Uist – Social Enterprise Place

 
 
 
Earlier this year Uist  in the Outer Hebrides received one of two Social Enterprise Place Awards, the first ever awarded within Scotland.
 
Today we launch a brochure highlighting the history of community and social enterprises in Uist, the many diverse contributions they make now, and their ambitious goals for the future on the climate emergency, young people, health and inclusion, and Gaelic language and culture.
 
It is a remarkable showcase of just how strong and resilient our island communities are: we have been building community wealth for over 40 years, have sustained our island communities through Covid, which has in turn only served to heighten our ambitions for the future.
 
Mags McSporran, head of Social Enterprise Development at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, has commented, “it is such a great picture of social enterprise in Uist, its longevity, innovation and out and out tenacity”.  In a blog post, Mags says that the Scottish Government is prioritising the involvement of local communities and businesses in economic and community wealth building, and that there is so much to learn from the breadth of experience our communities have in stimulating sustainable development.  Uist is an outstanding example of such “innovation … with community prosperity at its core”. 
 
In our European work we have called for redefining peripherality: looking anew at remote island and rural communities to build on their remarkable strengths and assets that have always been there, but that became so much more visible during Covid. In his opening remarks at the NPA’s annual event, the Chair David Minton suggested that, following the experience of Covid, peripheral communities who have been so far left behind may well now end up in front.
 

Communities on Uist demonstrate what flourishing peripheral communities can be – their strength and resilience, their cohesion and collaboration, their innovation and adaptability

You can access the document here.

Rural and island communities as more desirable places to live

 

Picture: Jane Barlow/TSPL
 
 
Covid-19 has demonstrated beyond doubt the attractiveness of living and working in rural and island communities.  CoDeL’s research on redefining peripherality (see here) has identified many reasons for this, not just in Scotland, but also in regions from Canada to Finland.  
 
Even before Covid-19 many young people wanted to return, settle or stay in their rural and island communities, and the pandemic has accelerated this trend.  The pandemic has also made this so much more difficult for our young people as asset-wealthy urbanites seek to snap up housing as rural and island boltholes to escape to.  This is happening across Scotland and across Britain, from Cornwall to the Scottish islands. 
 
The Scottish Community Alliance, who featured CoDeL’s research in their latest newsletter, also feature a new campaign around housing at Planning DemocracyIomairt an Eilean is working on the issue in Skye, and Misneachd Alba has been taking up the campaign through their Celtic Housing Charter, linking the rural housing crisis to the impacts on Gaelic culture.

Redesigning Regional Policy for Peripheral Areas

CoDeL will be launching the results of our Northern Periphery research on how rural and island communities, from Canada to Finland, have fared under Covid-19 tomorrow at the Regions in Recovery Global e-festival

Our session on Redesigning Regional Policy for Peripheral Areas brings together CoDeL, Liam Glynn (rural GP, Professor of General Practice, School of Medicine, University of Limerick and rural health activist), Mads Wolff (senior policy adviser to the Nordic Council of Ministers) and Ed Mayo (former CEO of Co-operatives UK, New Economics Foundation and National Consumer Council). 

The extensive research findings are available on our website here.

Young views reflected in CoDeL’s submission to the Scottish Covid-19 consultation

The uploaded document reflects discussion among community representatives on Uist and Barra, a majority of them young leaders and other younger islanders, facilitated by CoDeL.

The document does NOT represent the views of the participants in these discussions. The community discussions suggest that there is unlikely to be a consensus on how to proceed. Different members of the community have different experiences under lockdown, and above all face different risks within their family and community networks.

“Most people I speak to individually want lockdown to be eased, but this is not reflected in the public debate.”

“I have people within my family who are very at risk. The last thing I want is for lockdown to be eased now.”

CoDel response to Covid 19 Framework

The facilitated discussions nevertheless suggest that it is possible to have constructive discussions on the challenges at a community level, to enable people to express their opinions and for others to hear them, and for people to adapt their views accordingly. This is particularly important when some people’s views are amplified within media and social media, while many members of island communities do not air their views publicly even if, or perhaps especially if, they diverge from what is being articulated by others publicly.

The document looks at travel restrictions and testing, … challenges the focus on health vs economy, … includes tourism, crofting and other parts of local island economies, … considers the potential for localised approaches to lockdown, … and makes a range of suggestions.

A second post will explore in particular some of the potential harms being caused by lockdown on the islands, and in most other communities, too.

Island resilience in practice

Recently we held the first Uist Open Space session on zoom. What a positive experience. Yes, we all face challenges under lockdown. And yet we also shared so many positive actions already happening within the community to support each other, and many ideas for future actions and development.

Current positive actions:

  • A new housing group for Uist and Barra, currently with 3 councillors and 3 younger people, half men, half women, to access funding for and steer a new post to address the housing shortage that is preventing more younger people from staying, returning or settling on Uist.
  • The launch of the Psychological Wellbeing Hub with 30 psychological first-aiders across the Western Isles
  • Support for people to get connected, to boost data packages, etc through Cothrom
  • The work of the Cuimhne project supporting those with dementia, their families and carers, whose workers are now recognised as essential workers and so able to visit people with dementia
  • The work of Resilient Uist
  • On-line classes (e.g. gentle exercise, Irish and Highland dancing)
  • The work of the Tagsa horticulture project in providing seedlings
  • Kallin Harbour doing well out of selling fish locally
  • Langass Lodge offering eggs in telephone kiosk at Clachan to raise money for Tagsa
  • A planned virtual ceilidh of Uist musicians

Some future plans:

  • Support to identify employment opportunities for young people (funding support for young people into work is currently more flexible) (contact kirsty.maccormick@cothrom.net)
  • An open space group to share and explore mental health issues, which will meet once a fortnight over zoom (contact Rona at sineag1@yahoo.co.uk and/or thomas.fisher@mailbox.org )
  • A hope wall in the supermarkets and on facebook for people to put up their hopes, pictures, poems, etc. (contact tracy@tagsauibhist.co.uk)
  • A group/project or other vehicle to develop ideas and actions to make Uist communities and local economy more sustainable beyond the Covid-19 crisis (contact theonasandbank@gmail.com and/or thomas.fisher@mailbox.org)

We are sure that similar initiatives are happening on Scottish islands and internationally also, and across islands. We can all still buy products from Scottish Islands at Isle20.

Positive news, resilience and island life beyond the crisis

… were some of the key themes in responses to CoDeL’s survey, targeted in particular at younger islanders on Uist and Barra.  Here are some examples:

Resilience and social innovation would be particularly relevent to the current situation.

I’m sure your groups have covered resilience before, looking for more positive notes now is the time for the global population to wake up to the importance of our native and natural habitats, being environmentally aware, sustainable and not pushing mother nature to the limits that triggered this crisis. Uist is already doing well here, … what more can be done?

I think focussing on good news island stories around local economy and work, what you are already good at would be the best positive message at this time.

Strategies for staying strong, financial support for social enterprise resilience, positive messages.

It would be valuable to talk about how the current crisis could be used for positive social change after the crisis is over so we don’t just go back to how things were.

peer to peer learning is very valuable. What we want for our communities once this is all over. How to make it through.

I think looking at the wider economic potential in a positive light would be worthwhile.

How to organise mutual aid in situations like the current crisis. Finding ways in which we can collaborate beyond the crisis would also be helpful – whether pooling our resources and skills to organise creative get-togethers for the community to combat the lingering emotional impact of isolation, or to find new ways of working.

The survey sought views on what CoDeL as an organisation rooted in an island community could deliver over the internet during lockdown, to continue the work of the Smart Islands project.

Following the lead of the Social Enterprise Academy, CoDeL is primarily offering open sessions over Zoom. There was some interest in sessions and webinars on specific learning topics, and in one-to-one or small group coaching. There was far more interest in ‘open space’ sessions allowing peers to meet and share. In our next post we will report on the outcomes of the first of these sessions which are being held fortnightly.

Even before the Covid crisis, there was particular interest and energy for networking around issues of mental health, and this has become all the more important during lockdown: “I think it’s taking strain on each of us in varied and multiple ways.” So on the alternate weeks we will be organising ‘open space’ sessions focusing on mental health.