UPCOMING EVENTS
‘The Even Bigger Big Get Together’ Connecting, challenging, making things happen - See the event report
Our successful Even Bigger Get Together had over 65 people working in community-led health improvement, the event supported participants to :
Exchange our experiences of community-led health in action
Explore new evidence of how we can make a difference
Discuss and connect what we can do ourselves to create momentum and increase our impact
Challenge government, the NHS ourselves and others to move beyond rhetoric to collectively invest in and embed community-led action.
This event shared insights from partners in our network, Glasgow Caledonian University, and the Scottish Governments Place and Wellbeing programme.
We also explored a national initiatives which we can relate to including the collaborative National Suicide Prevention Strategy, the Institute of Health Equality “Marmot Places”, the Scottish Government National Public Health Framework and share great practice from our SCHW organisations.
Our workshops provide a platforms for active discussions on all of the above and the structures for securing community led health and wellbeing investment and improvement across Scotland. To see the Event report and videos from the day, and download presentation click here
International Youth Day
Join us in celebrating the power of youth and digital innovation on International Youth Day 2024! Discover how young minds are harnessing technology to create sustainable solutions for our world's most pressing challenges.
The theme for International Youth Day 2024 (12 August) is “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development.” This theme highlights the key connection between digitalization and accelerating the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), emphasizing the crucial contributions of young people in this transformative process.
Digital transformation is one of the six key transitions with "catalytic and multiplier effects across the SDGs” and a significant determinant for achieving the Goals 1. Technologies like mobile devices, digital platforms, and emerging innovations such as artificial intelligence play a crucial role in advancing the SDGs. Data generated from every digital interaction is fundamental to digital transformation, enabling evidence-based decision-making. It is estimated that digital technologies and data contribute to at least 70% of the 169 SDG targets, bringing about a profound impact across their economic, social, and environmental dimensions 2.
While challenges such as digital divide persist, young people are often considered “digital natives,” being at the forefront of adopting and innovating with new technologies. They form the largest demographic of users and developers shaping digital trends globally. As the 2030 deadline for the SDGs approaches, youth remain an essential demographic group in leveraging the transformative power of technologies to address global challenges.
SURF Awards Applications Open
2025 SURF Awards Launch for Applications
The prestigious national 2025 SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration were launched today (05/06/25) at a special online event.
The event, attended by 60 guests, included specially recorded messages from previous SURF Award Winners; St Paul’s Youth Forum, Govan HELP, Narture CIC, Hebridean Housing Partnership and WorkingRite; and the formal opening of the Awards for applications.
The SURF Awards are delivered each year by SURF, a regeneration forum with over 300 cross-sector member organisations across Scotland, in partnership with the Scottish Government. The purpose is to highlight, celebrate and share the achievements of initiatives that address physical, social and economic challenges in communities across Scotland.
This year’s five thematic categories include; Removing Barriers to Employability, Creative Regeneration sponsored by Creative Scotland, Community Led Regeneration sponsored jointly by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise, Improving Scotland’s Places sponsored by Scotland’s Towns Partnership, and finally an award for Housing and Regeneration sponsored by the Scottish Procurement Alliance.
The winners of the 2025 Awards will be announced by a leading Scottish Government Minister at a celebratory dinner event on the 4th December.
The timescale for the 2025 SURF Awards is as follows:
Thursday 5th June – launch of Awards
Monday 1st September – close of application period
Mid-Sept – Shortlisting by 20 independent judges
Late Sept-Oct – Visits and assessment period by judges
Thursday 4th December – SURF Awards Presentation Dinner
Employment and Investment Minister Tom Arthur said: “The SURF Awards is a valuable platform to recognise and celebrate outstanding examples of community-led regeneration across Scotland, showcasing projects which inspire others and demonstrate what is possible.
Regeneration and strengthening communities is key to the Scottish Government’s priorities of growing the economy, eradicating child poverty, improving public services and tackling the climate emergency, which is why we’re supporting our most disadvantaged communities with regeneration investment of £62.5 million this year.
I look forward to hearing about this year’s entries and wish them all the best.”
Brian MacDonald, SURF Chair said: “The last year has proved challenging for organisations across Scotland as the various financial restrictions begin to have their effect. SURF recognises the impact this has and yet, organisations continue to strive, despite the pressures, to deliver for their communities. Over the past 27 years we have sought to highlight the many and varied exciting projects across Scotland and this year is no different.
Our 2025 Awards will, I’m sure, highlight all that is best in Scottish community regeneration and will provide inspiration for us all. I hope that you will want to participate and look forward to hearing about your project.”
Emma Scott, Events, Information and Communication Manager at SURF said: “SURF is delighted to launch the annual SURF Awards process for the 27th year. We look forward to receiving applications and finding out more about the extraordinary work taking place in communities throughout the country.“
To find out more about the 2025 SURF Awards and to download the materials, please visit: https://surf.scot/surf-awards/surf-awards-2025/
Scotland's Climate Week
Scotland’s Climate Week
Coming September 2025
Every year since 2016, communities and organisations from all across Scotland have come together for Scotland's Climate Week. Last year, it was a chance to celebrate and encourage climate action, and to learn more about tackling climate change by sharing ‘Stories for Change’. Share your story using #ScotClimateWeek to help spark new ideas and inspire others to act. For more information click here
Alcohol Awareness Week
This year’s Alcohol Awareness Week takes place from 7-13 July 2025 on the theme of alcohol and work. As part of the week, we’ll be opening a conversation about the relationship between alcohol and work to help us better understand it and sharing some helpful tips and advice on changes we can make to improve things for us all.
SPRING Evaluation Report
The SPRING Social Prescribing project operated from July 2018 to June 2023. It connected people aged 18+ to support within their community to improve their health and wellbeing. Social Prescribers were based in 19 delivery partners, community-led health organisations throughout Scotland and Northern Ireland. SPRING was a partnership between SCHW and the Healthy Living Centre Alliance in Northern Ireland, funded by the UK National Lottery Community Fund. The lead organisation was Bogside and Brandywell Health Forum.
The second and final evaluation report on the project by evaluators Cavanagh Kelly mainly covers the period November 2020 to December 2022. Click here to download the full report
Volunteer Week
Volunteers’ Week: A UK-Wide Celebration
Volunteers’ Week is an annual UK-wide campaign held from the first Monday in June to celebrate and recognise the contributions of volunteers.
Launched in 1984, this initiative has been running for over 40 years, providing organisations and communities a platform to thank current and past volunteers for their invaluable efforts.
The campaign highlights the diversity and unity of volunteer work across the UK. In its 40th year, the campaign underwent a rebrand, introducing a vibrant identity to inspire continued engagement.
Volunteers’ Week fosters connections between national organisations and grassroots groups, celebrating the spirit of volunteering that enriches communities each year.
This year’s celebration runs from Monday 2nd – Sunday 8th June. To learn more Volunteers' Week
Research by Johan Mackenbach, Professor of Public Health at the University Medical Centre Rotterdam
Research by Johan Mackenbach, Professor of Public Health at the University Medical Centre Rotterdam
A new study on health inequalities across 10 European countries including Scotland makes fascinating listening! It is not yet published but watch out for it. If you have an interest in understanding the nature and causes of health inequalities tune in to this research or go on line for other related publications by the same author especially Health Inequalities: Europe in Profile which highlights:
Inequalities in health between people with higher and lower educational level, occupational class and income level have been found in all European countries.
The widening of some of these health inequalities during the last decades of the 20th century has increased the urgency of this public health problem.
This independent report, commissioned by the UK Presidency of the European Union, gives a comprehensive overview of patterns and trends.
To find out more click here
Workshop on Climate Action without despair
Hilda Campbell from COPEScotland is submitting a 3-hour workshop on climate action without despair through a trauma informed lens for CPD accreditation. Before doing so, she would like to pilot it. If you are interested in attending the pilot workshop, please let her know by drooping here an email - hildac@copescotland.com
An overview of the session is as follows. The materials shared can be used in a variety of settings. Hilda hopes to run this pilot late May 2025 and it would be online
Once accredited there shall be costs associated with delivery, however, there are no costs for attending the pilot.
Workshop overview
A sense of optimism in what are challenging times and ideas for self-care.
A new awareness of tools and resources which can support climate action without despair
An increased sense of connectivity to help support climate action in a way which inspires and motivates
Why taking a trauma informed approach to climate action matters
Share ideas on how we can talk about climate action without feeling a sense of despair using the Jigsaw Lid Toolkit
Promote a sense of confidence and optimism in what are challenging times, including ideas for self-care.
Explore the 15% in your control, your organization's control, your community’s control which can support a just transition to net zero and sustainability
SCHW Consortium for Health
Our consortium approach ensures that our partner organisations are empowered to be involved in larger national major funding opportunities. It is a way of moving beyond local funding opportunities and to do specific pieces of work that may not be funded at a local level. The consortium approach offers organisations the opportunity to:
Secure contracts or funding that would not otherwise be available.
Extend their service provision into new fields.
Gain new expertise or to extend their activities in to new geographies or other community groups.
Social Prescribing Day 19 March 25
Social Prescribing Day - 19th March
Social Prescribing Day is an annual celebration of the people, organisations and communities who make social prescribing happen. Since 2019, thousands of local, national and international organisations, link workers, medical professionals, academics and students have taken part across the world.
CHEX Conference - Knowledge Into Action
Knowledge into action: CHEX Conference 2025
The Barracks Conference Centre, Stirling
This year our focus is on turning knowledge and learning into action on the most pressing issues facing our sector.
We’ll be using a bit of a different format from usual, so instead of focusing on speakers, we’ll be hosting keynote listeners. These listeners will be there to hear your 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.
The conference will create a space for constructive cross-sectoral dialogue, which enables strategic decision-makers to better understand the day-to-day reality of what it takes to undertake community-led health practice across Scotland.
There will also be lots of time for networking and discussion and a chance to celebrate all your hard work over the year - we’re still working on the details of the programme so more information to come soon.
Please fill in the booking form to secure your place and we’ll look forward to seeing you there!
Our Listeners
Professor Linda Bauld
Professor Linda Bauld OBE is the Bruce and John Usher Chair in Public Health in the Usher Institute, College of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and Chief Social Policy Adviser to the Scottish Government.
Her research focuses on the prevention or treatment of the main modifiable risk factors for Non-Communicable Diseases including cancer, diabetes and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases with a particular focus on tobacco, alcohol, diet and inequalities in health.
Professor Bauld is Director of the SPECTRUM Consortium funded by the UK Prevention Research Partnership and Co-Director of Behavioural Research UK, funded by the ESRC. She is a former Scientific Adviser to the UK Department of Health and the World Health Organisation on tobacco control. Between 2014 and 2021 she combined her academic roles with serving as Cancer Research UK’s cancer prevention adviser.
She is a Trustee of Diabetes UK and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the Faculty of Public Health, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Academy of Social Sciences.
Ruth Glassborow
Ruth brings extensive knowledge and experience of effecting change through both influencing national policy and translating policy priorities into national change programmes that deliver meaningful sustained improvement across public services.
As Director of Population Health and Wellbeing at Public Health Scotland, Ruth provides strategic leadership for the translation of public health data, evidence, intelligence and knowledge into effective improvements in policy and practice with a focus on getting upstream and addressing the wider determinants of health and wellbeing.
In her previous role as Director of Improvement at Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Ruth provided strategic leadership for the development and delivery of a range national programmes and approaches that enabled the application of quality improvement and large scale system redesign methodology to key health and social care system change priorities.
Ruth has a Masters in Public Administration from Warwick Business School and a Masters in Leadership (Quality Improvement) from Ashridge Business School. She is also a Health Foundation Generation Q fellow, a Health Foundation Sciana fellow and a qualified executive coach.
Rachel Baker
Rachel is Director of the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health and Professor of Health Economics at Glasgow Caledonian University.
She leads the Common Health Assets project, in which CHEX is a partner. Common Health Assets is a UK-wide, multi-partner, multi-component research programme, exploring how community-led organisations impact on health & wellbeing of people in disadvantaged areas. It is in the final stages after 3 years of research and analysis is ongoing.
Common Health Assets is funded by the National institute for Health Research (NIHR), led by the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University and brings together community and academic partners from across the UK.
We are now at capacity - please sign up for the waiting list and we’ll be in touch!
Scotland Blue Print for Health
Scottish Communities for Health and Wellbeing (SCHW) has been working for three years on producing a Blueprint for a healthier Scotland to present to the Scottish Government. Many community led organisations have contributed to shaping the Blueprint and many critical friends have commented on drafts. Thank you for your great help. We now have the final version of the Blueprint. To view the Blue print please click here