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Community development in CLD

We work across Aberdeenshire building and strengthening communities and focus our work with communities experiencing inequalities.

Our work is placed in geographic communities; working in neighbourhoods. We also work with communities of interest; people who share common experiences and issues for other reasons than the area in which they live.

We focus on:

Understanding community strengths and identifying emerging needs

We work with communities to identify strengths and needs. Though outreach work we get to know the community and the issues people are facing and to recruit new volunteers.

We undertake direct engagement. We make sure we are reaching different people by using lots of different methods, such as:

  • Door to door
  • Pop up stalls
  • Surveys
  • Focus groups
  • Engaging through other services or established local groups

We also design processes to gather views from the wider community and by including partners and other organisations in the process we can build a clear picture.

We work with communities to identify and address issues by:

  • Working with people, as well as connecting people with other services, to develop new local projects and respond to issues
  • Helping volunteers by connecting with local groups and organisations
  • Supporting individuals and groups to have their voice heard and influencing change

Building community groups

We work with individuals and groups to strengthen their skills and knowledge helping them make an active contribution to their community.

We believe people are the experts in their own communities and we can help develop new groups, or projects, to address the things that matter to them and their communities.

What we offer

Health checks: we can work with established groups or projects by completing health checks, to see what help might be needed, and then giving guidance or providing training.

Community skills courses: these sessions can cover all you need to know to design, start or grow your project and can be tailored for specific groups, or individuals, or be designed to bring volunteers and local champions together.

Project guidance: we can help by providing guidance and sometimes practical help on all sorts of aspects of running your project from agreeing your project aims, writing a funding application to engaging with the wider community.

Signposting: if we are not the right people to help your group, we have lots of links and can signpost you to the right support.

Projects we've helped

For us, it’s not the topic that matters, it’s that it matters to you and your community. We’ve helped a variety of different projects including:

  • Food sharing projects
  • Parent and toddler groups
  • Climate change groups
  • Social groups
  • Recovery groups

Involving people in decision-making

CLD staff use various processes to engage with people not normally involved in local decision-making and help them to have their say. We help to make sure that important decisions are informed by a wide range of views.

We can help groups or other services to better involve local people in their decision-making. CLD staff use a range of activities and resources to support decision-making processes.

Mini publics: communities are brought together to explore and learn about a topic or issues, including using their own local lived experience, to inform public opinion and decision-making.

Focus groups: we can advise on and even help recruit or facilitate focus groups to make sure we, community projects or other services, are reaching a diverse range of people and getting rich information when consulting on important issues.

Community forums: we can support the development of long-term processes for community involvement tackling challenging issues and using the strength of community voice to effect change.

Contact us

For more information email us at cld@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.