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Big turnout at SAC’s Rural Scotland in Focus event
Professor Bill McKelvey welcomes everyone at the Rural Scotland in Focus event (opens in new window)
More than 100 people attended SAC’s recent Rural Scotland in Focus event in Edinburgh to examine how local action can improve health and wellbeing in rural communities.
Thirty local projects from around Scotland were represented at the event, many of which rely on a big input from volunteers. During the morning session in the McRobert Pavilion on the Royal Highland Showground at Ingliston they explained how they are working successfully in areas where access to mainstream services can be limited.
The participating projects include Pulteneytown People’s Project, a community regeneration scheme in Wick; Highland Community Care Forum, a charity which supports carers; and Atlantis Leisure, a community-run sports centre in Oban.
SAC Researcher Dr Sarah Skerratt said: “We had a wide range of opinions represented at the event about the role of local initiatives in improving health and wellbeing in rural areas. Everyone agreed that local projects have an important role to play - and this was clear from the evidence provided by the projects taking part. There was a lot of interesting debate about how this role will develop in the future and also about if and how government should support these local initiatives”.
“One major issue the participants have agreed to explore further is how we can amalgamate the opinions and experiences of the many hundreds of projects happening across Scotland to create one voice with which to engage with government at central and region levels.”
Rural Scotland in Focus was organised by SAC's Rural Policy Centre in partnership with the Scottish Government’s Joint Improvement Team; University of the Highlands and Islands Centre for Rural Health; Children in Scotland; Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations; Forestry Commission Scotland; The Institute of Rural Health and the Centre for Health Science.