SCHA Workshop At Scottish Community Heritage Conversations

SCHA's Chair Seymour Adams and Project Officer Laura Ferguson were in attendance at the Scotland's Community Heritage Conversations conference on 21st November at The Engine Shed, Stirling, delivering a SCHA Grassroots Heritage in Scotland workshop. We brought you photos from around the event hot off the press in last month's newsletter, and this month we are delighted to be able to report the results of the workshop.

44 participants, both online and in the room, joined in to hear about the Grassroots Heritage in Scotland Roadshows and answer our Mentimeter questions. At the start of the workshop, Seymour and Laura presented the group with a list of the nine types of support that our roadshow attendees to date have highlighted as priorities for community heritage groups in Scotland. The workshop participants were asked to vote for the ones they considered most important, in order that we could rank them according to the opinion in the room. The results showed the prevailing order of importance as:

Funding applications (40%)
Reusing historical buildings (15%)
Volunteer recruitment (10%)
Climate readiness (10%)
Representing intangible heritage (10%)
Technological support (5%)
Diversity (5%)
Networking (5%)
Tourism experiences (0%)

The Roadshows on Grassroots Heritage presentation then followed, which provided detail on the discussions behind the list that the workshop participants had been asked to vote on and highlighted the main concerns among community heritage groups in each of the different regions in which we had held a roadshow to date.

A discussion session invited participants to add their own suggestions of the type of support that community heritage organisations need. They were then offered the opportunity to vote on their own list. The results showed the order of importance among the group as:

Money/financial sustainability (33%)
Preservation of digital content (22%)
Future thinking (11%)
Speaking to other groups (11%)
Sharing our message (6%)
Upskilling of volunteers (6%)
Engaging diverse audiences (6%)
Free training (6%)
Support for volunteers (0%)
Shared resources (0%)
Transport (0%)
Insurance (0%)

Finally, participants were asked to submit "What words do you associate with community heritage today?" to our word cloud, resulting in the colourful and thought-provoking display below.

We would like to thank Historic Environment Scotland for inviting SCHA to hold this workshop at Scotland's Community Heritage Conversations and all of the workshop attendees who joined us in Stirling and online. Seymour and Laura thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the day and hearing all of your views.