News

New community development project to support "compassionate communities" in Scotland

The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care (SPPC) is embarking on a new project, funded by Macmillan Cancer Support. Taking a community development approach, the project aims to support communities who are interested in taking local action to improve people’s experiences of death, dying, loss and care.

The project is part of the SPPC's ongoing Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief initiative, which promotes more open and supportive attitudes and behaviours relating to death, dying and bereavement in Scotland.

Later in 2019, the SPPC will issue an invitation to community groups and organisations to express an interest in being part of the project. A number of communities will be short-listed, and supported by the SPPC to work up more detailed applications identifying local priorities and activities to improve death, dying, loss and care in their community.

Following the application process, up to four communities will be selected to be part of the project, and to receive dedicated support from the SPPC for their local project, for a period of two years.

The project will build on learning from the international Compassionate Communities movement, and its design has been particularly influenced by work by the Groundswell Project in Australia, where a National Compassionate Communities Practice Forum (NCCF) has been established, following a community development model.

The project also aims to support Scottish communities to learn from more local knowledge and experience, for example from the award-winning Compassionate Inverclyde programme where the community has taken action to become more "compassionate, helpful and neighbourly".

The SPPC is currently recruiting an experienced Community Development practitioner to help establish, shape and manage the project. More information about the job vacancy is available here. The closing date is Monday 4th February 2019.