Engage Update - 25 March

Invitation for applications for membership of Renfrewshire’s Local Partnerships as a community representative

Local Partnerships were established in Renfrewshire in 2019 as a new model of community level governance, and a review has been underway throughout 2023. This review was concluded earlier this year, with a new phase of Local Partnerships agreed. You can read about this here.

As part of this development, it is now time to refresh the community representative membership of Local Partnerships.

Local Partnerships have an equal number of spaces for Renfrewshire Council Elected Members and community representatives. Some of the community representative spaces are reserved for active Community Councils, who have recently held elections and appointed members to Local Partnerships. The remaining spaces are for community representatives from voluntary and community groups in the area.

It is for the remaining community representative spaces that applications are now being invited.

Find out more and apply here 

Supporting Mental Health & Wellbeing in Our Communities

The ‘Supporting Mental Health & Wellbeing In Our Communities: Emerging Practice’ held in Perth last week was a remarkable success - showcasing the commendable efforts underway throughout Scotland to champion the importance of good mental health. I was delighted to attend with a number of colleagues and I think we all enjoyed the experience.

The aim of the event was to consider the insights gleaned from various community-based mental health supports for children, young people, and adults, particularly through initiatives like the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults, local authority Community Supports for Children and Young People, and broader community interventions backed by national partners. The event offered a platform to highlight project outcomes and effective delivery strategies as well as the opportunity to exchange best practice among the various stakeholders.

Numerous organisations have made great impacts by utilising the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults, as evidenced by the plethora of presentations witnessed during the event. From Renfrewshire it was brilliant to see Kairos Women+ delivering an outstanding presentation, underscoring the impactful work they’re doing in Renfrewshire, and inspring groups across the country with their creation of "a culture of love" within their approach. The Renfrewshire Wellbeing Network was also showcased through their Renfrewshire Wellbeing exhibition, captured by Lochwinnoch based cic Open Aye and first displayed at our AGM last year. 
Hopefully, we'll continue to see increased funding around this agenda in the future. Momentum has been gained in the realm of intervention, and it’s so important that we keep it going.

Congratulations to all who were involved in making the conference a memorable and impactful event. On the evidence it's clear that your contributions are truly making a difference in the lives of many – and I especially extend my gratitude to everyone in Renfrewshire’s Third Sector Network who has been awarded funding from the programme over the years – in my opinion it’s been a resounding success!

Year three of the Renfrewshire Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund is now distributed to the community, you can see which groups and projects received funding over on the webpage

The Making of Ferguslie is a plan that sets out a vision for the future of Ferguslie Park over the next 5 to 10 years.

Developed in partnership with the local community, the plan sets out a range of actions to reimagine underused land, improve greenspaces, and support community initiatives.

It's a flexible framework so residents, community groups, the council, and our partners can work together to deliver the vision of Ferguslie Park as a '20-minute neighbourhood' - a well-connected area with greenspaces, facilities, and activities to make the area sustainable and healthy for people to enjoy.

Find out more

Celebrating Renfrewshire Steering Group 

Celebrating Renfrewshire is a fund for young people by young people, aged 12-25yrs. The fund uses a Participatory Budgeting (PB) model of allocating funding to groups and young people who want to deliver youth projects in their community. This means young people vote for the projects they want to see take place, with those that gain the most votes being awarded the funding. More about PB can be found here PB Scotland - Participatory Budgeting in Scotland
 
For the fund to be completely youth led, we need to work with a steering group made up of at least one person from each Local Partnership area. As part of the steering group, young people set the criteria for the fund, develop the fund’s application guidance and review each application before the public vote. They also plan the announcement event at the end of the funding process.
 
The group meet once a week, for about an hour and a half, and it's a great way to meet new people, learn new skills, increase volunteering hours, enhance your CV and most importantly have fun.
 
If you have any young people who you think would like to be involved then we would love to hear from them at celebratingren@renfrewshire.gov.uk
 
There is an initial event being held on Wednesday the 27 March at 4:30-6pm in the Methodist Central Halls 2 Gauze Street, Paisley PA1 1EP. 
 
To find out more about the process, our video covering last year’s announcement event is available on Youtube -  Find out more about Celebrating Renfrewshire, the fund for young people by young people.