Dores and Essich Community

Community Resilience Briefing 28-07-23

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Dear Community Resilience Group/Community Council/Colleagues,

Welcome to The Highland Council’s fortnightly briefing for groups with an interest in local community resilience.

Funding  

SCVO  is a key source of funding information for the third sector. Funds that may be of interest include:

  • Aviva – Community Fund
    Supports projects focused on climate change and financial wellbeing. Applications open all year with quarterly funding rounds.
  • The Rayne Foundation
    Offers grants to organisations tacking young people’s mental health, arts as a tool for social change, quality of life improvements for carers and older people, and better opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers. Apply at any time, with decisions taking up to 6 months.
  • FareShare
    They distribute food destined for waste to charities and community groups who transform it into meals for vulnerable people. Anyone can sign up that will use the food to make a difference in their community.

Welfare, poverty reduction and resilience

  • Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Board Member Recruitment – the SFRS is seeking new board members, find attached a document with full details. Application deadline is 21 August 2023.
  • Avian Flu Advice and Reporting – Members of the public should avoid touching sick or dead wild birds and visitors to coastal areas are advised to keep their dogs on a lead to avoid them picking up dead birds.

If you find a single dead bird of prey, swan, goose, duck or gull or five or more dead wild birds of any other species at the same time, you should report them on gov.uk‘s ‘Report dead wild birds‘ page: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/report-dead-wild-birds alternatively, you can phone the GB phone helpline: 03459 33 55 77.

  • Cost of living support – Highland Council webpages on support and information to help with the cost of living.
  • Help during the cost-of-living crisis – Scottish Government advice and information.
  • Energy Advice – Inverness Badenoch and Strathspey Citizens Advice Bureau offer free, impartial energy advice to householders. We provide advice to help reduce household energy use, save money, and understand energy bills and support householders to manage energy debt. This can be done in person, over the phone or by video call. We can be contacted on 01463 219742 or email [email protected]

Community Engagement

Scrutiny of the Visitor Levy Bill – A new bill has been proposed by the Scottish Government that would allow local authorities to introduce an additional charge when someone pays for overnight accommodation. Visitor Levy Bill

MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee are looking at the details of the proposals, and want to know what people think about them. Knowing your views will help them think about ways that could improve the proposed law, and whether the draft Bill should be passed into law by the whole Parliament.

There are a number of ways that you can get involved. For example over summer the Participation and Communities Team are offering extra support for communities, groups and individuals who want to get involved. This could be a facilitated workshop in your area or online. 

How to Get involved

Call for Views – Share your views with the committee

Online conversation – Please submit your views using the digital consultation tool

People are invited to add their ideas and issues to the platform and also rate and comment on other ideas. This will give the committee an indication of the issues relating to the proposed Bill and whether people are in favour or not.


Community Engagement – The Participation and Communities Team are offering extra support for communities, groups and individuals who want to get involved. This could be a facilitated workshop in your area or online. Please get in touch if you are interested. There is also a conversation guide which you can download to use with your groups.

We have produced a Conversation Guide you can use to host a conversation in your own community and send the views back to us.

The call for views closes on 1 September 2023.

If you would like support using the online platform or would like to support a group discussion in your community, please email our Participation and Communities Team at [email protected]

Mental Health and Wellbeing

  • NHS Highland Mental Wellbeing – a collection of resources and signposts to help people of all ages to look after their own mental wellbeing. Register for the event by following the link.
  • Cost of living crisis and your mental health
    Many people are feeling the strain as the cost of living continues to increase.  This resource provides information on how you can maintain your mental wellbeing at this time, alongside information on how to manage your money as bills rise.

Emergency Planning 

Douglas Crawford
Business Analyst

Community Support and Engagement

Highland Council