Keep Scotland Beautiful support and resources

• Support from our pool of experienced volunteer assessors/mentors including a visit between May and October and a report highlighting achievements and giving useful suggestions/recommendations for your work under the three pillars of community participation, environmental responsibility and gardening achievement.
• Regular, on-line live ‘cuppa & a catch up’ Q&A sessions, each focusing on a different topic. Previous sessions have focused on ‘keeping volunteers engaged and your group going’ and ‘support for your group’ – recordings are available. The sessions are informal and relaxed, with someone talking about a topic for around 5-10 mins (could be showing slides/video or just a chat) and then open up for your questions. We’d also love to hear from you in advance if you feel your group has something it can share.
• We will celebrate achievements through the year e.g. through our website/social media channels/newsletter etc.
• Levels of Achievement certificates, Discretionary Awards, and Certificates of Recognition for those not assessed.
  
• Annual seminar - networking, celebrating and sharing inspiring stories. Explore our previous seminars.
• Regular e-newsletter full of inspiring stories, hints, tips, information and funding links - example here.
• We’d love groups to let everyone know through social media that they're taking part – for Facebook use @KSBScotland @rhscommunitygardening; and for Twitter use @KSBScotland @RHSBloom #ItsYourNeighbourhood #ourbloom in posts so we can react and help spread the word.
• A web page for each group.
• An It's Your Neighbourhood logo for your use to tell everyone you’re taking part.
• Each year we have an optional theme for groups to focus activities and events around. The theme for 2024 is 'Celebration and Cake'. You might want to celebrate your volunteer efforts, or perhaps you have a particular project you want to celebrate, or celebrate a particular area of interest such as your local wildlife or local heritage. We added the “cake” part to the theme as we all know that a slice of cake and a cuppa at the end of a long day of volunteering is a great way to thank our volunteers and bring people together. Whatever way you decide to celebrate in 2024, we can’t wait to see what you come up with.

As well as the above, we have a number of resources, guidance and advice which are available to your group throughout the year. These include:

• Our It’s Your Neighbourhood web pages: In this section you'll find useful websites, previous annual seminar presentations and a resources page which includes promotional material, reports, case studies and guidance documents. To find out if there are any other groups in your area, which you could get in touch with to support or to work with to ‘join-up’ activities in your community, explore our online map.
• The Three Pillars document outlining ideas of activities and things to focus on under each pillar of community participation, environmental responsibility and gardening achievement.