Community Engagement and Community-led Action Plans (CAP)

Community-led approaches and collective impact are on the forefront of South Ayrshire Council's agenda. It follows the recommendations of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 but most importantly it reflects a desire to engage and work differently with our communities.

Council services are supporting community-led bodies to lead and be the main drivers of their community action plan. Rather than making policy and programs for people, the communities are encouraged to enable themselves, empower every member of the community and partner with the council and other stakeholders.

There is none better than those with lived experience to participate and develop a community-led action plan. These plans include a list of aspirations with short-, medium- and longer-term objectives and will ensure that any projects within the community are: community-led; place-based; place-focused and with a collective impact.

• Enhance efficiency in the use of local authority resources
• Enhance effectiveness of funding by enabling how it is delivered to be tailored to reflect local needs in the hopes of stronger outcomes
• Foster inclusion of voices of communities experiencing disadvantage by using place as an organising principle for community engagement
• Address systemic challenges by using a defined place (community or area) to consider the range of ways people experience social, economic, and physical disadvantage, and how these interact

In most localities it is the Community Councils who are taking forward the community-led action plans, yet South Ayrshire Council is not excluding communities where a community council is not established and working with other community-led local groups. Click the interactive map for more information of what is happening in the different localities in South Ayrshire. For any queries, please email Audrey.gatt@south-ayrshire.gov.uk