FIVE THINGS FOR A FRIDAY | 01 July 2022 | Stratherrick & Foyers Community Trust

FIVE THINGS FOR A FRIDAY

Friday, 01 July 2022

THANK YOU

As some of you know my parents recently and unexpectedly passed away within five months of each other. A big thank you to the Board, Trust Staff and members of the Stratherrick and Foyers community for your exceptional kindness which has made the last six months that little bit easier. It has been very much appreciated.

I will be on holiday from next week so Five Things will be taking a wee rest from time to time over the summer but lots to get through this week…

CRAFT AND CROFTERS FAIR

We are asking you to shop local and have a Craft and Crofters Fair in the Wildside Centre at Whitebridge from 10am to 2pm on Saturday 2^nd July. Plants, Glass Gifts, Baking, T-Shirts, Yarn Crafts, Tweed, Food and a cuppa are all on hand for this event. Come along, enjoy the sun and free wifi outside and make a wee day of it.

THE HIGHLAND GATHERING

This event at the Corriegarth Estate on 23^rd July. All the information you need is on our website here including competitions to prepare for, the dog show, welly wanging and how to give us a few hours of your time to volunteer prior to and during this Stratherrick and Foyers community event. Even more info will be made available at Highland Gathering | Stratherrick & Foyers Community Trust (stratherrickcommunity.org.uk) soon.

On the day there will be pipe bands, highland dancing, races, tug of war, vintage vehicles, falconry, sheep shearing, fly fishing, flower arranging, food, drink and a couple of surprises for everyone who visits thanks to the Trust. You will love it x

COMMUNITY COUNCIL AGM

I was at the Community Council AGM this week. Like most Community Council AGMs it wasn’t well attended by Community Members. It was also quite entertaining with difficulty achieving a quorum, a power failure causing the internet to go down and jovial chat. There is a serious side to all this. With one member resigning the Council is now down to the minimum four members. This is not a healthy place to be. So if you care about your area, want to do something about roads and potholes and represent people locally on planning matters such as housing to wind farms then this group is for you. Email email.sfcc@aol.com and express your interest in being co-opted until the elections in 18 months time. As a recognised statutory body you can influence the Local Authority on making things happen and getting things done.

THE COST OF LIVING

We have been doing budgets over the last few months (while introducing our new Finance Officer Marie Keenan to the organisation). All organisations doing things on your behalf are finding it tough at the moment. Heating bills are going up, according to our Professional Building Advisors Brexit has caused the cost of materials to escalate anywhere between 25 to 65% and labour is difficult to attract to keep businesses ticking over in the most important tourist months of the year or to build or improve anything! In our own homes we’ve seen increases in our heating bills, insurance premiums, council taxes, mortgages, petrol/diesel costs, food costs and National Insurance increases! We expect SSE to give guidance on what support we can give as a Trust soon but meantime our Fundraisers have been keeping an eye out on grants that can help you at this difficult time. Check it out here FUNDING THURSDAY | 30 June 2022 | Stratherrick & Foyers Community Trust (stratherrickcommunity.org.uk)

The Trust is opening our website for local organisations to advertise and roles they have for free here Jobs | Stratherrick & Foyers Community Trust (stratherrickcommunity.org.uk) and if you want to support people from Ukraine details can be found here Ukraine | Stratherrick & Foyers Community Trust (stratherrickcommunity.org.uk)

ACTION GROUPS

Volunteers are helping achieve some of the Community Action Plan outcomes by giving their time to make things happen. This week Hubs, Childcare, Pathways and Housing all have people behind them and driving these projects forward. In some cases the Trust provides support via a Director, staff and funding. Your Community Action Plan is helping this happen and providing much needed evidence to help attract funding from the Trust and external funders. This is underpinned by creating 20 minute neighbourhoods and Nick Wright, who did the work on the CAP, has recently been commissioned to do a piece of work on how this will work in the Highlands. You can read the report here Nick Wright 20 Minutes Neighbourhood Report | 29 June 2022 | Stratherrick & Foyers Community Trust (stratherrickcommunity.org.uk)

The basic ethos of the “20 Minute Neighbourhood” can be summarised as people having all of their daily needs - work, school, shopping, keeping active and so on - available within 20 minutes of their home, by using sustainable forms of transport: walking, cycling or public transport. This is one of the reasons the Trust is supporting hubs in all areas from Whitebridge to Errogie, Gorthleck to Foyers, Inverfarigaig to Torness.

We’ve added a few more headings to our weekly updates of live projects to capture the work of these community members and their projects on the website here Projects | Stratherrick & Foyers Community Trust (stratherrickcommunity.org.uk)

Tony Foster

Trust Manager

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Stratherrick & Foyers Community Trust,
The Wildside Centre, Whitebridge,
Inverness IV2 6UN
admin@sfctrust.org.uk
07300 562443

Mission statement: To act to enhance the quality of lives of people by engaging with the issues that matter to the community and by supporting people, at a sustainable level, to help people make things happen.

Thanks: Many thanks to our funders for making this site possible - SSE Renewables, Greencoat UK Wind, Green Highland Allt Luaidhe (228) Limited, Easter Aberchalder Partnership. Also the Trust extends its heartfelt thanks to all the community volunteers who have contributed ideas and content to the site.

Fair Work First Statement - Stratherrick and Foyers Community Trust (SFCT) is committed to advancing the Scottish Government Fair Work First Policy and the criteria as set out within the Fair Work First guidance document. We confirm that we pay our staff the Real Living Wage. We make every effort to ensure that our suppliers/contractors are offered the same Real Living Wage rate when procuring goods or services. We also confirm that we offer our staff and/or volunteers an Effective Workers Voice channel within the workplace. Our full policy can be found in ‘Our Documents’, then click on ‘Good Governance’.