Rural services

Following a hugely successful pilot with the Young Islanders Challenge, Youth Scotland will to continue their work with Scotland’s young people from island communities to build the Young Islanders Network.

The new online platform and youth network has been launched to help young people from all the Scottish islands share their voices, views and experiences.

This week the Scottish Government published research commissioned to explore the challenges of accessing and providing consistent and affordable school age childcare (for ages 4 to 14) in rural and island areas of Scotland.

It builds on recent Scottish Government research and policy focused on childcare, employment and economic development.

The Scottish Rural and Island Transport Community (SRITC) are hosting a conference on September the 14th and 15^th to address the immediate challenges facing the users and operators of Scotland’s rural and islands transport services.

Check out the latest rural job opportunities in Scotland.

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs Countryside Trust - Trust Director

The Helping it Happen Awards 2022, run by Scottish Land & Estates, have announced the finalists within the remaining four of their nine categories. Each of these categories focuses on rural businesses and how these businesses interact with their local communities and with visitors – highlighting how rural areas are underpinned by the business operating within them.

This week sees the release of the latest edition of the OnFarm podcast supported by the Scottish Rural Network.

In the first of a two part special Lewis crofter and presenter of BBC Alba's An Lot (The Croft) Domhnall Macsween - known to most as 'Sweeny' - takes OnFARM producer Dave Howard on a tour of his community of Ness, on the island’s most northerly tip.

This is the first of two episodes featuring Sweeny and it’s a great listen. 

Scotland has become the first country in the world to protect in law the right to access free period products.

A £970,000 fund designed to support projects and ideas to benefit the environment and local communities has opened for its third round of applications. 

Crown Estate Scotland’s Sustainable Communities Fund, which started in 2020, has already delivered around £620,000 in valuable support to people across the country. It consists of two grant programmes: