News from the CLD Standards Council
Happy New Year and best wishes to all our members for 2023 😀
Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Fisher
A warm welcome to the CLD Standards Council team, Mrs Fisher! (AKA Kirsty Gemmell 😂). Huge congratulations to our very own Kirsty and her lovely husband Gordon who were married during the festive break 💓. We had a wonderful time celebrating with them and wish them both love and happiness for their future together as “Mr & Mrs”.
New Year Honours: MBE for Sue Briggs
We are absolutely delighted that another member of the CLD Standards Council is being recognised for their dedication and commitment to community learning and development in Scotland, in the King’s New Year Honours. Congratulations Sue!
Conference Evaluation – we need your views!
Don’t forget to complete your Conference Evaluation if you attended online or in person. We’re keen to get your views on what worked and what we can do better next time!
CLD Talks Teaser
And speaking of our conference, our friends @CLDTalks have been busy editing the podcast and vlog footage they captured on the day – look out for the big reveals over the coming weeks!
Upcoming CLD Events
The Winter Learning Festival for CLD restarts this month
If you’re still thinking about your new year’s resolutions, how about resolving to make time in your busy workload in 2023 for your own professional learning and development? The Winter Learning Festival for CLD – organised by the regional CLD professional learning networks – restarts this month and runs until the end of February.
In January, join Education Scotland for either of these 2 online sessions, focused on supporting CLD staff wellbeing. Register for the events at the links below:
Monday, 16 January 3-4pm – Beating Blue Monday!
Thursday, 19th January, 2-3pm – Supporting staff wellbeing through coaching conversations
In February, there are a range of sessions on offer from the West Alliance, The Tayside and Fife Professional Learning Alliance and the South West Network. You can sign up now through i-Develop:
Course: Winter Learning Festival 2022-23 (i-develop-cld.org.uk)
How Good is our Community Learning and Development? 4th Edition
The CLD HMIE Team from Education Scotland are running seven webinars between January to March 2023 aimed at CLD and third sector practitioners, to support all CLD practitioners to become familiar with the framework. Dates and times, with links to register are below.
- Improvements in Equality, Diversity & Inclusion: Friday 27th January 10-11am
- Improving Gender Equality using Quality Indicators: Tuesday 7th February 10-11am
- Improving the CLD Workforce: Wednesday 15th February 2-3pm
- Improving Partnership Working in CLD: Monday 27th February 11-12pm
- Leadership & Vision: Thursday 2nd March 10-11am
- Community Development & Empowerment: Monday 13th March 2-3pm
- Improving CLD Management & Sustainability: Monday 20th March 10-11am
News from the CLD Sector
SCVO: Supporting Community Groups with Governance
SCVO are offering a free Good Governance Check-up tool to assess how good an organisation’s governance is. Once it’s completed, they give the group a personalised action plan with 1-2-1 support for any areas that need improvement! A great tool to support our community groups.
See Me: Time to Talk Day
Time to Talk Day is run by See Me, with SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health) in Scotland. Thursday, 2nd February 2023, is a day that friends, families, communities, and workplaces come together to talk, listen and change lives. Can you make space in your day for a conversation about mental health? See Me have resource packs available to order and loads of resources available to download. Talking about mental health reduces stigma helping to create supportive communities where we can talk openly about mental health and feel empowered to seek help when we need it.
Citizens Advice Scotland
Have you checked out their website recently? Some great information, which may be useful to support our CLD learners and the communities we work in, about getting help with the cost of living, grants, benefits and what to do if you are struggling.
Local development plan evidence report – defining Gypsies and Travellers: consultation
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for all of Scotland’s Gypsy/Travellers, and wants to ensure planning authorities properly involve the Gypsy/Traveller community in planning the future of their places. They want to establish the most appropriate definition of ‘Gypsies and Travellers’ to enable planning authorities implementing the legislation to have a better understanding of who the Gypsy/Traveller community are and how their needs can be met. Can you get involved in this consultation? Perhaps you support members of a Gypsy/Travellers community to have their say?
IACD Call for Contributions
The next issue of Practice Insights will focus on the central place of culture in community development processes and practice. Community development practitioners, researchers and academicians are invited to submit an abstract or a contribution for publication in this issue. If you’re interested, you should submit a note of interest describing your article in 500 words or less by February 28, 2023.
Scottish Refugee Council Connect Map and Forum
New Scots Connect is a national project, led by Scottish Refugee Council, which aims to build New Scots’ social connections and enhance Scotland’s welcome to refugees. The Map provides information about communities and organisations supporting refugees, for example, their location, activities, and how to get in touch with them. You can also add your organisation to the map.
The Forum enables communities and organisations supporting refugees to work more closely with each other, to share experiences and knowledge, and to access training and funding opportunities. Completing the New Scots Connect (Forum) form will give you access to the Forum to post and receive updates from other groups.