News Archive
Local People Leading: Knowledge and Skills Exchange Fund
Posted: July 2009
The Knowledge and Skills Exchange Fund is a Scottish Government Fund that aims to facilitate learning and the exchange of knowledge and ideas within the community sector. Grants of £1,000 are available for costs including visits to projects or community organisations, hosting a visit and accessing training.
Local People Leading (LPL) is an informal alliance of community sector networks and the fund is currently open to members of the networks. The Community Retailing Network is part of LPL and as such our members can apply to the Fund. If you are interested in finding out more please contact us at 0845 217 8978 or info@communityretailing.co.uk
Healthy Living Neighbourhood Programme
Posted: July 2009
The Scottish Grocers Federation (SGF) has relaunched its Healthy Living Neighbourhood Programme with new branding and the promotion of a wider range of healthier foods in addition to fruit and vegetables.
Programme Co-ordinator Ross Kerr, gave a talk on the Programme at our last Community Retailing Network Best Practice Group and as a result we hope to see a number of community owned shops across Scotland promoting the Programme and boosting sales of healthy food. If you are interested in the Programme please contact us at 0845 217 8978 or info@communityretailing.co.uk or SGF directly on 0131 343 3300.
SCVO delivering Scotland-wide Rural Direct service
Posted: July 2009
Rural Direct began a year ago as a partnership between SCVO and the Crofters Commission. Because of changes in the Commission's remit, SCVO has now taken on responsibility for delivering the service to rural communities across the whole of Scotland.
Rural Direct is a free service available to constituted community groups in rural areas throughout Scotland to help with sourcing funding – staff can offer one-to-one support by phone or in person, surgeries, and information and training workshops. You can contact Rural Direct at 0845 838 8598 or email at ruraldirect@scvo.org.uk
Rural Retailer - Summer 2009
Posted: July 2009
Rural Retailer is a quarterly publication published by the Rural Shops Alliance. It is a useful resource, covering a range of topics including success stories, information on regulations, guidance on specific aspects of running a shop and up to date retail news. Download the latest edition [1.5MB PDF]
Green light for rural shop support
Posted: May 2009
'Retailing in Rural Regions', a project that aims to support the survival, development and growth of rural retail shops has been given approval by the Northern Periphery Programme (NPP).
NPP aims to help peripheral and remote communities on the northern margins of Europe to develop their economic, social and environmental potential - loss of rural shops and services is a difficulty faced across the regions.
With funding from Consumer Focus Scotland, and support from Community Food & Health Scotland and The Co-operative Group, the Community Retailing Network is a partner in this 3-year project together with organisations from Finland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Greenland.
Dowload the press release (520KB Word document)
Annual Report published
Posted: April 2009
Our first annual report is now available to download.
Dowload the annual report (526KB PDF)
First newsletter launched
Posted: January 2009
As our new website goes live we have also just produced the first edition of our newsletter Shop Talk. Launched at the Community Food & Health Scotland Annual Networking Event in Glasgow, the newsletter includes an introduction to the network and some of our members, sector news, case studies and a funding update.