Community Partnerships Project (2008-2012)

The Community Partnerships Project was a groundbreaking initiative to give a voice to people typically under-represented in political life.

The project, developed by the Parliament’s Education and Community Partnerships Team, worked with disability rights organisations, difficult-to-reach young people, and people from ethnic minorities to help them get involved with and influence the activities of the Parliament.

The aim of the project was to build confidence on the part of external organisations by:

• Strengthening their understanding and awareness of the Parliament, its role and its processes
• Enhancing their ability to take positive action through parliamentary processes.
• Facilitating meaningful engagement by each partner organisation in the parliamentary process

Importantly, the project was driven by the partner organisations themselves. Partners brought their energy, vision and commitment to the project, and ensured that their specific campaign and awareness needs were considered within the parliamentary engagement process.

A New Engagement Approach

Staff from the Outreach Services Team at Holyrood are involved in developing a new engagement approach, which will seek to build on the strengths of the Community Partnerships Project and other initiatives. This will ensure that more communities, more groups and more individuals from across Scotland have the opportunity to engage meaningfully with their MSPs and their parliament.

 

Further information about the new engagement approach will appear on these pages in due course. If you have any questions about the new engagement approach or any other aspect of the Parliament’s outreach strategy, then please contact Paul Anderson, Community Outreach Manager on 0131 348 5357 or email Paul.anderson@scottish.parliament.uk