On Thursday 20th March as part of Village Halls Week 2025, Scottish Rural Action hosted an online event, in partnership with Social Enterprise Scotland (SES). The event, which attracted 100 people from all over Scotland, featured presentations from three amazing speakers, who are all closely involved in the running of their village halls - Colintraive Village Hall, Balerno Village Trust, and Brodick Community Hall. The main theme of the event was income generation, with the speakers providing interesting insights on the diverse ways that village halls strive for sustainability, while ensuring strong levels of local engagement.
The second half of the event was an open discussion, where participants had the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers, and raise any additional discussion points. Aimee Spence from Social Enterprise Scotland gave an overview of plans for the launch of a new practitioners’ network, which will engage the people working on the ground, in events, networking, knowledge sharing, and training. We are excited to be involved in the facilitation of the network, and we look forward to seeing how plans develop.
The session recording is available via SRA’s YouTube channel: (49) Thriving Village Halls: Inspiring Income Ideas Online Event | Village Halls Week 2025 | #VHW2025 - YouTube. We look forward to exploring these themes and topics further at the SCVO Village Halls Conference on 29th May – registrations via Eventbrite open on 14th April and more information can be found here: Connecting communities: village halls conference - SCVO.
