Vivarium Trust Steering Group members will be attending the third Communities Conference to be held at the Scottish Parliament on Saturday 29th October.
The Communities Conference is aimed at local, community based, voluntary and charity sector organisations and other civic groups. Importantly, we aim to engage with local groups who do not normally appear on the parliamentary radar. The aim of the conference is to ‘skill-up’ people from local communities and to encourage and empower them to engage meaningfully with their MSPs and their Parliament.
The focus of the conference is very much on practical advice and guidance for parliamentary engagement – looking at what works and what doesn’t. Speakers and workshop facilitators will include MSPs, successful campaigners and journalists, as well as Parliament staff whose remit is to facilitate and develop engagement opportunities. More information about the Communities Conference can be found here: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/education/CoCo2011.htm
The 2011 conference follows on from similar conferences in 2009 and 2010, and will have the same title: ‘Understanding and Influencing Your Parliament’. The first two conferences were very successful and both were attended by over a hundred representatives from small community groups and voluntary sector organisations from across Scotland. This year we anticipate around 150 attendees.
