Glenorchy & Innishail have just launched their first 5 year Community Action Plan.  A first for them, and a first for STAR too!  This is the first CAP, in 25 years, that we have helped to prepare during a pandemic, and completely on line.

The process got underway in November 2020, with several Zoom Steering group meetings to get organised and appoint two local people as Survey Co-ordinators to work with us.  As we couldn’t travel to the community, it was very important to have a resource on the ground to support the process, so we trained and supported Karen and Ben (on line!) as part of our team.

An on line survey was launched in February, and all the stakeholder conversations and focus group work was also done through Zoom.  This presented challenges, but we all learned along the way, and with a very resourceful and positive Steering group driving the process, there was an excellent response to the survey with 169 responses from 366 households.  30 stakeholder discussions were held, involving over 80 people.  We also prepared a facts and figures Community Profile of the area, but the real challenge came with the Community Futures Event. In “non-Covid” times, our Community Futures Events are usually all-singing, all-dancing celebrations in the community, with refreshments, entertainment, and local groups. The events are designed to feedback information from the community consultation process, and to offer another opportunity to have a say and to get involved.

Deciding to do the Event as an on line process required a lot of thought and problem solving! We staged it as a week long opportunity to view the results of the community consultation, consider the main themes and actions, and then for people to give their feedback on what they thought were the priorities.  People could also opt to say if they would be interested in joining a group to take forward particular themes or projects. A great response to this, with 130 people participating, and over 40 wanting to stay involved.

Key to the success of the on line CAP, was the absolutely superb efforts of the Steering group and the Survey Co-ordinators in promoting throughout the area (and it is a BIG area!). Credit goes to the talents of  Steering group member Steve for the wonderful Facebook coverage and a purpose built website

With the lockdown Community Action Plan now launched, work is underway to establish a number of Themed Action Groups to take forward the initial priorities in the Plan and to continue to work together for the good of the magnificent Glenorchy & Innishail area. We wish you all the very best of luck, and hope that the CAP will provide a great foundation to build on.

Funding for the work came from Local Energy Scotland CARES