Successful community projects grow and develop over time. The community members who make up your organisation will need to develop new skills and consider organisational models in order to meet your aims. We have brought together some key guides and sources of support in order to help you to grow your group.

Getting started

First things first, if you haven’t yet formed a group with others in your community, and/or want to know why this might be a good thing, look no further than our getting started section!

Growing your group

Developing your group's skills and confidence is the building block on which everything else will depend.  Motivation, ambition and confidence, will come and go as your group meets and overcomes new challenges.  We aim to provide tools and guides to help you develop skills ranging from general communication skills to specialised organisational tasks.

The Communities Channel has also compiled resources to support you to build your organisation, making it resilient and flexible enough to respond to a changing environment and new demands.

What are you going to do?

Whether your group has existed for years or is just at ideas stage, it is always useful to think about what activities and services you provide. From running group activities to generating income through social enterprise, we’ve got it all in our providing services section.

Finding a base

A key issue for many groups is how much control they have over land and buildings. For instance, you may need a building to work from, to use land for community growing, or to take over a local asset for the benefit of your community.

Making connections

Your group will benefit from working in partnership with other local groups and agencies, and Communities Channel Scotland has collected resources to help in this regard.

Funding and support

And of course, it is important for many groups to generate income and funding in order to be on a sound financial footing in the longer term.

There are a range of support organisations that are worth knowing about, some of whom can help with the areas covered below. We’ve put together a list of some of the most useful.

Communities in the spotlight

Finally, see below for some illustrations of how other groups have grown.

For more examples and case studies visit our spotlight section.