Community Empowerment
Introduction to Community Empowerment
Community empowerment is about enabling communities to take control of their local environment and influence the planning and delivery of services. It involves giving people the tools, resources, and opportunities to make decisions that affect their lives and their communities. Empowered communities are better able to address local issues, improve their quality of life, and create sustainable change.
Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015
The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 is a significant piece of legislation that supports community empowerment by providing legal frameworks for community ownership and participation. The Act aims to strengthen the voices of community bodies in decisions that matter to them and facilitate the transfer of land and buildings to community ownership.
Key provisions of the Act
- Community bodies can acquire land and buildings from public sector organisations to use for community benefit via asset transfer.
- Communities can request to participate in decisions and processes that affect them via participation requests.
- Communities can engage in the planning and development of local services and initiatives, ensuring that their needs and priorities are reflected in public policies.
Resources
Information about the Principles for Community Empowerment was prepared by Audit Scotland in July 2019, working with a Community Empowerment Advisory Group and bringing together Scotland's main public sector scrutiny bodies. This 25-page document was developed for scrutiny bodies, public bodies and their partners to promote understanding of what community empowerment should look like.
The Scottish Government website provides a number of actions and links to support communities to do things for themselves and to make their voices heard in the planning and delivery of services. Local information is available on our website.
The Scottish Community Development Centre is the lead charitable body for community development in Scotland.
The Scottish Community Empowerment Action Plan was developed in 2009 by COSLA and Scottish Government. It pre-dates the rollout of the Community Empowerment Act and was written to re-assert the Scottish Government's commitment to Community Empowerment. Times have moved on since the document was written, but many of its principles remain current.
More information
To find out more about the different parts of the Act, visit the Scottish Government website.
The Scottish Community Development Centre has written a briefing that explains the provisions of the Act. It sets out some of the implications and opportunities for:
- community development
- community organisations
- community planning
Find out more
If you have any queries about how we will deliver the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, please contact our Communities and Partnerships team at: communityengagement@scotborders.gov.uk