Community Life: workshop summary
Community Life: what does that mean to you? And what needs to happen to support it?
Those questions were the focus of the second of this month's five themed workshops for 'Our Community, Our Future' Community Action Plan, which took place on the evening of Tuesday 11 May. Open to all, 12 local folk joined the discussion to work through these questions.
When asked what Community Life meant to them, the group said:
Those questions were the focus of the second of this month's five themed workshops for 'Our Community, Our Future' Community Action Plan, which took place on the evening of Tuesday 11 May. Open to all, 12 local folk joined the discussion to work through these questions.
When asked what Community Life meant to them, the group said:
- Balance better lifestyles for all ages without having to go to Inverness with retaining the community's safe rural caring character.
- More opportunities to meet people, especially for those who are lonely.
- More amenities and activities for kids - otherwise the community will dwindle away.
- Doing things for ourselves, being sustainable.
- Events that bring people of all ages together.
- Create a sense of community.
- Being able to set up a home and life here after you leave school or college.
The group also reached an initial set of potential projects. In no particular order:
- Playpark
- Community centre
- Sports facility
- Place to sell local arts and crafts
- Community purchase of shop and Post Office
- Community purchase of campsite
- Combine the primary schools
- Wraparound childcare for working parents
- More activities for nursery and primary aged children
- More apprenticeships
Some ‘principles’ were suggested too:
- Need a focus to bring people of different ages and experiences together.
- Things for young and old are important, but don’t forget the middle age range - it can be difficult to meet people.
- Volunteers are stretched. Ideas will only work if people step up to do them. Maybe we need to use employed people more, and increase volunteer capacity.
Things may be missing, others may not be quite right. More planning is needed to work out how these ideas might work and what they will look like. But they are a good starting point.
You can see a recording of the whole discussion in this video.
The Community Assembly on 27th May is an opportunity to see and review the ideas coming out of the five workshops as a whole, and fill the gaps. Don’t forget to book your virtual seat here!
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