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About Us
How We Do It - Principles of Intervention
By Invitation
Usually CADISPA will wait until a community group feels confident enough to approach us. Once initial contact has been made and the community group has been accepted as a CADISPA project, a partnership can be established between the group and CADISPA to address and progress the group’s preferred agenda.
‘Twin track’ Research
Once a partnership has been established between CADISPA and the community group, CADISPA agrees to work with the group at no cost to themselves. In return for the specialist advice, support, access to the website and other services provided by CADISPA, we ask that the group allow CADISPA researchers to have access to the their development, in order to gather material for the ongoing research and teaching. This is recognised as a ‘twin-track’ approach to research, and a fundamental element of The CADISPA Trust, which ensures that both partners in any one partnership agreement benefit equally.
Strengthening Community Groups
Another important principle of the CADISPA Project is that community groups must be more powerful and competent at the conclusion of their association with CADISPA than they were at the beginning. The objective is to ensure that the community groups do not become dependent on CADISPA. This is achieved by working within the network of existing groups in the community, rather than creating new groups to satisfy the ongoing development agenda.
Sustainability
Sustainability and Sustainable Development are terms that are used frequency when referring to the process of community development. Increasingly, the funding available to community groups for regeneration projects is dependent on them being able to demonstrate that their specific project meets the accepted criteria for sustainability. For CADISPA, sustainability is about economic and social regeneration emerging from within a framework of sustainable environmental, economic and social factors. The implications of trying to achieve community development that is ‘sustainable’ can be complex, and CADISPA aims to help communities work through the various implications of any development in terms of its sustainability.
Networking and Peer Support
In addition to advice and support from the CADISPA team, we provide a desk based contact network for community groups. This includes links to the significant players in the rural development field in Scotland. A very important element of this network is the opportunity for community groups to communicate with others in the same position, exchanging examples of good practice and successful strategies and commiserating when things go less well. CADISPA can provide a mediation service for resolving conflict e.g. community land issues. Where possible, we can provide funding for cross-community visits to enable community group representatives to visit other ongoing CADISPA projects. We also host a number of events including CADISPA gatherings (a conference which brings the CADISPA network together in a friendly and informal setting, with workshops and presentations from fundraisers, project managers and the wealth of expertise within the network and ‘clustering’ and ‘roadshow’ days to which every member of the network is encouraged to participate.