Skye and Lochalsh Project Wins Excellence Award

A Skye and Lochalsh project has won a top award at the annual Convention of Scottish Local Authorities’ Excellence Awards.

The Skye and Lochalsh Toolkit – an interactive online facility providing up to date information to help community groups – won the category entitled Advancing Community Wellbeing.

John MacDonald, The Highland Council’s Area Manager for Skye and Lochalsh, and his team were presented with the award at the ceremony in St Andrews on Thursday night (8 March).

The need for the project was identified in 2004 by the Skye and Lochalsh Community Learning Plan Partnership. It attracted European funding from the LEADER+, matched by contributions from The Highland Council and Skye and Lochalsh Enterprise.

Skye and Lochalsh Council for Voluntary Organisations provided the project management and award winning local IT company Sitekit Solutions were the web developers.

A dedicated project worker was employed to consult with a wide range of community groups in Skye and Lochalsh, research content and develop the web site, pulling together the knowledge and expertise of the partners as well as the local groups themselves and continues to update the site although employed on a part-time basis.

The web site www.slcvo.org.uk/toolkit averages 8,000 hits per month and has proved invaluable not only to local community groups but also the agencies who assist with community capacity building. Keen interest is being shown by other areas outwith Skye and Lochalsh and discussions are ongoing with a number of organisations to syndicate the website.  This will enable the generic content to be used elsewhere in Scotland with each organisation providing information relevant to its own area.

Councillor Hamish Fraser, Central Skye, who accompanied the award winning team to the awards ceremony said: “The dedication and hard work of the staff at Portree, is to be applauded and we are extremely proud of this marvellous achievement in the face of stiff opposition from throughout Scotland. This accolade reinforces the value of the Skye & Lochalsh CVO, and highlights the importance of being able to work with partners in both the public and private sectors, who are also to be commended for the part they played in this success. This triumph sends out a clear message, that the statutory bodies need to recognise the value of the role played by  CVOs and guarantee funding to local voluntary organisations that are undoubtedly providing an excellent and cost effective service in our communities.”