The importance of involving the community in helping to identify and address alcohol-related harm in their own communities has been high on the agenda of local and national government for quite some time. Alcohol Focus Scotland has a long history of involvement projects that range from service user involvement to the Community Action on Alcohol project in Blackburn. The National Communities Project is a development of our community project in Blackburn which is a successful and continuing project that has given us learning and experience on using a community development approach to addressing local alcohol related harm.
The project aims to work with two communities - Neilston in East Renfrewshire and Lochgilphead/Ardrishaig in Argyll - to take learning from our previous community project and other areas of good practice, and apply the learning to these two new communities. The communities will have their own priorities that they will wish to address and the project’s job is to support these communities in having successful outcomes.
Another aspect of the project is to collate and communicate a national evidence base on best practice. This will involve development of a one-stop shop for information to assist in addressing alcohol-related harm in our communities. We hope to launch this part of the project in spring 2012.
For more information on our communities work please contact Caroline Church on 0141 572 6591 or email: caroline.church@alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk