SCHA's Community Heritage Project
Grassroots Heritage in Scotland
Grassroots Heritage in Scotland (2024-2026) was SHCA's second major project. It was funded by Historic Environment Scotland and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. SCHA travelled the nation to bring together those involved in community heritage and listen to the issues that affected them.
Aims
The main aims of Grassroots Heritage in Scotland were to provide those involved in community heritage with opportunities for networking and to identify issues both unique to areas and common across our network. These common issues then allowed linking across regions, through national online meetings. They were also used to inform co-created training materials, delivered in autumn 2025.
Roadshows, Grassroots Gatherings & Training
At the centre of the Grassroots Heritage in Scotland project was a series of 12 community heritage roadshows that were held across Scotland in 2024 and 2025.
The roadshows were a mix of displays, networking and discussions on important topics that matter to local heritage organisations in this region. Local Steering Committees for each region ensured that the roadshows reflected what local organisations want to be discussed.
The last of our original tour of roadshows was held in September 2025 and we would like to thank everyone who came along and contributed to them. We shared our findings from the discussion sessions at the Scotland’s Community Heritage Conversations conference in November 2025, and have also published them on the SCHA website.
Roadshows were held in: Argyll (Sep 2024), Southwest (Oct 2024), Borders (Oct 2024), Edinburgh & East (Nov 2024), Clyde Valley & East Ayrshire (Nov 2024), Glasgow to North Ayrshire (Feb 2025), Central Region (Feb 2025), Highland (Mar 2025), Aberdeenshire & Moray (Mar 2025), Dundee & Fife (Mar 2025), Western Isles (Sep 2025), and Northern Isles (Sep 2025).
An extension to the project allowed us to revisit the first two regions we brough the roadshow to, Argyll and Southwest, in spring 2026 with a new roadshow format. There are currently no plans to revisit other roadshow reasons, as the Grassroots Heritage in Scotland project funding has now ended.
Grassroots Gatherings is a series of online discussion sessions, held 7-8pm, open to all to discuss important heritage topics and meet others involved in community heritage the length and breadth of Scotland. The Grassroots Gatherings are continuing as a part of the project’s legacy. To join, simply email scottishcommunityhertiage@gmail.com.
Forthcoming Grassroots Gatherings dates are:
26th May 2026
Our Grassroots Heritage Online Training Sessions took place in autumn 2025. These were based on the leading issues to emerge from our roadshows and were designed to offer solutions and assistance to help tackle them. Training sessions were held on the topics of funding, volunteering and communications.
Outputs and Outcomes
We used the discussions from the regional roadshows to identify the key issues for community heritage in Scotland.
- We produced a report on these, with individual chapters for each roadshow as well as a cross-analysis of themes.
- Online training sessions were created, based on topics generated from the roadshow.
The online training sessions were on the themes of:
- Funding
- Communications
- Volunteering
The Directory of Community Heritage Organisations that was compiled over the course of the project provides a comprehensive inventory of community heritage organisations in 2024-2025. It has been published and is available on the SCHA website.
Networking and collaboration opportunities have resulted from the roadshows and SCHA will make every effort to support connections and made through these, including where groups wish to continue the regional roadshows in subsequent years.
We have evaluated how effective the roadshow format is in meeting its networking, listening and signposting objectives. The interim and final reports from our roadshow feedback forms have been published and are available in the Library on the SCHA website.