Our first workshop were held on Tuesday 26th November at the Atholl Centre. We had two sessions, one afternoon and one evening, to ensure that as many people as possible could come along.
The format of the workshops was planned to ensure that everyone got from the event what was promised but with enough flexibility that conversations and the stream of ideas were not hindered. Fiona from PKAVS led us in activities to get to know each other better; Rikke gave a brief presentation of the project to date and the aspirations the partners have for it; and Joyce led us into discussing everyone’s expectations and aspirations.
We then sought to address three questions about the future of care and support in Pitlochry:
1. How can we better support people in Pitlochry?
2. How can we think more creatively about how people are supported?
3. What could the caring Pitlochry look like in future?
We noted all answers and thoughts on post-it notes to document the conversation:
1. How can we better support people in Pitlochry?
- Feel supported by the community whether you’re newcomer, old, young etc
- Consider the feelings people have when they move to Pitlochry
- Find out people’s assets
- Address transport issues to and from the town
- Find out the needs of people who are ‘behind closed doors’
- Get emergency / ‘points of reference’ information through people’s doors
- Some people feel isolated
- There is loneliness
- Work with the ‘pockets’ of things happening, use existing groups.
2. How can we think more creatively about how people are supported?
- Get information out to people through existing routes: Newsround, Quiar, town blog / website
- Bring young and older together
- Bring different interest groups together
- Share information / communicate better
- Think of those who can’t or don’t leave their homes
- The biennial newcomer event is very good – have these more often?
- Create workshops for business aspirants
- Create a forum to discuss a new, shared space
- Bring together people with similar goals in business
- Include young parents.
3. What could the caring Pitlochry look like in future?
- Good ‘neighbourliness’
- Address volunteering capacity
- Take care of carers as well as those cared for
- Immigrants feel integrated in Scottish culture
- Maintain lighting
- Pitlochry Partnership – communicate what it does
- Make connections / relationships
- People to listen
- Community café
- School children having lunch in older people’s homes weekly
- Happy to volunteer – but some work should pay
- Create effective intergenerational community
- Change culture – wide-spread informal volunteering
- Use the environment – music, animals etc.
We also had an ideas wall on which anyone could jot down their ideas, need and offers for a better supported Pitlochry. The ideas wall will be a permanent feature in the workshops. The first sessions’ ideas are listed below.
The suggestions made in this workshops will form the basis of the next workshops in which we will map community assets and seek to determine how and where solutions can be found to move towards a more caring and supportive Pitlochry.