Engage Update - 05 October

Single Year Funding for 2027 available

The Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund is now welcoming application for its sixth year, covering activity and projects in 2027. The fund has a strong focus on prevention and early intervention and aims to support grassroots community groups in tackling mental health inequalities and address priority issues of social isolation and loneliness, suicide prevention and tackling poverty and inequality. 

The fund will be open until 30 October and successful groups will be notified by the end of December 2026. 

The Guidance and Funding Examples can be found on our dedicated webpage – Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund
Application Form

Remember that Engage is currently offering Application Writing Training and Bookkeeping training to the sector. See our full calendar of training and events: https://engagerenfrewshire.org/calendar/

Newsletters

Trading Standards Scotland Bulletin 01 October

Social Security Scotland Newsletter - September 2026

The Advocacy Project has been awarded the contract to deliver the Professional Independent Advocacy Service in Renfrewshire. The new contract commenced on 1 October 2026 and will run for an initial period of three years.
 

Contacting The Advocacy Project from 1 October 2026
Referrals can be made directly to The Advocacy Project using the following contact details:

• Telephone: 0141 420 0989
• Text: 07863 759 020
• Email: enquiry@theadvocacyproject.org.uk
• Website: www.theadvocacyproject.org.uk

 
Who Can Access the Service?
The service will be available to:

• Adults aged 16 and over who are subject to:
  • Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003
  • Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007
  • Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000
• Children and young people under the age of 16 who are subject to the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003.
• Adults in receipt of health or social care services who do not have family members or unpaid carers available to support them.

Draft Local Fire and Rescue Plan 

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) invites you to share your views on the draft Local Fire and Rescue Plan for your local authority area.

Your feedback is important and will help ensure the Plan reflects local priorities, concerns and opportunities.

We are particularly interested in your views on whether we have:

• Identified the right priorities
• Focused on the areas that will make the biggest difference
• Reflected the needs of your community

The results of this consultation will be used to inform the final version of the Plan, and we will publish a summary of what we hear, including how feedback has shaped our approach.

The consultation opened Thursday, 20 August for 8 weeks, closing on Thursday, 15 October.  

Share your views here

Local Culture Scotland Report 2026

This project was commissioned by the Scottish Government as part of their delivery of A Culture Strategy for Scotland (2020). It leads from an inquiry into ‘place-based approaches to culture in community settings’ by the Constitution, Europe External Affairs and Culture Committee in 2023 and their recommendation to further explore a national strategic approach for culture in community settings. ‘Local Culture Scotland: culture is infrastructure for place-based working’ was published and presented to the Scottish Government on 3rd September 2026.

The project team built on previous consultations with the cultural sector to shape an initial set of proposals which they then developed through detailed consultations with over 50 key stakeholders from the cultural sector and cross-sectoral agencies, organisations and funders also supporting work within communities.

Download the full report here

HSCP Chief Officer's Vlog - 02 October 2026

I’m pleased to share my latest Vlog with you below. 

In this week’s Vlog, I talk about: 

• Attending the Building Stronger Communities session in Renfrew Town Hall.
• Attending Older People’s Day at the GRID in Braehead.
• My regular acknowledgement of feedback on our services.  
• Reminders about registering to attend the HSCP staff health and wellbeing event and for front line staff to remember to ask 3 people our 3 questions.

If you have any feedback on this video or ideas for future topics, I’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch or email: HSCPcommunications@renfrewshire.gov.uk 

I hope you enjoy this week’s update…

Connected Lives training is designed to help staff and volunteers at third sector organisations who want to feel more confident supporting people living with dementia and those who care for them.

The training will be offered in 20 locations across Scotland, including in Glasgow on Thursday 3 December 2026 and Dumbarton on Wednesday 24 February 2027. We also have 4 online events for those who are unable to attend in person.

Here are 5 ways you can help us spread the word:

1. Promote the events in your next newsletter or on social media
2. Print a poster to display in a local community space
3. Add the event to your website
4. Forward this information to your colleagues in other third sector organisations
5. Reply to this email with suggestions for other organisations who may be able to help us reach people who would benefit from this training

Access the Connected Lives marketing toolkit

Dementia and Social Connection training

The training is part of the Connected Lives programme, a Scottish Government-funded project by Befriending Networks empowering Scotland’s third sector to deliver dementia-friendly events, activities and services.

Thank you in advance for your help and please don’t hesitate to get in touch with info@befriending.co.uk if you require more information.