Our Place - The story so far....
Our Place represents a different way of investing Big Lottery funding based around priorities and a vision statement set by local people. It is a place-based initiative that aims to build stronger connections and relationships in communities, empowering local people and organisations to bring about positive and lasting changes in their neighbourhood.
The Big Lottery Fund is investing in 5-year contracts to provide intensive, asset based community development and aiming to build the skills and confidence of local people and organisations. Lochside & Lincluden (alongside the other Our Place areas) will have a main contractor working in the area. In Lochside & Lincluden that organisation is Community Enterprise in Scotland (CEIS).
The Big Lottery Fund is investing in 5-year contracts to provide intensive, asset based community development and aiming to build the skills and confidence of local people and organisations. Lochside & Lincluden (alongside the other Our Place areas) will have a main contractor working in the area. In Lochside & Lincluden that organisation is Community Enterprise in Scotland (CEIS).
The first steps in learning about Lochside & Lincluden saw a team from CEIS conducting a listening survey. We knocked on doors, and hung around at "community hotspots" trying to find out what people liked, disliked and thought could be better about the area. We also asked people what experience they had of being involved in the community and generally had a chat. Through this process we began to identify some skills, passions, gifts and talents as well as the physical assets and organisations that people wanted to talk about.
We also spoke to some local organisations and stakeholders currently working in the area asking them what their roles in Lochside & Lincluden are. Again this helped us build a list of organisations and skills to include in this asset map.
Our Place Launch Day & the Orchard
In November 2014 Our Place launched in the community with a variety of different activities taking place on the launch day including working with local organisations and volunteers to plant the Lincluden Orchard.
Listening to Young People
The initial survey process revealed that the residents of Lochside & Lincluden were particularly passionate about the voices of young people and making sure young people could influence the Our Place process. We decided it was important to speak to a group of young people about their thoughts of the area but also about how they saw themselves. We had special focus groups held in the high school and with local youth groups to find out more.
What about now?
From these ideas came the Our Place Projects, six standalone projects that will make Lochside and Lincluden happier, healthier places to live.
If you'd like to get involved, please visit the Projects page to see which takes your fancy.
If you'd like to get involved, please visit the Projects page to see which takes your fancy.