Edinburgh Napier University

  A workshop on digital engagement by Community Councils (CCs) was hosted by Edinburgh Napier University on 30 January 2015 to which members from 35 CCs came. Facilitated sessions were held to establish common perceptions of problems and ways to address them.
Speakers from the Scottish Government community empowerment unit, the Improvement Service, Democratic Society Scotland shared their insights and helped facilitate.
The key outcomes of the day are:
•Digital engagement by CCs suffers from lack of support from communities, local and national government and even from other CC members.
•While CCs at the day were aware of the many channels for digital engagement, they often lack time, budget and training to use them effectively.
•Sources of help are patchy and may be slow to respond.
•There is lack of succession planning leaving CCs dependent on an individual for their online presences.
Overall, the circumstances lead in some cases to cynicism, despondency and inaction.
This calls for CCs and other stakeholders to work together to create and implement a roadmap towards positive change. This would include changes within and outside CCs, and may well include the creation of a Scotland-wide Community of Practice around CC digital engagement.
One of the main objectives of the workshop was to create a forum where interested CC members could network and share experiences. The general feeling was that this objective was achieved, and an online community is being created for sharing experiences, resources and knowledge.