For many years, SCCAN has endeavoured to support the development of regional networks to support community-led climate action. We are therefore delighted to have recently received funding from the Scottish Government to enable us to invest in, initially up to ten, regional networks across Scotland over the next year.
The funding will enable us to recruit a (part-time) paid support worker (regional network coordinator) to be based in each region. We hope that this support will enable new networks to emerge and existing networks to consolidate and expand their current networking activity -developing and nurturing new relationships and new collaborations between more community groups across each region as well as with the wider third sector and with the public sector. The intention is to enable sharing of resources and knowledge between groups to avoid duplication of effort, to allow groups to support each other, quickly share and build on good practice and to create a context for cross-sectoral working. We hope also that, by becoming better established, regional networks will be well placed to become Scottish Government supported regional community climate action hubs in due course.
We are now recruiting for a Programme Manager to oversee the development of this project. We are also seeking expressions of interest from groups and networks across Scotland who would like to work with SCCAN to implement this project. Whatever the level of existing networking across your region, please get in touch if you feel that there is an appetite for more networking activity and you can see a clear benefit from having a locally based support worker in your region. Please complete this ‘expression of interest’ form in the first instance.
The Scottish Government is also funding SCCAN to design, develop and roll out a Climate for Change engagement programme -based on a successful Australian approach. We are recruiting for a Coordinator for this project and look forward to sharing more details about how to get involved soon.