16 May 2003
Rural Scotland has inherent difficulties and is often deprived of local services because of lack of provision. But now, a hand book compiled by care charity Quarriers could help improve the way service are delivered by involving the local community.
Quarriers is today launching a good practice guide for working with rural communities using a community development approach, which has been produced as a result of work completed at the North Argyll Mobile Resource Project (MRP) in Oban.
The guide has been produced as a resource for other agency, charity and council practitioners involved in rural community development work, and for community activists who want to lead their own development.
Phil Robinson, Chief Executive of Quarriers, said: "The aim of the Mobile Resource Project was to develop outreach services in the more remote communities of North Argyll, providing advice, information, advocacy and an issues-based community development service, geared towards the need of young adults and women with children."
He continued: "The project has provided much needed services, while highlighting gaps in support for women and their children living in this area. The project and evaluation of the services provided has enabled us to pull together a 'good practice' guide which can act as an advisory paper to other organisations involved in rural community development."
The project in North Argyll has helped to combat poverty and disadvantage due to isolation, using community development interventions that support services for women, specialist services for young people aged 14 - 25 and other groups and communities.
Quarriers supported the development of a number of projects as a result of their presence in the North Argyll Area, including Tiree Youth drop-in, Seil Island Voluntary Car Scheme and Oban Youth Café. Their were also involved in supporting young people with disabilities establish their own social group, ran community women's events, piloted art therapy courses and supported work with young people at Glencruitten Hostel.
Alex Honeyman, Project Manager, Quarriers commented: " Quarriers Mobile Resource ran successfully for 6 years and has been able to support the development of a whole range of projects that have helped improve our local community. A number of these are now well established in the community and are continuing to run independently of the Mobile Resource Project."
The work of the MRP offers a valuable insight into the positive effects gained from the use of community development approaches when engaging isolated communities. The valuable lessons learned from the project's work with young people and women with children living in remote, rural settings, demonstrate the potential to apply similar approaches in other settings with different client groups.
The research was undertaken during the second phase of funding received by the MRP from the Community Fund (2000 - 2003). Financial support from the fund ends this month. Independent consultants - Avanté Consulting Ltd - gathered data and information from written recordings, telephone interviews took place with 16 service users and 9 local agency staff. Face to face interviews also took place with over 20 young people from the island of Tiree, as well as adult volunteers, young people with disabilities and the local police officer on the island.
Carolyn Stenhouse, Avante Consulting, added: "Avante Consulting was employed by Quarriers to undertake the evaluation of the North Argyll Mobile Resource Centre project. While completing the evaluation, the success of the service development became apparent and we advised Quarriers to prepare an advisory 'good practice' paper so that other similar organisations could benefit from the valuable work undertaken."
Quarriers has a reputation for modern social care interventions, including a commitment to community development and person centred approaches. The organisation is active in over sixty locations across urban and rural Scotland. While much of the organisation's work is funded through local authority care contracts, a number of projects have been developed with financial support from a range of independent resources. This includes the North Argyll Mobile Resource Project which was funded by the Community Fund.
Working with many hundreds of children, disadvantaged young people, families and adults with a range of disabilities, Quarriers is recognised as Scotland's third largest care charity. Established in 1871 from Quarriers Village, Bridge of Weir, it now provides services from around 70 sites in west-central, south-west and north-east Scotland.
ENDS
For more information on the services provided by Quarriers call Tel: 01505 616 000.
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