Community Development: What Vision for Scotland

1. Community Development: What Vision for Scotland An international perspective Stewart Murdoch Director, Leisure and communities Dundee city council Member of IACD since 1997 and trustee since 2003

2. An International Perspective My involvement with IACD has provided an international perspective. It is, however, a personal journey and I can only reflect on those this things which have come through the experience provided by involvement in IACD. In the last ten years I have visited community development projects and initiatives in over ten different countries, including Ireland; Hungary; South Africa; the Cameroon; Australia; New Zealand; Nova Scotia; Hong Kong/China; Germany; Japan; and India. What is striking is not their differences, but the similarities and the common hopes that come through the “human condition”.

3. An International Perspective For those who have never come across the International Association for Community Development, more information can be found about the organisation at the following website: www.iacdglobal.org The organisation itself has a very small administrative core which is based in Scotland (at the Falkland Centre for Stewardship). It is a Scottish registered charity and is the only organisation of its type to have EU and UN Accreditation. Over the last three years it has received a small grant from the Scottish Government to ensure it had the capacity to continue to operate and to deliver the Community is the answer conference in Glasgow.

4. Community is the answer www.communityistheanswer.org International conference organised by the IACD and CLD Standards Council for Scotland between 8 and 11 June 2014. The event was structured around three inter-related themes: • Health and Wellbeing • Wealth and Fairness • Power and Governance The event addressed the question of what is our common wealth? Who was there?

5. Countries represented at IACD conference

6. Countries represented at IACD conference – with Hong Kong now displayed as China

7. Community is the answer In total, there were 32 countries represented at the conference, with 460 delegates. It would be impossible to do justice to the range of presentations and experience which was brought together at the event. There were 150 different presentations and 80 parallel break out sessions over four days. There were 20 field visits. The event highlighted the diversity of community development practice and the passion and commitment that practitioners across the world bring to the promotion of social justice through this work. It provided an inspirational context for workers and created an affirmative experience for people who are often working in situations where their practice is under recognised.

8. What conclusions were reached? The pressure on public funds, increasing numbers of people with skills who are workless, the appetite for communities to be in greater control and the failure of conventional approaches have created a context where there is no alternative but to invest in communities as the answer. What was striking about this event is that despite the enormous diversity of presentations and the huge range of experience brought to bear by delegates and presenters, common strands emerged.

9. Be Proud • Working in Scotland we fail to appreciate the significant contribution that we have made internationally to the community development field of practice. • We should also recognise the goodwill which extends globally towards Scotland. We are in a fortunate position and we are recognised as people who have communitarian values embedded in our society (we could debate whether this is still the case today or whether it reflects a romantic view of Scottish culture). • What is not in question is that we are great hosts and when people come to our country we do open up to them and provide them with a rich experience. • In our field, people were hugely impressed at the deliberate structure, the fact that we have: • CDAS (Community Development Alliance Scotland), a network of organisations that are committed to community development practice. • SCDC (the Scottish Community Development Centre), an organisation which collides professional support, consultancy, and expertise relating to this practice. • SCDN, a practitioner network which brings together CD workers and volunteers and provides then with a focal point for support and development. • CLD Standards Council, a body committed to involving practitioners in the establishment of standards and to working with employers to maintain standards of training and of practice.

10. Key messages We need to humanise public sector interventions. CD workers need to have compassion for the poor. Recognise the limitations of “professional” interventions. Maximise the role/contribution of the community. Leadership resides within communities. Tackle alienation, particularly of young people. Keep asking how we get to the causes of the causes. Globally, CD workers are increasingly involved in economic development work.

11. What are the implications? We need to continue to refine the role/expectations of CD workers and community activists/volunteers. Governments need to reappraise what “effective” public sector intervention looks like. The timescale for developing partnerships with communities needs to be understood better. Using the experience of communities can bring about better policies, and build self-belief. The skills needed to facilitate this work need to be more clearly articulated. Power and power imbalances need to be better understood. Keep asking the question “how do we build the good society?”

12. Closer to home • Local government in Northern Ireland is currently in the process of being reorganised. • 26 Councils will become 11 from 1 April 2015. Chief Executives of the shadow Councils have been appointed. • At the core of local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland is what is described as “a new central-local relationship”. • To support this the Local Government Act introduces: • A general power competence • A duty of community planning • To deliver this local government has a responsibility for “community development”.