29 Aug 2024
Navigating Uncertainty: Community Regeneration and Resilience in Scotland
We are in a period of flux and crisis. Systems at a national and international levels are creaking severely. Capital spend in the Scottish budget this year has been severely truncated and the outlook for the next couple of years does not look optimistic. Some analysis of local authority finances predict further closure of public assets and their subsequent disposal. People in villages, towns and cities are all faced with extreme challenges.
Overview
What does this mean for communities in Scotland most in need of regenerative activity? What lessons can be drawn from 25 years of the SURF Awards that can direct resource to where it is most needed? If asset disposals do take place, how do we ensure widest public benefit is at the core of the decision making? If systemic change remains distant, do the answers lie at a neighbourhood level and is the community COVID response the source of answers? Growth has returned as the political buzzword, and the move to a wellbeing economy and community wealth building remains on the horizon, but is it sunrise or sunset?
These are some questions we will be answering, maybe tentatively but with hope, on August 29th
Agenda
10am Registration and Networking
Morning Session
- Welcome and Introduction: Brian MacDonald, Chair, SURF
- Scene Setting: Euan Leitch, Chief Executive, SURF
- Community Assets: Brian McLaren, Managing Director, EKOS
- Wider Value Panel Session – Chaired by Brian MacDonald
- Alan Bell, Scottish Futures Trust
- Pauline Smith, DTAS
- Brian McLaren, EKOS
- Annie Breaden, Crown Estate Scotland
- Regeneration at the Grassroots: Fiona McKenzie, Founder/Chair, CentreStage/Kilmarnock Town Board
- A Grassroots Perspective Panel Session – Chaired by Anna Fowlie, SCVO
- Viv Sawers, Govan HELP
- Alastair Rhind, Regenerating Fraserburgh
- Kate Wimpress, North Edinburgh Arts
- Fiona McKenzie, CentreStage
1pm Lunch
Afternoon Session
- Interactive Feedback Session
- The Landscape: Professor Chik Collins, Director, Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH)
- Philosophical Reflections – Panel Session: Chaired by Euan Leitch
- Tom Arthur MSP, Scottish National Party / Scottish Government
- Sarah Boyack MSP, Scottish Labour
- Chik Collins, GCPH
- Regeneration in a Deaf World – Sandra Duguid, Founder, SignVine
- Reflections and Summing Up: Euan Leitch, Chief Executive, SURF
- What’s Next: Emma Scott, Events, Information & Communications Manager, SURF
- Closing Remarks: Brian MacDonald, Chair, SURF
4pm Close
