Interested in community-based culture and wellbeing in Scotland?
Get involved with our peer network open to all.
The Culture and Wellbeing Community Network Scotland is an informal network including an online group and mailing list open to community groups, creative practitioners, libraries, researcher along with public, third-sector and cultural organisations across Scotland to share practice, build learning and make connections.
Through free community-focused monthly discussions, we aim to support conversations across sectors, from the grassroots individuals to larger institutions and pool insights, challenges and resources together on a practical levels to support cultural democracy in Scotland - fundamentally valuing and celebrating everyone’s culture and wellbeing.
We are currently hosting a series of conversations and developing policy recommendations on the role of cross-sector collaboration in culture to challenge social inequalities and support wellbeing which you can read more about and get involved in here.
The network is supported by the Fun Palaces year-round campaign for Cultural Democracy, National Lotteries Community Fund and the Scottish Libraries and Information Council along with Eden Court as partners.
What next for the Culture and Wellbeing Community Network Scotland?
What would you like to see next happen in the network? What has been useful? And what could be done better? Who else should be involved? We'd love to hear your ideas and feedback here.
Our developing recommendations
These are our developing recommendations as part of our social inequalities, culture, wellbeing & libraries conversations. The full report will be out in May, and you can join a conversation or get in touch to have access to the draft and feed into them.
Join our next conversations of social inequalities, culture, wellbeing & libraries and inform the developing recommendations
We’re currently building collaborations across libraries, wider culture, research, public & third sector to explore the role culture can make to challenge rising social inequalities and developing a series of recommendations. Join our next series here. You can also watch our previous conversations below.
💬Catch up on our live monthly discussion series: Facing Social Inequities through Culture
These are streamed on our group, facebook page and twitter accounts, usually over lunchtime (1pm), and we’d love to hear from you in the discussions! If you can’t join live, you will be able to catch up afterwards - see above for the current series and below for our archive.
📧 Join our monthly mailing list
You can see our last mailing list emails here and sign up below. If you want to add any resources, opportunities or relevant events/news to the list, please get in touch.
👥 Join and use the facebook group
You can introduce yourself and see who else is involved on our introduction thread, and go ahead and start off any discussions or query on the group if you need help or advice! You can also share any news or resources directly too!
👋 Feedback if there’s anything else you’d like to see or get involved with!
Get in touch, we want this network to be led by members so any ideas, suggestions for topics or speakers or collaborative ideas, please let us know!
Catch up on all our previous discussions & resources
We’ve been hosting conversations since May 2020 at the onset of lockdown to help connect communities and different sectors together around culture and wellbeing. Our discussions and resources are organised in the Facebook group by sections in the “Guides” section from supporting anti-racism, young people, connecting offline. Direct links to videos before October 2020 are available on this page and more recent videos are linked below on facebook and twitter.
A massive thank you to all our previous live discussions speakers!
Culture & Wellbeing Live: Supporting Inclusive Blended Approaches - June 2021
What have we learnt about supporting culture and wellbeing online and the new possibilities this may bring? How can blended approaches which combine with in-person activities help bring the “best of both” and support and connect those who may also be digitally excluded? We were joined by Gail Colbron (Inverclyde Libraries), Amy McTurk (Creative Lives, St Andrews University) & Alison Reeves (Making Music Scotland). Link to video on facebook and twitter here.
Culture & Wellbeing Live: Moving Co-Production Online November 2020
How can we support co-production to support more community-led culture and wellbeing? And by going online and digital through lock-down, what new opportunities, challenges and barriers does this bring us?
Join our live conversation with Samantha MacDougall (ONFife Libraries), Ane de Ferrero from St Andrew's Fair Saturday and Sam Jordan from the Scottish Co-Production Network. Link to video on facebook and twitter.
Culture & Wellbeing Live: Supporting Play August 2021
What’s the specific role of play in supporting Culture, Health and Wellbeing - especially with the recovery from the effects of the pandemic? And how do we embed this to not just support all young people equitably by connecting with schools, libraries and other grassroots community projects - but also adults too? Joined by Caroline Donald from Edinburgh International Festival, Cherie Morgan from Play Scotland and Lauren McCombe from Stirling Libraries.
Culture & Wellbeing Live: Supporting Mental Health through Community Connections - May 2021
What’s the role of cultural activities to connect and support mental health? How has it adapted over the last year, and how can small community activities support a return to “normality” and support “re-entry anxiety”? And linking to the ongoing Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival theme, what (and whose) normality do we mean anyway? We were joined by Juliet Ridgway (Midlothian Libraries). Sophie Bridger (Eden Project Communities Scotland) & Ailsa Villegas (NHS Highland, Think Health Think Nature). Link to video on facebook and twitter.
Culture & Wellbeing Live: Climate Action and Sustainability - July 2021
How can culture support climate action and the longer-term wellbeing in our communities? And how do we embed sustainability in our work - not just as a theme but ensuring our work, materials and methods minimise impact and positively contribute towards more circular economies. Joined by Louise Marshall from Eden Court, Kathleen Milne from Western Isles Libraries and Megan Williams from the Circular Arts Network. Link to watch on Facebook or Twitter.
Culture & Wellbeing Live: Reflections From A Year of Lockdown - April 2021
What have we learnt from a year of lockdown supporting community culture & wellbeing? What can we bring forward to what happens next? Joined by Lucy McGlennon from Eden Court and Kate Drummond from the Arts Team at Renfrewshire Leisure. Link to watch on facebook or twitter.
Culture & Wellbeing Live: Supporting Diverse Stories After Black History Month October 2020
How do we ensure the stories, experiences and voices of Black and ethnically diverse communities are still heard throughout the year as well as during Black History Month? And how do we embed this toward practices that support culture and wellbeing for everyone?
Join our live conversation with Helen Rodger from Passion4Fusion, Dr Navan Govander and Lewis Hou. Link to the videos on facebook and twitter here.