First ‘100 Stories’ film launched at Empowering our Communities event, Edinburgh

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‘Rocky Road’ – New short film on 100storieslogo
co-production in Scotland

‘Rocky Road’ tells the inside story of how local community activists took over the Community Centre in their ex-mining village Dalmellington.

In this 5-minute film, community activist Sharon Smith and Angela Graham, Senior Estates Surveyor at East Ayrshire Council, take the camera into their own hands, and grill one another about the ups and downs of the process. It’s a revealing conversation.

rockyroadfilming

This video is the first of ‘100 Stories for Co-production’ – an Ingage-led project, supported by the Scottish Co-production Network, aimed at spreading the word about what it really takes for communities and government to work together.

The film highlights the success as well as the challenges of taking a co-production approach and tells the story of the Community Asset Transfer of the local Dalmellington Community Centre.

Sharon Smith, community activist and Secretary of Dalmellington Community Association, said:

“The threat was that the Community Centre was going to be closed down and bulldozed. We couldn’t allow that to happen.

When the Council turned down our first business plan, we were all gutted. It was very disappointing and disheartening. But we didn’t give up.

“It’s been a rocky road… but what we’ve done in the past year is remarkable. The whole process has been a learning curve – not just for us, but for the Local Authority as well.”  

Angela Graham, Senior Estates Surveyor at East Ayrshire Council, who has taken on board the Council’s ‘Vibrant Communities’ co-production approach over the past 18 months, said:

“Studying as a surveyor did I ever think I would be involved in discussions about what night of the week bingo’s held on?

“I was one of the faceless corporate people. Learning to work with community groups that I hadn’t met before. I had to let go a wee bit of my inner control freak!

“My advice is to embrace co-production. Not only will it make your job easier, but it’ll also make it more rewarding.”

The film is co-produced by the participants, social enterprise film-makers media co-op, the Ingage team leading on coproduction policy and practice at Scottish Government, along with the ihub in NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland, and the Scottish Co-production Network.


About 100 Stories of Co-production

‘100 Stories’ aims to enable people from across Scotland’s diverse co-production movement to share stories about the impact we are making. This initiative seeks to:

  • Experience stories of putting people at the heart of what we do
  • Share strategies of movement building
  • Shape the evidence base for co-production
  • Widen the ownership of the 100 stories co-production movement in Scotland.

Ingage leads on coproduction policy and practice within Scottish Government. As part of its work, the Ingage team at Scottish Government, along with the ihub in Healthcare Improvement Scotland, are jointly funding and supporting the development of this work, with the aspiration that it will build capacity for many others to become involved and co-design the 100 stories.