Hpi Report Final 02

The Highland Perthshire Initiative: empowering community growth through learning and assets-development.

Scoping Study Report Dr. Rhys Evans Integrate Consulting Spring 2007

INTEGRATE CONSULTING : I

specializing in multi-method social research, policy analysis, evaluation & training

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Highland Perthshire Initiative Scoping Study Report Dr. Rhys Evans Integrate Consulting1 Spring 2007

Contents

I: Executive Summary II: Introduction a: Lifelong Learning and Sustainable Development b: A Vision c: Background to Rural Community Development III: The Study a: Origin of the study b: Methodology IV: Findings. a: Local Assets b: Knowledge and Skills c: Remit of the Community Skills Centre d: Potential Projects V: Discussion and findings a: Key concerns mentioned by Respondents i: landscape assets ii: peripherality iii: potential for development VI: Recommendations a: Building a Community Development Centre b: legal and business structure c: Building Place-based Education in the community d: Naming the Centre VII: Next Steps VIII: Conclusion

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Integrate Consulting, www.integrateconsulting.co.uk Cruachan, 62 W. George St., Blairgowrie, PH10 6HU. 01250 875 819.

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Highland Perthshire Initiative Scoping Study Report Dr. Rhys Evans Integrate Consulting Spring 2007 I: Executive Summary This is a short scoping study of the potential to build a community development centre in new facilities being constructed at the Breadalbane Community Campus in Aberfeldy in Highland Perthshire. The research looked for examples from other communities appropriate to the situation of Highland Perthshire, focusing on models of Asset-based Rural Community Development. A model was chosen, using Place-based Education as its foundation, to take advantage of the unique beauties and situation of the region and its communities, and this model was then used as a basis to undertake a community consultation process of in-depth interviews with Key Respondents. This is an Action Research project in that it has been designed to enable the community to form a plan of action which will result in it taking charge of its own social and economic development and this scoping study represents the first stage in this process. The field work component found that the community was receptive to the idea of Assets-based rural community development. It readily identified local examples of key assets which can underpin development. The community also displayed a strong response to the model of place-based education, identifying many ways in which it could form the nucleus of a community development centre in the new Breadalbane Community Campus, as well as how it could address the potential loss of heritage knowledges and assets which are under threat from recent changes to the local society and economy. From the interviews it was clear that the community contains within it strong social capital with many individuals either possessing key skills and knowledges they would be willing to contribute and/or past strengths in engaging in community development. Informal linkages already exist between existing local initiatives. What has been lacking is a central community development nexus which would bring them all together in a concerted push to foster local development. Additionally, supportive linkages already exist with the educational sector, both formal and non-formal, and within and outwith the community. There is clearly a will and the potential to take local social, economic and environmental development to the next level.

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This Report discusses the unique constraints on existing development in the region. It examines and applies the community assets development model to the region. It reports on the responses of members of the community to these ideas and proposes ways in which the community can take such a project forward.

Acknowledgements Particular thanks must be extended to John Low and Brendan Murphy for their unflagging support and enthusiasm for the project and for their efforts to make the study feasible. This Report would not be possible, however, without the enthusiasm and gravity with which our respondents treated our enquiries, and without their thoughts, ideas, opinions and suggestions, which form the substance from which it is constructed.

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II: Introduction Highland Perthshire is a unique region in Scotland. The combination of its position between the Lowlands and Highlands, its mountains, rivers and forests, and its long heritage of human activity make it a unique place with special appeal for locals and outsiders alike. These same features, however, also raise challenges -- for example, its location means that it is distant from centers of power in Perthshire and does not share similar ecological, social and economic conditions with the majority of the administrative area. As one respondent put it, the area is subject to “control from a distant centre.” It does share similar mountain environments and economic conditions with the Highlands, but is not officially part of that area and in particular does not fall under the remit of Highlands and Islands Enterprises. Further it is located at the edge of the new Cairngorms National Park, but much of it can be easily bypassed on the way there. Like many parts of rural Scotland, it is witnessing intense changes to its local economy – in particular the relative decline in the fortunes of agriculture and forestry – whilst witnessing the creation of potential opportunities in the outdoor recreation and experience-tourism markets. This in particular marks a challenge for young people who intend to make their future in the region – current education systems tend to educate them for jobs elsewhere, and without some sort of well-paying career, it is difficult for them to settle in local housing. At the same time, there is a long heritage of a strong sense of community and community activity. The region has had long experience of attempting to develop itself, whether through local media, community centres, local enterprise networks, community councils, and a strong network of voluntary bodies which manage the local environment. In addition, it has always possessed strong educational resources in the Breadalbane Academy in Aberfeldy, which has a long history of learning excellence. This learning excellence does not just feature in academic subjects. In association with LANTRA, for example, it offers a highly successful set of land-based studies which has been well received and which might form the kernel of further studies supporting new land-based economic activities in the region. The Highland Perthshire Initiative arose out of these factors. It is a response to the challenges by taking advantage of the opportunities inherent in local features, practices and places. As such it has a single Aim – to demonstrate community ownership of a set of ‘assets’ which can form the basis of new enterprises, new activities and which can be a kernel of community pride and a nucleus of greater local decision making and autonomy. The way in which this will be accomplished is through the potential creation of a Community Skills and Development Centre in the new PPP Breadalbane

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Community Campus to be built in 2007-8. This building has a tentative provision for a community-based learning centre built into its plans and the HPI is a response from the community of what to do with it. What is being proposed is a place-based education initiative which will use students to gather information from members of the community and bring it back to the Centre to pass to young people and others in a lifelong-learning resource centre. This centre would be a place where the training needs of local enterprises which are not met by the traditional education sectors (such as outdoor recreation guiding, water, safety and other group handling training, ground-based land work, including some forestry and grounds keeping practices) could be met. It also could be the centre of a cultural renaissance in which the unique cultural practices of the area – language, music, narrative (including narratives of landscape) – can be collected and disseminated. What unites these somewhat disparate features is that they are all ‘assets’ both in the sense that they were created by the people who live in Highland Perthshire in the first place, and that they are key components in creating a new higher value-added economy in the region. As such then, the Highland Perthshire Initiative is an Asset-based Community Project which attempts to identify local assets in order to underpin local social, environmental and economic development. a: Lifelong Learning and Sustainable Development There is an increasing emphasis within Europe on the importance of lifelong learning for sustainable rural development. A number of studies, projects and initiatives have established a need to educate local workers to respond to the opportunities created by the fundamental shifts in the rural economy. Rural educators in Finland, Poland, Greece, Italy and other nations are looking at local rural schools to become the centres of a new place-based learning situation – one that supports local children build careers and a future in the local economy. At the same time these rural schools are becoming community schools, enabling older residents to gain training in the necessary technological skills to participate in the digitalized economy. These lifelong learning initiatives form the backdrop to the Highland Perthshire Initiative. There are more individual models of Sustainable Development than there are places to develop. What they generally agree on however, is that in order to build sustainability into a place and its activities, it must include a sustainable economy, sustainable society, and sustainable environment. These three make up the ‘three-legged stool’ of sustainable development. Development, therefore, must be more than just job creation if it is to be sustainable. In this sense, development is what results out of the interaction of a vital economy, a resourceful and vibrant society and a thriving environment. Building sustainable development means giving local people the tools they need to build jobs and

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futures for themselves whilst exploiting and maintaining the local environment in a way which allows future generations also to enjoy its benefits. The initial impetus for the study came from the creation of the potential community learning space in the plans for the new PPP Breadalbane Community Campus Building. The management of Breadalbane Academy already has a history of providing unique learning opportunities for many of its students, in particular for those who would rather remain in the area than go off to universities in the Central Belt or beyond. The Land-base studies it offers, for example, directly addresses vocational needs in the Highland Perthshire region. They recognized the opportunity presented by the provision of this space and joined with others in the community who feel that Highland Perthshire, as a unique and distinct place within its local authority structure, needed to build its own unique development structure in order to address challenges to local society and economy. This Scoping Study has been funded as a result of their collaborations with LANTRA, the land-based Skills Sector Council, from their office in Perthshire. Thus was born the idea of a community-led initiative which would balance the increasingly centralized curriculum which served both local enterprises and local young people poorly. The initiative would not simply be an educational one, but rather would be first and foremost, a community-owned and led asset which operated outwith the remit of existing institutions and authorities, thus being a true local asset addressing local development needs. From the acknowledgement of this devolves then, the need to form some sort of Community Skills and Assets centre which will support local people, young and old, in a lifelong learning environment which supports local enterprise, contributing both to building better futures for young people in the area, and also to the development of the local economy. b: A Vision The Highland Perthshire Initiative represents the opportunity to create a community-led Lifelong Learning Centre at the new Community Campus to be built in Aberfeldy. Already supplied with the traditional sectors of education, the Centre will address the gaps in that provision, particularly as they concern community development in its local context – local knowledges, local priorities and local learning across a range of ages and situations. The Lifelong Learning Centre can support an entrepreneurial culture within Highland Perthshire which will develop new economic and other activities using the core assets of the region to, for example: •

develop higher value-added tourism,

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• •

to advance more sustainable (economic and environmental) land management, and to act as a catalyst for local pride.

It will make sure that those local knowledges are not lost to the community as time passes and focus changes. The Centre will give a younger generation of residents access to important knowledges outwith the traditional education sector, which will allow them to create or participate in new occupational opportunities and to see a future for themselves remaining in the local area.

c: Background to Rural Community Development The term ‘Rural Community Development’ encompasses many aspects. At its heart lie principles of sustainability. Vital, vibrant communities must have vital economies, good social relations and pride in local identities. And, in order to be truly sustainable, development must be ‘owned’ by the members of the community who are engaged in that development, whether of community initiatives or their own local businesses. If we see Development as a table around which a number of actors work together, it is clear that people in communities must be one of the key participants in that task. Traditional models of rural development have focused upon what communities may lack, using this as a reason for intervention or funding. Those models have ‘rural deprivation’ at their core, creating a number of challenges for building sustainability into development. By focusing on what is missing, this type of development runs a high risk of creating a dependency relationship with the community of interest and this by its fundamental nature, leans towards top-down development. This can mean that development proceeds without the real participation of the community which is the focus of the development. And, by not acknowledging the positive inputs which community can make in development, it makes the resulting development less effective, less sustainable, and of less benefit to local people. Assets-based approaches to rural community development, on the other hand, start from a position that community members are key actors in local development and that communities already possess a number of essential resources which are key to the success of local development. This includes things such as local landscape knowledge (how it was produced, how to maintain it, what are its key features, etc.), local cultural practices (language, music, art, food, etc.) and local social practices (festivals and fairs, existing and heritage community projects, etc.). In addition, networks of working together, past experience in volunteering and development, plus cultures of enterprise are all resources that a community can

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contribute to local development. These resources are Assets, which combined with support from foundations, businesses and governments can make local development more successful, sustainable and effective. The Highland Perthshire Initiative is an attempt to reverse this trend by asking the community to identify its Assets, to discuss ways of making them available for community development, and to suggest ways the community might organise itself to take advantage of this.

III: The Study a: Origin of the study This Study came about at the initiative of John Law, the Rector of Breadalbane Academy, and Brendan Murphy, editor of Comment Online in Aberfeldy Highland Perthshire’s print and online community magazine. At that time, both were members of the Foundation body of the Highlands & Islands Millennium Institute, and both had been articulating visions of Community Learning and development which focused on the distinctiveness of the local area and which were in response to a perceived need to locate development directly in the local community. The creation of a space for Community Learning, in its most general sense, within the new PPP Breadalbane Community Campus created an opportunity to bring their visions together. The result was this Scoping Study. This actual piece of research was commissioned by the Rector of Breadalbane Academy, using European Social Fund Objective 3, administered by the LANTRA Skills Sector Council. Both parties were looking to support innovative local developments, particularly as they derived from the local environment and landscape. They got together to commission this Scoping Study as the first step towards developing a community-based initiative in the new Campus. The Report itself is a brief scoping study, designed to canvas the community about the potential for, and possible shape of such a Community Asset project. It combines the consultant’s experience and connections with many community projects across the UK with the direct opinions of a number of members from the community. It’s purpose is to examine the potential support for such an initiative in the community and to suggest alternative ways in which such an initiative might carried forward. It is not the purpose of this Report to take the initiative forward, but rather it is a supporting document, providing a foundation of information which the community can use as a spring board to take the initiative forward itself.

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The study was commissioned to “produce outputs which will underpin the formation of a community initiative for Highland Perthshire focused upon, but not limited to, the opportunities presented by the PPP initiative building the new multi-purpose campus in Aberfeldy.” The purpose of the study was to “consult with identified key stakeholders (to): • determine their important priorities for such an initiative, • identify their potential concerns and aspirations, and • disclose what they, and their organisation, might do to support such an initiative, should one go forward. It also included a package of desk research looking for comparative models elsewhere, and to identify Scottish, UK and International experience supporting such an initiative. The Output from this study is this Report.

b: Methodology The Study was structured using the Case Study Method2 of Robert K Yin. As such it employed the panoply of social science research tools. It consisted of two packages of work. The first was a package of Desk Research where Data Models and other research instruments were constructed, and where other examples of Asset-based Rural Community Development and Place-based Education were found and explored. This informed the building of the model which was taken out into the community and explored. From the data model an Interview Schedule was drawn up to guide all interviews with Respondents. This was done to assure their answers were commensurable with each other. It also allowed us to be sure to gain access to the data needed to explore both the suitability of the ideas and approaches, and to gauge their intelligibility and usefulness to the community. The Interview Schedule asked our respondents for their thoughts and opinions on questions such as: • • • 2

What makes Highland Perthshire a unique and beautiful place? What are the environmental, cultural, economic, historic and other Assets of the region? For example, what are the key landscape features, how were they produced and what is needed to sustain them? What collective activity is needed to build on these Assets?

Yin, R.K. (1994) Case Study Research: design and methods. 2nd edition. London: Sage

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• • • •

How might individuals use these features to develop their own enterprises? What might be barriers to such development? How can these knowledges be make generally available and passed on to a younger generation? How can the community take ownership of the content of the lifelong learning function of the new Community Campus in Aberfeldy?

In this way we were able to ask our respondents to share their opinions on the matters of interest with us. Respondents were selected through recommendation using a purposive sampling strategy. Care was also taken that respondents represented as broad a range of interests in the community as possible. In this way we could be sure to hear from as wide a range of opinions as possible in our search. Of this list a high proportion were contacted and interviewed. Twenty five interviews were conducted and the transcripts and notes of these interviews formed the raw data from which this report is constructed. One key aspect of this study is its construction within an Action Research Agenda. As the ultimate Aim of the initiative is for the community to run and ‘own’ its own Community Skills and Development Centre, this study is just a small step along that path. In keeping with this, the research suggests general models and gives examples of other similar projects, but does not attempt to do more than suggest the general scope of the knowledges, assets and ways of organising which might result. In this sense the Report is intended to be as much inspiration as prescription. It hopes to facilitate the community’s movement towards taking charge of its own assets and developing them for its own purposes.

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IV: Findings. This section briefly discusses what we learned from our key informants. It is derived from the Interview Schedule used throughout the research process and is structured according to the questions it contains. a: Local Assets When asked to identify the key factors which make Highland Perthshire a unique and beautiful place, the landscape and environment was the first factor identified by all. There is broad agreement among respondents that the hills, glens, lochs and watercourses – in other words, the unique topography – make the place unique, beautiful and productive. Further, there was broad agreement that these features support much economic activity, whether historically, or in potential new uses in the future. Beyond the physical geography, the presence of forests and farmlands was also seen as being part of the region’s beauty. Unlike many areas of the UK, farming was seen to contribute to the unique beauty of the area and these features were valued specifically in terms of their ‘greenness’ and beauty and for providing ‘views’ which made the other features visibly accessible. Many respondents also focused in particular upon the rivers and lochs, mentioning their suitability for white water rafting, canoeing and other waterbased pursuits. In this context, this outdoor recreation market was recognized as an important addition to both leisure and economic activity in the region. Although the idea of Assets-based rural development was a new concept to most respondents, all were able to quickly appreciate how important these local environmental assets were for development. Additionally these assets were seen as belonging to the ‘community’, even if ‘owned’ by individuals. Further, landscape assets in particular were seen as being the asset which would attract new tourists to the area in order to participate in new outdoor recreation activities such as rafting, mountain biking and walking. Not only were these ‘assets’ seen as important local resources for development, but many were seen to be under threat through the loss of the traditional skills and labour sources which produced and maintained them in the first place. This particularly applies to forests and tree-care, as well as grounds keeping and farming. (for further discussion see below). These ‘Assets’ were also seen as resources which could support new jobs, vocations and occupations. One point repeated many times was that the area could not rely on existing development pathways because its peripheral location within Perthshire meant that it needed to develop itself. These assets were seen as a key pivot around which development could be built.

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Respondents were asked to consider a schema of types of Natural Assets and to offer local examples of each. These responses have been incorporated in the following table. The were asked to choose among five categories of Assets: Natural Assets (Environment and Landscape), Human (Skills and education), Social (culture products, networks), Manufactured (Built environment) and Financial (funds) Assets. Their responses can be seen below: Local Highland Perthshire examples of Knowledge Assets for Development Landscape and Environment water courses (rafting, canoeing) -hills and mountains (trekking, walking and combined tours based in the glens.) -farms and estates were considered to support sustaining the landscape Skills and Knowledge Grounds/game keeping silvi-culture knowledge of paths, hills, landscape features Culture products music, writing, visual art, drama & performance, highland dance, pipebands, highland games competitions, language – Gaelic choir, Gaelic Mod performance, ceilidh artists media (Heartland FM, local online and print media, etc) Built environment and heritage housing styles (neo-baronial, modern high value, vernacular styles, etc the towns, Aberfeldy, Pitlochry, Dunkeld/Birnham, all of which already draw people due to their attractiveness, appropriate size, etc Sources of capital, experience and other development initiatives 13

Highland Perthshire Community Partnership Highland Perthshire Youth Initiative Conservation and Special Interest Groups Active Local Community Councils Conservation Volunteer Groups Many respondents focused on the area’s long history of development activity. For example the Resource Use Institute of Pitlochry, the Breadalbane Institute, the Highland Perthshire Development Company and the Upper Tay Development Group which preceded the Highland Perthshire Communities’ Partnership – which has itself been functioning since 1997 and has been responsible for supporting the Upper Tay Paths Network and the Highland Perthshire Youth Initiative. The indoor pool and recreation centre in Aberfeldy was founded upon local initiative, organisation and fundraising. A charitable, community company Locus Breadalbane Ltd acquired a disused church and in early 2001 launched an ICT centre as an outreach learning portal and an SME support base. This contains an auditorium of 55 seats with a built-in digital media centre and radio production facility. Further, there are strong local committees of the RSPB, the Highland Perthshire Sports Trust, the Tummel Area Conservation and Development Group, the East Loch Ericht Deer Management Group, the Highland Perthshire Development Company, the Blair Athol Tourism Association, the Ellis Campbell Trust, the Breadalbane Initiative for Farming & Forestry, as well as 12 local Community Councils. Generally it can be said that since the mid-1990s, the level of local development, both in terms of community and supporting economic development has been relatively high. As a result, there is a strong pool of skilled and experienced people who could support further development. b: Knowledge and Skills Part of the challenge, as our respondents saw it, was to keep the local landscape alive through the use of local knowledges. Indeed, many paired the loss of habitat with the loss of the occupations which maintained it. This then was seen as leading to the loss of the knowledges themselves. As one respondent put it, ‘many of the people who worked these landscapes are retired, and no young people are coming along to take up the work’. This leads to a fear that there will be a loss both of the basic skills needed to, say, work in a forest, and of the specific skills needed to make a forest thrive in Highland Perthshire. Another concern expressed by respondents was the lack of access to what may at one time have been ‘common knowledge’. In many cases, sole practitioners

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of old knowledges could be identified but in most circumstances our informants knew of no way in which a member of the community could access that knowledge. In this sense then, these knowledges are seen as being at risk of disappearing. The Community Skills Centre is seen as a useful way to gather these assets together in such a way that they can contribute to local development in both a cultural and economic sense. Respondents were asked to identify specific types of knowledge which are important constituents of shaping the place, and which might be candidates for inclusion in the Skills Centre’s curricula. The following table summarizes their responses.

Landscape knowledges: -knowledge of grounds keeping • lawns, borders and hedges -forestry knowledge -horticulture and wild plant knowledge -cattle and heavy horse management -arable and other farming knowledge Learning resources - Lifelong learning fundamentals - Heritage and historic archives and narratives - Oral histories - Facsimile copies of important heritage documents Food, language, music and other culture products -

stories, oral histories. Gaelic language development songs and music choir, dance and pipeband skills dramatic arts (Aberfeldy, Birnam, Pitlochry) visual arts literature and creative writing

Enterprise and development knowledges - Business start up skills - People management skills - Sector specific qualifications • outdoor leadership • water-based recreation leadership • dyking, path and right of way maintenance 15

•

solid wood fuel skills

Local building and landscape styles - Traditional stone work, masonry and woodcraft - Traditional house and outbuilding styles - Farm building styles - Big houses, castles and mills. Access to capital and funds - Strong desire for one-stop shop depository of information for development. • funding sources • grant writing skills • access to networks and advice • accessibility of basic data for area

c: Remit of the Community Skills Centre Respondents were asked what they would like to see ‘taught’ at the Community Skills Centre. Their responses can be set into a small number of categories which include: Entrepreneurship (for young and old) -Including business start up, -sustainability -support for new ideas -on-going certification in new fields such as rafting. Local heritage -stories and oral histories, of people and of the land. -local Gaelic language culture -key contributors to local culture -history of farming and forestry Local vocations -listings of former and current occupations -stories of elders from their own occupational history Local landscape -knowledge of paths, roads and bridges -transport history -knowledge of hills, glens and muirs -stories of the landscape

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-knowledge of trees and forest -knowledge of wild creatures -special knowledges including new sports/recreation activities

d: Potential Projects A number of sources of new or expanded employment were identified as having potential within the area. These include: • • • • • • • • • • •

wood fuel provision for heating; path, trail and landscape maintenance; promotion of local food products with local stories and identity; local building and woodworking products; river rafting, walking networks, mountain biking and other active outdoor pursuits; developing higher value-added tourism based upon wild flora and fauna conservation; develop tourism based upon Gaelic language, music and dancing. Provision of local tourist information through the Centre; new types of farming and farm products marketing, including organic, bio-fuel, smoke house products, game and venison; Providing facilities and expertise for team-development, specific skills acquisition, leadership training, etc. to urban groups in residential facility; Horticulture and nursery development.

There seems no shortage of people within the region with ideas and existing expertise. In this sense, the Centre will be simply taking advantage of extant social capital in the area. Underpinning all of this, however, would be support for entrepreneurship, building the skills needed to turn these assets into viable businesses. There is strong consistency across the range of responses we received from our key Respondents. As can be seen above, the same topics have arisen from different modes of enquiry. Whether discussing Assets, local knowledges, local threats or the remit of the new Centre itself, there was broad agreement about the topics which were both amenable to development and the needs where development had to be met. Within the Case Study method, positive triangulation between different data sources is an indication that results can be

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reported with confidence. It is quite clear from our discussions with members of the community that there is a strong group of experienced mature actors who can broadly agree on an agenda which might produce new futures in the area. In this sense then, there is broad agreement that these important knowledge assets and the place and system to capture and disseminate them is the crucial interface between Highland Perthshire’s heritage and it’s future.

V: Discussion and Findings a: Key concerns mentioned by Respondents Clear issues, opinions and concerns emerged from discussions with our respondents. There was universal acknowledgement that the situation of Highland Perthshire was both unique – stuck between the Highlands and the Lowlands, as it were – and that there was a growing series of threats to the continued development of the area. i: landscape assets The special landscape was acknowledged to be the result of the interaction between the people who lived there and the physical environment. The uniqueness was constructed in several ways. The physical environment was both constructed from the individual features, and their relationship within a whole physical landscape. Thus the topography – high uplands and adjacent large glens, the important water courses – the Tay, Tummel, Garry and the lochs and the views they create – were of an appropriate scale which is well suited to human senses, movement and access. Growing upon these features is a unique vegetation– the high proportion of forests, both historic and new and coniferous and deciduous, are in particular highly valued by local residents. The climate, temperate and moist, is also conducive to the raising of animals, creating field systems which contrast well with the forests and high upland muirlands. This is seen as a landscape which contains the mountainous features of the Highlands without their remoteness, and the cultivated glens and straths of the Lowlands, without the population and industrial presence which marks them. All of the above form a landscape upon which human activity is both specially enabled and which is itself created by that activity. Economic activity in the region has traditionally been predicated upon the health of the local environment, and the health of the environment has been a direct output of economic activity. It is in regards to this that many respondents spoke of the special features of the landscape. They see it as a landscape of environment and people. The activities of their forefathers created this landscape from the raw materials of the

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environment and they see the importance of their own and future activities for that landscape. It is here too that many key concerns were expressed. These focused around the loss of traditional farming and forestry activities and the knowledges these entail – knowledges the loss of which many feel may imperil the unique beauty of the area. Many residents spoke of the difficulties faced by the forestry and farming sectors particularly in terms of providing careers for local people, careers which enable the expression of those local knowledges which have created the landscapes in the first place. This last factor featured large in the respondents’ concerns. This was particularly so when the discussion came to young people and their potential future in the area. On one hand it was clear that there was concern that young people increasingly could not see a future for themselves in the changing agriculture and forestry practices of the 21st century. On the other there was also concern that contemporary education systems were educating young people to move away from the area. The increasing prioritization of university education and the types of knowledge it entails would first take young people away from Highland Perthshire and then when they graduated, it would be to take up occupations which were not to be found in the area either. For those young people who couldn’t see themselves in Higher Education, there were much fewer opportunities working the land, and a number of respondents spoke of social problems with local youths as stemming from this combination of factors. This is a challenge the community shares with many places in rural UK and Europe. This presents a number of opportunities to join with other communities to share practice and learn from what they are doing to address these issues. For example, the Carnegie Commission UK has formed a rural community assets group of initiatives from across the nation and have extended an invitation to the community to join this Assets Group to share practices with them. In addition, several Sector Skills Councils officers have offered to share examples of practices in other communities to address similar issues. Further links can be made with trans-national links of Education for Sustainability. ii: peripherality A concern raised repeatedly was the institutional peripherality of the region. Although facing similar challenges to the Highlands, it falls under the administration of Perth and Kinross. Given that the Local Authority is dominated by lowland regions, it is no surprise that the majority of it’s attention is focused there. Examples which were pointed to include the remit of the Perthshire.com visitor’s website, which does not include Highland Perthshire. Likewise there is a perception that the Authority’s education and outdoor sports strategy focuses primarily on the Perth area to the expense of Highland Perthshire.

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This depressing picture was not, however, the only one on respondents’ minds. They could clearly see potential for new opportunities in the growing markets of outdoor recreation and experience tourism, in the opportunities counterurbanisation provides for increased local population and activity, and in the growing service sector in general. The unique landscape is seen as providing both a draw and an asset from which new occupations, new economic activities and new growth can be built. A key example of this is the growth of water-based rafting, canoeing and tourism built around the exploitation of the rivers and lochs of the area. For example, one respondent, spoke of the creation of over fifteen new firms conducting rafting trips on the Tay. Estimates of the contribution of these activities to the local economy range into the hundreds of thousands of pounds per year with the potential employment of large numbers of people in the sector. One issue raised by respondents was the difficulty of finding local young people with the requisite qualifications to work in this field (Mountain Leadership certification, Rafting Guide certification, etc). As a result of this, many employed in this sector have been attracted in from outwith the area, often from other areas in which these activities have been developed for a much longer time. This is one area which is seen as an opportunity for the Community Skills and Enterprise Centre – the training and certification of local young people to work in this sector, first as employees and perhaps eventually as entrepreneurs in their own right. iii: potential for development In response to the question, “Why, given the rich history of community and economic development initiatives in the area, is there a need to ask you these questions?”, respondents universally indicated that although much has been accomplished, there still remains much more to be done. In detailed discussion it emerged that the important facet which remains undeveloped is the sense of community ownership of development – of community knowledge assets, of the landscape in general, and of a type of development which includes and integrates the community itself into development. Comments included assertions that prior initiatives were narrowly based either upon one or two sectors or individual jurisdictions rather than on the Highland Perthshire area in general. From this it emerged that there is a will to develop a unique Highland Perthshire identity and to do so by locating the center of development in the area itself. Areas of interest include forest-based activities (traditional forestry, landscape forestry, alternative forest products development and forest-based tourism), water-based activities (rafting, canoeing, hiking and fishing); agriculture in its broadest sense (specialized food production, horticulture, etc); construction and building (of new homes, both affordable and spectacular, new business premises, walls and dykes, etc.); and cultural enterprises (music, the Gaelic language, writing, theatre, etc). The potential for taking advantage of the growing eco-tourism and ‘experience economy’ sector was seen above all as presenting new opportunities for the region, particularly in terms of ‘sharing’ local

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knowledges of place and feature with outsiders who are not only eager to experience the beauties of the place but who will be willing to pay handsomely for the experience. There is a long heritage of local entrepreneurialism in the region. This has developed from the self-reliant character of those who have lived in the region, the opportunities the landscape presents, and on its relative isolation from mainstream activities. This is seen by many respondents as a strong foundation upon which subsequent development can progress. Support for entrepreneurialism is seen as a key function for the Community Skills Centre, whether teaching entrepreneurship skills to young people or as an aid to older residents starting their own businesses. Local knowledges are seen as the key stuff from which new enterprises can be developed. These, combined with increased development of entrepreneurial skills are seen as the key foundations of building local economic, social and environmental development, providing both new jobs and greater community capital and identity. It is this twofold remit – identity and economic activity – which was most commonly seen as the ideal focus for the new Centre.

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VI: Recommendations a: Building a Community Development Centre Given there is a physical space for community learning in the new Breadalbane Community Campus how can the community take this momentum forward? What has emerged from both the desk review and interviews with respondents is that an Asset-based Rural Community Development model is one well suited to the situation of the Highland Perthshire community. As explored in the introduction, the community possesses important assets – assets that can form both the basis of higher value-added economic development and at the same time, through community ownership of the assets, build sustainability into them. Key aspects of such an initiative are: collection, storage and dissemination of the knowledges the community possesses; support for entrepreneurship skills in the young and old; help and direction with access to funding/grants/financial capital to support business start ups; and the provision of a formal centre around which these community activities can coalesce. There are a number of important initiatives already existing in the region which are attempting to engage in some of the individual aspects of a Centre. For example, the existing excellence of education provided by the Breadalbane Academy, with its present links to outdoor learning in forestry, horticulture and other fields provides synergies with the Centre’s project. Likewise Scottish Enterprise Tayside has programmes to help business start ups through its Business Gateway. Perth College offers some access to vocational training and some of this will be of use in the community’s project. The role of the Centre will be to both create new learning situations and to join up existing ones, although care will need to be taken that the initiative remains the property of the community. In this way, however it can make links which enable one-stop access to the necessary support and training needed by Highland Perthshire residents. b: legal and business structure Given the provision of the space, how can the community organize itself? There are a number of different models of formal incorporation which can be chosen. One might be the incorporation of a Social Enterprise which engages in knowledge gathering and transfer (education) whilst addressing the public goods implicit in the cultural and identity mission discussed above. Such an enterprise could operate as a charity – forming a Company Limited by Guarantee where members of the community are voting shareholders who do not hold any equity capital. Another possibility is to form it as a Community Development Trust, such as has been created in Comrie. One possibility which has recently arisen is that it could be formed as one of the new Community Interest Companies3 (CIC). These, recently created by 3

See: http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/

or http://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/Page.aspx?SP=1626

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legislation under the Department of Trade and Industry, are organisations which function as businesses with a pubic good output. The advantage of a CIC over a charity is that they are much more lightly regulated and allow the enterprise to access equity capital, from which dividend returns are limited to approximately 5%. Thus a portion of the start up funding could come from community members or commercial enterprises who wanted to invest in the enterprise through the purchase of shares, without the risk of take-over or asset-stripping which private enterprises face. This helps protect an initiative from total dependence upon grant funding whilst still guaranteeing a public good outcome. Although many government grants are directed solely towards charities, there is an increasing recognition of the value of the CIC model, and charitable foundations such as the Esme Fairburn Foundation, Ford Foundation, Carnegie UK and others are willing to support social enterprise start ups with grants and loans. In addition, Scotland features a banking sector which is at the cutting edge in supporting social enterprises and there is a good chance of obtaining support from institutions such as the Royal Bank of Scotland or Social Investment Scotland4. Such an incorporated body could also strike Service Level Agreements with education and other Local Authority bodies to deliver key parts of their learning and development agendas. Although located within a center of education, and using a place-based education model (see below), the Centre needs to answer both the community development and economic development remit. It will be important to build these into the Centre’s structure by insuring it serves two Aims. In order to address the challenges identified by our respondents, it will need to function as an Enterprise Centre – not only supplying the knowledge but actually supporting local people building new local jobs from these resources. Thus its Aims must be twofold – it must be a vehicle for community ownership of community knowledge assets; and it must be a centre for entrepreneurship and economic development. It will, in other words, gather the assets and aid in their development. Whatever the legal form chosen for the initiative, there will be a need for two sets of management – one which focuses upon the operations of the Centre, and one which takes an executive overview. This is standard community enterprise practice as the latter allows the interests of the wider community to be represented whilst the former supports the employment of highly skilled staff. The management board could find voting membership from within the general community, from selected interested agencies (Sector Skills Councils, Local Authorities and other governments, other aiding charities), and will also have representatives from the operational management. The above is one suggestion of how such an organisation might be structured. There are a number of variations on the model which might be employed, but it is clear that there will be a need for a group of key animateurs and a larger group 4

SIS is a coalition of Scottish banks designed to support the social economy, see: http://www.socialinvestmentscotland.com/

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from the community willing to put their shoulder to the wheel. Communitybuilding requires many hands. Thus, the first task for the community is to meet to create a formative group which can decide on they want to see happen and on how to take that proposal forward. From this can come the formation of a governing Board which would take the legal incorporation of the Centre forward. c: Building Place-based Education in the community The working model proposed to respondents was that of Place-based Education5. What is Place-based Education and how will it fit into a community development initiative? The desk review revealed it to be a particularly appropriate model for the situation facing the region, and when explained to respondents, it elicited a strong positive response. Given that the Aim of the Centre will be to be a focus for the development of the assets and knowledges of the place, this model has the benefits of including concrete ways in which those knowledges will be gathered, codified, and then made available to the community as assets for development. An additional emphasis on entrepreneurship education alongside of this would made it particularly appropriate to the situation of the region. Place-based Education is a model of lifelong learning which originated in the United States of America in the 1990s. It is based upon capitalizing on the knowledge possessed by deprived communities through the use of students to capture it (through interviews and transcripts) and its dissemination as the basic material for a development-based curricula. Thus, for example, knowledge about landscape or traditional work practices can be gathered from senior members of the community, brought back to the Centre and then disseminated to young people and others interested in occupations which support or create new landscapes. The features of Place-based Education can be seen in this quote from the American Educational Resource Net (ERIC): •

• •

•

It emerges from the particular attributes of a place. The content is specific to the geography, ecology, sociology, politics, and other dynamics of that place. This fundamental characteristic establishes the foundation of the concept. It is inherently multidisciplinary. It is inherently experiential. In many programs this includes a participatory action or service learning component; in fact, some advocates insist that action must be a component if ecological and cultural sustainability are to result. It is reflective of an educational philosophy that is broader than "learn to earn." Economics of place can be an area of study as a curriculum

5

http://www.charityadvantage.com/f2e2/Place-BasedLearning.asp or for specifically outdoor-based versions of it, http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-3/place.htm

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•

explores local industry and sustainability; however, all curricula and programs are designed for broader objectives. It connects place with self and community. Because of the ecological lens through which place-based curricula are envisioned, these connections are pervasive. These curricula include multigenerational and multicultural dimensions as they interface with community resources.

A strong body of practice has been developed in place-based education, and resources and advice are available on the Web and from centres which specialize in it. Examples in the US South suggest it represents an ideal opportunity for the community to compile and build on a set of knowledge assets organized around the themes identified by respondents as important to Highland Perthshire, and to combine this with training and support for the creation of a new spirit of entrepreneurship in the area. d: Naming the Centre Throughout this research the thorny problem of naming the Centre has proved a topic of much discussion. The overall facility is already named the Breadalbane Community Campus. As a working title, the initiative has so far been simply called the Highland Perthshire Initiative (HPI). Various names have been proposed for the Centre, but more importantly, a set of criteria of what the name might represent has emerged. It is clear, first of all, that the name must reflect the area from which the assets come – Highland Perthshire (and not solely Breadalbane, as communities outwith the Aberfeldy area consider the term Breadalbane to exclude them). Secondly, given the existing uses of the term community education by the mainstream authorities many respondents considered the term to be both already taken, and not entirely indicative of the new opportunities presented by a community-based assets development initiative. Additionally it was considered important to reflect the importance of the community ‘doing it for itself’ – the local empowerment agenda which is driving members of the community to engage in this challenge in the first place. At the same time, there is general acknowledgement that the initiative does have an educational component, located as it is in the Community Campus and dealing as it does with the learning of important skills which will empower both young people and the community more widely to engage in developing itself. A number of suggestions have been made as to the name. There has been general agreement that Highland Perthshire be part of the name, as it represents not only the landscape region but also crosses the individual communities located within it. Other considerations concern the inclusion of Knowledge, Assets, Skills or Enterprise in the name. Of all the suggestions, something along the lines of the Highland Perthshire Community Skills and Knowledge Centre seems to have received the largest amount of support amongst respondents. The actual choice of a name, of course, remains the province of the community Steering Group who will actually embark on the adventure.

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VII: Next Steps This research was designed to explore the feasibility of building a community assets-based development centre in the new Community Campus. Through its desk review it identified a number of models of how this might be done and then took those ideas to the community to see what they thought. The field work indicated that there is a cohort of people in Highland Perthshire who have both the understanding and the will to take forward such a project. It has shown broad general agreement on the challenges facing the region and on the assets it can develop in response to that challenge. And it has shown how a Community Learning and Skills Centre built using a Place-based Education model can address those challenges and support the development of those assets. This Report is, however, just a first step. In order to become a true community led project, it now requires members of the community to gather, to discuss the pros and cons of the model, and to decide on whether and what they wish to take forward. Given the time horizons of the Campus building, this should happen soon. Once several meetings have been held to gather enough interest to proceed, decisions can be made about how to structure and incorporate the initiative. With this momentum already established, there will be a need to develop both a business plan and an educational model which can guide the actual operations of the enterprise. This would constitute the practical part of the challenge. Before that can be undertaken, however, there must be the formation of a community body to make decisions and carry the project forward. Such planning would require the production of plans which took into consideration: -building an environment and practices of learning -creating a place-based education structure and curriculum -agreeing initial subjects and topics for both research and learning -creating linkages with other institutions of learning across the range -organising space within the Centre, including: -learning spaces -data and archive spaces -social spaces of interaction -determining the level of IT provision -determining which fields to begin to focus on -outdoor recreation -land-based practices -bio-fuel heating

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-etc. -staffing, both paid and volunteer -producing Business Plans -start up funding -revenue generation -planning for financial sustainability -plans for increasing community participation after start up Practically, such a project will require further research and preparation. One way to undertake it is to pull the required expertise from within the community. This is a community which already has a well developed social capital and it is likely that much of the necessary expertise can be found within it. By clearly identifying and bounding the tasks, each could be undertaken by an individual on a volunteer basis. Local agencies and business could make in-kind contributions of specific expertise. Alternatively, the governing group could decide to apply for funds to support the hiring of a community development or education expert to devise the business and learning plan, producing further output which would provide the detailed plans which could be taken forward. The success of such an endeavor will to a large extent depend upon the key individuals who are hired to create and operate it, and on the willingness of members of the community to support and participate in it. Given strong community support the implementation of such an initiative becomes a matter of careful planning and careful execution. The positive reception given to the idea by our respondents gives some confidence that the challenges are not unsurmountable.

VIII: Conclusion Highland Perthshire is a region which possesses many natural assets in its landscapes and the features they contain. There is also a long history, first of self-reliance within the community, and secondly, of active community development activity. The community contains a large number of individuals who possess highly development specialized skills and knowledges, many of whom seem willing to share them to help create a more positive future for young people in the area. By working together, these existing assets can be developed to bring a new spirit of enterprise to the region, to create new prosperity and to revitalize local pride and identity. Local respondents have indicated both a need and a will to contribute to such a project and the Community Knowledge and Skills Centre has the potential to be the vehicle which joins up these heretofore unconnected assets. A community development initiative requires the community to get active and involved, to put ‘many shoulders to the wheel’ as it were. This

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scoping study has found much evidence that there are both the skills and the willingness to embark on this path. It now remains for the community to begin.

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