Facts & Figures

Community Links works with communities across South Lanarkshire, particularly the most deprived, to support ‘community inspired regeneration’.  Through the Community Matters newspaper, consultations, events, volunteer development and IT support, it builds community capacity.  The challenge now, to sustain this work in times of financial uncertainty. (Oct 2009)

Company Ltd by guarantee with charitable status

Last year (08/09) about a quarter of the turnover was from income generation; the rest coming from core, grant and project funding.       

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Roots & Links

Community Links was established in 2002 as an independent community consultation and engagement organisation; initially serving communities within Blantyre and North Hamilton Social Inclusion Partnership. In 2006, the organisation extended its role to working across South Lanarkshire, with particular emphasis on areas of multiple deprivation.

The Board of Directors has:
    6 community representatives
    1 Changing Places representative (staff)
    2 private sector representatives
    1 Local Authority representative (advisory).
Its Memorandums and Articles ensure that the community drives its activities.  Its main objectives are to:
    develop good relationships between communities and service providers
    provide independent community consultation
    provide the quarterly Community Matters newspaper
    provide free ICT maintenance and advice
    encourage the ‘Pride of Place’ scheme
    offer a wide range of volunteering and training.

include stakeholder groups right across South Lanarkshire, from community groups and voluntary organisations to local businesses.

include:
    British Urban Regeneration Forum (BURA)
    Commercial organisations (locally-based) including First Direct
    CVS Network
    Glasgow Council for Voluntary Services (GCVS)
    NHS Lanarkshire
    Scottish Government/ Scottish Centre for Regeneration
    Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO)
    Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum (SURF)
    South Lanarkshire Council
    Solve - South Lanarkshire Volunteering Enterprise
    Strathclyde Police.

Activities

The office in Blantyre is an administrative centre, providing meeting rooms.

Volunteering and volunteer development: volunteers work on:
    the Board – as Directors
    the community newspaper
    community consultations
    community events
    the ICT support project.

Volunteers have a Personal Development Plan and receive training; many go on to further education and/or employment.

Greenspaces: the organisations works with South Lanarkshire Council Countryside and Greenspace to support the distribution of wild flowers and trees to local people and the development of community woodland groups (‘Friends of …’).

Pride of Place: the organisation acts as a referral agent for the Pride of Place environmental taskforce, highlighting more immediate environmental problems, e.g. graffiti, and larger community improvement projects.

Includes
    Community Matters Newspaper: 39,500 distributed through three different editions to households in Blantyre/Hamilton, Cambuslang/Rutherglen and Larkhall & surrounding areas; and a further 6000 copies distributed via, for example, community centres, libraries and surgeries.
    ICT support: provides free reconditioned PCs to nominated households through referrals from learning establishments, social work and partner agencies, and an affordable IT services for smaller voluntary organisations; also provides IT training and equipment hire.
    Community consultations and surveys: for a wide range of larger organisations including Strathclyde Police, South Lanarkshire Council and NHS Lanarkshire.
    Community event management: often to support engagement and information sharing with communities.
    Administrative services and meeting room hire: at their offices.

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1.    Volunteer development: our volunteers often face significant barriers such as long-term unemployment, lack of self-confidence and limited childcare.  It’s great to see them gain in confidence, develop and go on to get work.

2.    IT support: we’ve seen it evolve and grow to provide free reconditioned PCs to nominated local people and support to community groups and businesses.  It really helps bridge the digital divide in deprived communities.

3.    Winning a BURA Commendation Award for Community Inspired Regeneration 2007: also a SURF Award ‘People category’ in 2006, and now we’re to be featured in COSLA 2009 Empowering Communities.

What Next

Sustaining funding: we’re coming to the end of our Fairer Scotland funding, and the next round of empowerment funding, without ring-fencing and with the focus of Single Outcome Agreements, is going to be very competitive and challenging.  We’re thinking our income generating work should see us through to June, and talking with the Council who are very supportive.  In our eight years, we have been here before; this is our third time round in fact, so there’s no point in worrying.

Be proactive: keep being innovative, don’t let yourselves become stale.  We’ve been highlighted as an example of good practice, and it would be easy to sit back … but we don’t. Just because you’ve done something once that’s not enough: everything keeps changing and we have to work to be at the forefront.

To be able to continue the good work: engaging, informing and empowering communities so that they can improve their quality of life.  It’s about them, continuing to work with them and finding new opportunities for this.

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