Engage Update - 24 August

Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce
ROCCO Awards - Now Open for Entry
Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce’s 2026 ROCCO Awards will take place on Friday 13th November at Ingliston Country Club & Hotel.

Engage Renfrewshire are once again sponsoring the Community Champion Award and we invite all charities, community groups and individual community leaders to consider entering. The ROCCO Awards are an opportunity to highlight and celebrate your work locally.

ROCCO Award for Community Champion – Sponsored by Engage Renfrewshire

To enter the ROCCO Awards, simply click the category name above to download an application form. Please complete the form digitally and return it to awards@roccoawards.com.

If your application is selected for shortlisting, you will be required to present to the judges at some point during the week commencing Monday 26th October 2026.

ROCCO Award for Renfrewshire’s Favourite Business

To nominate your favourite business in Renfrewshire, please email awards@roccoawards.com by midnight on Friday 11th September. Please include ROCCO AWARD in the subject header. In the email, please include the name of the business you wish to nominate and why in <100 words, and include your own name, address and phone number.

Full list of ROCCO Awards are on the website.
Click this link to be taken to the Chamber of Commerce website.

Trading Standards Scotland Bulletin 20 August

August Edition of Third Force News

BSL Club and Workshops

From Wednesday 2nd September 2026 West Scotland BSL are launching two new community sessions on monthly Wednesday evenings at The Kiln Creative Learning Hub, 8 Seedhill Road, Paisley, PA1 1JT, supported by Renfrewshire Council.

The BSL Sign Club & Café runs 6–9pm as an open drop-in — no booking, no experience needed, just a warm and welcoming space for Deaf people, BSL learners, families and anyone curious about BSL and Deaf culture to come together, sign, and connect.

Alongside that, the BSL Storytelling & Poetry Workshop runs 6–7pm for adults aged 18 and over. It's a six-session creative programme led by Graham Dow, our profoundly Deaf BSL tutor, building towards a live BSL performance on Wednesday 3rd March 2027. Sessions are free but places are limited to 30, so booking is essential via westscotlandbsl@gmail.com 

The YouTube links below give a fully accessible BSL introduction to both sessions. Posters are available too by emailing the above address.

BSL Sign Club & Café: https://youtu.be/alVhErhWnHY
BSL Storytelling & Poetry: https://youtu.be/k2siy7S3pGQ

Online Safety Surveys

The Scottish Government is inviting children, young people, parents and carers across Scotland to take part in two short surveys about smartphones, social media and life online. The findings will help ensure that future advice, resources and support reflect the real experiences and needs of children and young people and their families. Please click the underlined links to be taken to surveys on Microsoft Forms.

Who can take part?

• Children and young people (aged 11-25) – Questions about how they use screens, apps, and social media, as well as the possible effects on their wellbeing and confidence in staying safe on the internet.
• Parents/carers (of children aged 0-18) – Questions about their own screen use, how confident they are in supporting their children’s screen use, and what resources they would find helpful.

About the surveys

·         The survey will remain open until Wednesday 30th September 2026.

·         Take around 10 minutes to complete

·         Responses will be anonymous.

How will they be used?

The survey findings will be used alongside a wider evidence review on the impact of digital media use on children and young people's wellbeing. The results will help inform future Scottish Government advice for families and professionals, as well as the development of a public information campaign on online harms.

Volunteer Scotland Survey

Volunteer Scotland want to hear from you if you've engaged with any of their services or supports since July 2025. You may have engaged through membership, read updates or research, helped shape a policy response, applied their guidance, engaged in an event or campaign, visited one of their websites or their newly launched Knowledge Gateway, achieved a quality standard or otherwise received their customer service. 

The deadline for completion is Sunday 30th August.

Please click this link to be taken to the survey on Microsoft Forms.

Your feedback will directly influence the decisions Volunteer Scotland make about future work, and it will help to shape future priorities and Scotland’s Volunteering Action Plan. Your response will be confidential, and all results will be published anonymously.

If you have any questions about this survey or the results, then please contact Volunteer Scotland’s Research Team at Research@VolunteerScotland.org.uk

HSCP CEO Vlog

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

In this week’s Vlog, I talk about:

• Refreshing my Promise Keeper training.
• The really satisfying process of shortlisting for the HSCP Annual Staff Awards - and reading through all the great nominations we received this year.
• My acknowledgement of the increasing volume of feedback we’re now receiving from across our services.

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…