Cupar is one of four places in Scotland to have been selected for a UK-wide support programme, recognising our ‘trailblazing’ qualities for community engagement. Specifically, Cupar Development Trust and the Cupar Food Station project have won support that will be delivered over the next 12 months.
Thanks to National Lottery players, Locality has received almost £1.9 million over three years from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK. The funding is supporting the Connectors-UK programme – delivered in partnership with DTA Scotland, DTA Wales and DT Northern Ireland – and it is through this programme that the Trailblazers will be supported, “building resilience, sharing innovative practice and shaping each community’s future“.
What are Connection Trailblazers?
A core part of Connectors-UK is to support 15 “Connection Trailblazers” – Cupar being one of them.
It offers “a rare space to step away from the firefighting and try new things to build long-term connection“… “to develop their connection capacity – dismantling barriers, testing ideas and incubating new models“.
That work has already started.
Simon Baldwin, Cupar Development Trust’s Business Development Manager, joined representatives from the Scottish Trailblazer projects on a visit to Cranhill in Glasgow.
Simon says: “The day was hosted by Marie Ward at Cranhill. It was great to meet Marie and to hear of the amazing work that Cranhill Development Trust has delivered over some 20 years.” He adds: “Today, the Trust employs 19 full time members of staff delivering an incredible array of support services to help their community with a focus on health and wellbeing, tackling poverty, assisting employability as well as providing digital support, especially around financial services.”
Pictured below (L-R) are Anne Campbell, Dunoon Community Development Trust, Simon Baldwin of CDT, Marie Ward, and Carolynn Reddell of the Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust. 
The visit included a tour of the Trust’s properties covering their former church hall which now doubles as a community hub hosting events, workshops, training facilities and a community cafe together with their community allotment (below).
A key part of their programme of support has been the launch and running of a community Post Office (below) that stocks and sells numerous value items including items in very small quantities to allow those on tight budgets to buy single items, helping with day-to-day budgeting.
They also stock and sell ready-made meals that are sold as ‘Meals in a Bag’ (below), enabling customers to buy good, wholesome meals that won’t break the bank.
The day was facilitated by Development Trusts Association Scotland. Chris Sanderson is the DTAS contact working with all the Scottish Trailblazers and has already visited Cupar and the Food Station Project.
Simon concludes: “Over the next year, the Trailblazer projects will engage with each other to share best practice, exchange knowledge – so that none of us are reinventing the wheel when it comes to community engagement initiatives – and to offer support where needed. We will be inviting colleagues to Cupar this autumn and hope to be able to show them the progress being made at the Food Station, building on evidence-based outputs from the Community Action Plan, Youth Charette and Local Place Plan that were all delivered by the Trust over the last two years.”
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Need more?
In addition to Cupar, the following are the 14 Trailblazers that will take part in the programme over the next 12 months.
In Scotland …
- Cranhill Development Trust, Glasgow: A vibrant hub with a track record of providing services and activities to meet the changing and diverse needs of people living in the community. The Trailblazer project focusses on community connection across different groups, including different ethnic backgrounds and asylum seekers, to promote resilience, tackle poverty and address social exclusion.
- Dunoon Community Development Trust: A development trust focused on developing a place-based approach to community regeneration by engaging across all sectors – community, business and public sector. Their Trailblazer project aims to improve community engagement in their rural community, specifically deprived communities, by testing their ‘What’s On Dunoon’ website to promote events and activities to both local and visitor audiences.
- Old Town Development Trust, Edinburgh: Founded in 2009, this community hub provides a range of community services year around to local people. The community is a mix of deprivation and affluence, coupled with a student population and tourism which can make the Old Town feel like a ‘thoroughfare’. Their Trailblazer project is centred around building connection around financial inclusion, to help build genuine community.
In England …
- Be the Change Youth Project CIC, Bolton: A youth organisation with a commitment to developing young people who are a positive force in their community and bringing people together who represent Bolton in all its diversity. Their Trailblazer project is focussed around their new community hub, ensuring connection is at its heart.
- Eastside Community Trust, Bristol: A community anchor in a diverse inner-city area of Bristol, providing people of all ages with places and ways to connect. Formed from the merger of three organisations in 2020, this Trailblazer project aims to re-engage the community by developing a new membership model.
- Wellspring Settlement, Bristol: A multi-purpose community organisation in diverse and deprived area of Bristol. The Trailblazer project is focussed on how to create community spaces that are not associated with crisis support, enabling the organisation to out community connection back at the heart of what they do.
- The Race Equality Centre, Leicester: A community organisation working to challenge racial discrimination in the city since 1967. Their Trailblazer project promotes cohesion and collaboration with racialised youth through outreach activities and consultation exercises and by creating a Young People’s Forum.
- Rotunda, Liverpool: A multi-purpose community centre with a college, nursery, café and enterprise centre with a focus on inclusion and building opportunity and wealth in the community. The area has experienced a recent increase in migration and changing demographics. Their Trailblazer project is to tackle divided communities and build cohesion.
- Friends of Stretford Public Hall, Manchester: A community-owned, multi-purpose building, which was transferred to the community after a successful community share offer where 800 local people and organisations invested in the hall. The building is well used by the community, but groups tend to operate in silos. Their Trailblazer project will build more community connection between building user and build connection skills across the staff team.
- Murray Hall Community Trust, Sandwell: A community organisation in one of the most deprived areas in the UK, with high health inequalities. Their Trailblazer project will recruit a Community Champion to transform current practices for engaging with the community.
In Northern Ireland …
- 174 Trust, Belfast: A charity group providing a safe, shared space where difficult conversations can occur and people of all ages and backgrounds can access a range of programmes and activities. Their Trailblazer project supports their innovative “circle of change” model to connect differing communities across the city.
- CAN (Compass Advocacy Network), North Antrim: A community charity working in a rural area, with children and adults with learning disabilities, autism and mental health issues. The Trailblazer project focuses on building on the inclusive environment at their farm, enhancing opportunities for interaction between people with and without learning disabilities.
In Wales …
- Grange Pavillion, Cardiff: A sustainable community centre and café, with a high footfall, situated in the heart of Wales’ most ethnically diverse ward. The group are coming to the end of their first phase of development, and this Trailblazer project will help them to expand their reach, and achieve goals based on community identified priorities and co-produce a more collaborative business mode.
- Cwm Arian Renewable Energy, Pembrokeshire: A community organisation helping the community to build practical land-based skills and take better care of the environment. Their journey started by setting up a community wind turbine, and they bring the community together at their sustainable centre. The Trailblazer project aims to bridge social relationships and engage with both Welsh speaking communities and the relatively new migrants from England.