Six community groups in Glasgow have been recognised with a Keystone quality award for adopting best practice in managing their local facilities.

The KeyStone Awards, a scheme developed by SCVO, is designed specifically for organisations running community facilities like halls, community centres, youth and heritage centres.

The training supports groups, not used to long-term management of establishments, how to make sense of legislation and regulation, managing money and resources and working with users of the facility.

The local groups include Mount Vernon Community Hall, Cranhill Development Trust, DRC Generations (north west Glasgow), Larkfield Centre Govanhill, Toryglen Community Hall and the Pearce Institute in Govan. They were awarded their KeyStone completion certificates at networking event in City Halls, on 27 June.

-- Advertisement --

Although originally designed to be used in a rural context the scheme supported by Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Life and Jobs and Business Glasgow (JBG), has been adapted to be used in an urban setting.

Councillor Soryia Siddique, executive member for communities and citizenship, who presented the certificates, said: "Offering groups the chance to gain a KeyStone award is an important step towards empowering our local communities - allowing them to run facilities in a way which has the needs of local communities at its heart.

"Achieving this award gives both the management and the users of the facility a confidence that it's being run correctly, has a long-term future and can help an organisation engage with other community members and local groups in the area.

"Well done to the first six groups in the pilot and I hope that they can use their experiences to support other groups running community facilities."

(MH)