Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC)

05/03/2026

Thanks to everyone who made it along to the CHEX conference last week - what a fantastic event!

We asked delegates to give us words for our conference word cloud to help us describe the event, and we’re happy to say that ‘inspiring’ was clearly the word of the day.

We hope everyone can bring that sense of inspiration into their work as we move further into 2026!

We are currently collating the resources from the conference and they will be available on the website soon.

In the meantime, you can check out resources from our previous years in our new conference hub: https://www.chex.org.uk/conference-reflections-and-resources

03/03/2026

Community development is a process where people come together to take action on what's important to them.

At its heart, community development is rooted in the belief that all people should have access to health, wellbeing, wealth, justice and opportunity. ❤

Our short animation is a great introduction to the concept, so take 2 minutes today and have a cuppa and a watch! 😄☕

Community development is a process where people come together to take action on what's important to them.At its heart, community development is rooted in the...

19/02/2026

📢 The vaccine survey is extended to 1 March!

💉 Help us understand how young people make decisions about vaccines & what improvements could be made to information & services! Partnership with Public Health Scotland.

Share with your young people aged 11-18 👉 bit.ly/49Q9doU

18/02/2026

We responded to the Scottish Government and COSLA's consultation on council tax reform, outlining the measures we think need to be taken to ensure a fair and progressive reformed system.

https://www.scdc.org.uk/news/article/2026/council-tax-reforms-must-come-with-proper-support

12/02/2026

This year at the CHEX national conference we are focusing on the urgent need to move beyond ambition and into reality.

The conference follows the publication of a joint statement, issued by CHEX and our colleagues from across the sector, on the role prevention plays in tackling Scotland’s growing health inequalities crisis.

We have heard much policy ambition, but finding practical and sustainable solutions to this ‘implementation gap’ is essential. We will be discussing what we need to do to ensure that policy and practice are informed by the knowledge, skills and experience of the people in communities, and those organisations providing support.

Our focus will be on the role that people play in the heart of this work. Those who work within our struggling systems do crucial yet invisible work in and for our communities, not only supporting those in need of help, but catching things before they fall.

There are still delegate places available but they are booking up fast!

https://www.chex.org.uk/chex-conference-2026

09/02/2026

What does it take to support meaningful participation? What works and why? How can we ensure we hear from those voices who are often ignored?

At this upcoming Ideas Clinic spotlight session you’ll hear from the Scottish Co-production Network team as they share their knowledge and experience of facilitating co-production processes.

We'll explore resources from the Co-production Guide and dive into the practical techniques you can use in your work. This event will be fully participative, and you'll leave with a good understanding of the ways facilitation can enable co-production, and hopefully have made new contacts and connections too!

Wednesday 4th March, 10am – 11:30am

 In this Ideas Clinic Spotlight session, you'll hear from the SCN team as they share their knowledge and experience of facilitating co-production processes.

02/02/2026

We're excited to announce our Chair for this year's CHEX conference will be Brendan Rooney, the newly-retired Executive Director of Healthy N Happy Community Development Trust.

We will also be hearing from Dr David Walsh of Glasgow University on the research about and realities of Scotland's health inequalities, which fundamentally shape the context within which we all work.

As we did last year, we are hosting two keynote listeners and we're pleased to welcome back Ruth Glassborow from Public Health Scotland and new listener Donna McLeod of the Scottish Government's Population Health Directorate.

Our listeners will hear our network’s experiences and insights and work with us to ensure that our collective knowledge and experience is better understood and fed into work at the national level.

Book your place now!

https://www.chex.org.uk/chex-conference-2026

23/07/2025

🎉 We're excited to announce Unbound Scotland - a new project from SCDC and Scottish Communities Climate Action Network exploring how the impacts of climate change are affecting Scotland’s health, with funding from The National Lottery Community Fund

✉️ Sign up to hear more at

A new project exploring how communities can influence health and climate, together.