SCDC is the designated National Development Centre for community development in Scotland.  They are an innovative partnership between the Community Development Foundation (a UK non-departmental public body funded by government to support community development) and the University of Glasgow.

SCDC’s main function is the delivery of a range of large scale contracts on behalf of national agencies such as Communities Scotland, NHS Health Scotland, Greenspace Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Carnegie Trust.

They currently host and manage three publicly funded national projects:

• Community Health Exchange (CHEX)
• Meeting the Shared Challenge
• VOiCE – Visioning Outcomes in Community Engagement

SCDC also offers consultancy and training services to local agencies, local projects and communities themselves:

• Work with communities to support community groups to set their own agendas, strengthen local action and build community capacity
• Work with agencies and partnerships to achieve effective community engagement and community participation, assess community needs and issues and plan and evaluate practice
• Work to influence policy by researching issues and disseminating findings and contributing to government working groups and committees

SCDC has worked collaboratively with LWTT on several occasions, most notably on the contract let by Learning Connections to support outcome-focussed practice in Community Learning and Development, The Carnegie Trust Rural Action Research Project and, most recently, the Refreshment of the Competences for Community Learning and Development on behalf of the Standards Council for CLD.

SCDC website:  www.scdc.org.uk