CHEX, Community Health Exchange, have just published a new briefing paper titled, ‘Words Into Action‘, on how to use the Community Empowerment Act. Most parts of this act have now been in place for a year and this paper looks at:
‘How have community organisations been making use of the Act since it came into force?’
What can Community Planning, Participation Requests and Community Asset Transfer do for community-led health? CHEX tries to help answer this question.
As well as providing an up-to-date overview of some of the main parts of the Act, this new CHEX briefing highlights real examples of community organisations making use of the Act in their own work involving communities in addressing health and wellbeing issues and tackling health inequalities.
As an example, we have been hearing quite a bit about community asset transfers locally but not everyone is aware that this can also mean the leasing of a building or land as well as the transferring of full ownership. This may well be a way for smaller community organisations to gain access to facilities they might not otherwise think they could afford to own.
The paper is not too long and is really worth a read if you are interested in how the Act can bring about change in your community.
Words into Action: How can community-led health organisations make use of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act? (Click to download pdf).
