?

The voice of Scotland’s rural communities is not being heard by policy makers, according to the Rural Advocacy Report from the Scottish Consumer Council.

The report brought together a number of organisations to look at ways in which rural communities could become more involved in influencing the policies that affect them.

The Rural Advocacy study found that the urban agenda was dominating policy making and that Scotland’s rural voice needs to be heard more. You can download the report from the documents library and read more about this major study in New report says rural voice not being heard.

You can also download a summary of the main report from our documents library.

Key facts 2007 published

Rural Scotland Key Facts 2007 has been published by the Scottish Government. The concise document features a range of tables and graphs presenting facts about rural Scotland.

It is split into three categories: People and communities; Services and lifestyle; Economy and enterprise and features some interesting facts on demographics, perceptions of safety when at home at night and the destination of school leavers.

Valuable resource for farming communities

The Time to Talk, Time to Listen booklet produced by Dumfries and Galloway Choose Life with funding from LEADER+ is a valuable resource for farming communities throughout Scotland.

Choose Life is a national strategy and action plan aimed at reducing suicide in Scotland. The Time to Talk, Time to Listen booklet features contact details for a range of organisations that can give free and confidential help to people in farming communities who are feeling low or stressed.

Choose Life took part in our Your Project feature last year, you can read more in Your Project: Choose Life. You can read more about Time to Talk, Time to Listen in the article of the same name.

Best community newspaper name?

The Bog Standard, Boat of Garten’s community newspaper may well be the best named community newsletter in Scotland! You can find the Winter edition of this newsletter in the Community Newsletters section.

It features a community hall update, news on the Winter Festival, the Boat of Garten slimming club, the Garten tartan and much more.

We’d love to have your community newspaper on the site. If you’d like your newsletter to feature all you have to do is email it to me in word or pdf format at editor@ruralgateway.org.uk.

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