Edinburgh and Development Trusts

When I stayed in Edinburgh 2 weeks ago it was buzzing with 6 different festivals happening at once (the main cultural festival, Fringe festival, festival of politics, film festival, festival of spirituality...), and people of all nationalities thronging the streets watching the buskers and enjoying the atmosphere. The old part of Edinburgh is a maze of narrow cobbled streets bounded by tall stone buildings, with archways leading to courtyards behind, and unexpected bridges over lanes 5 storeys below when I'd thought I was walking at ground level!


I stayed with Di Jennings, previously the coordinator of Ranui Action Project and now working with several community initiatives including Local People Leading (the campaign arm of DTA Scotland below) and Fablevision, an artist-led cultural planning organization that works with disadvantaged communities to develop performance projects that tell their story.

The UK has a level of community and non-government organizations not really present in NZ. As well as thousands of smaller more locally based organizations, there are also larger national umbrella organizations that provide collective services and can advocate more effectively on a national level. I had lunch with Di and Tom Black of the Development Trusts Association (DTA) of Scotland, who explained how the DTA works.

The DTA exists to serve community anchor or community enterprise organizations which fulfill 4 basic criteria: 1.They address the social, economic and environmental needs of a local community i.e are very local and broad-based organizations 2.They are independent, community-owned and managed, with democratic governance by local residents and with a volunteer base. 3.They are enterprise-focussed, being at least 10% self-funded and developing a range of enterprises to become more economically self-sustaining. 4.They work in partnership with public, private, and community organizations.

DTA Scotland currently has 107 member organizations, with others working towards fulfilling the criteria. The DTA advocates on behalf of all their members, provides training and peer learning, access to collective deals such as insurance, and runs a national conference that brings the groups together for networking and peer learning. The DTA is of most benefit to middle-sized organizations, with the larger more established organizations having less need for collective representation. New fledging organizations need the most help, but DTA doesn't have the resources to mentor them all.

Tom emphasized the huge social and economic benefits of local communities owning their own buildings and other assets, a theme I am finding repeated constantly. Assets can be used as security to borrow funds, allowing progress towards greater independence and emotional ownership. Owning a building allows structural change and expansion, but does need good and accountable management systems.