A stronger third sector for Argyll and Bute: our strategy for 2026–2031

30 October 2026

Following a comprehensive year long consultation and engagement process, Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface’s Board approved our new five-year strategy on 27 October 2026. It sets out our strategic ambition for the third, community and social enterprise sectors across Argyll and Bute, alongside clear commitments about how ABTSI will support that ambition.

The strategy has two connected purposes. It reflects the wider sectors’ aspirations to build stronger, more sustainable organisations, with greater influence and a bigger role in shaping the future of our communities. It also sets out what ABTSI will do through our support, representation and partnership work to help create the conditions for those ambitions to be realised.

Our vision is that people and communities across Argyll and Bute thrive through a strong, connected, influential and sustainable third sector. Achieving this will require contributions from organisations, volunteers, communities, funders and public service partners, with ABTSI playing a supporting, connecting and championing role.

The strategy has been shaped by research and engagement supported by sector consultants SKS, including 181 survey responses and over 70 focus group attendees. The survey conducted in late 2025 and focus groups in early 2026 helped us understand the pressures organisations face, the support they need and their ambitions for the future.

TSI staff and trustees explored these findings at a workshop in Inveraray on April 2026. Further circulation to the sector, with feedback incorporated into successive drafts refined the strategy ahead of Board approval.

Throughout this process, we heard a consistent call for stronger advocacy, practical organisational support, better evidence of the sectors’ contribution and more opportunities to collaborate. We also heard that funding, capacity and trust are essential to making progress. Thank you to everyone who contributed their time, experience and ideas.

ABTSI’s values have been streamlined into four clear commitments:

• Community-rooted: starting with people, communities and place, informed by evidence and lived experience.
• Ambitious for the sector: recognising its leadership, creativity and contribution to a fairer, healthier Argyll and Bute.
• Collaborative: building inclusive partnerships founded on trust, shared purpose and accountability.
• Sustainable: supporting long-term resilience, fair funding, good governance, workforce wellbeing and environmental responsibility.

To support the wider strategic ambition, ABTSI will focus its delivery on four core areas:

• Knowledge: improve sector mapping, share useful policy and funding information, and strengthen evidence of the sectors’ social, economic and preventative contribution.
• Voice: strengthen the sectors’ influence on local and national decisions, champion fair funding and ensure smaller organisations and rural and island communities can help shape policy and investment.
• Build Capacity: provide practical governance, funding, organisational development and volunteering support, helping organisations become more resilient and volunteers access meaningful opportunities.
• Connect: create purposeful networks and opportunities to share learning, develop partnerships and work together on common priorities.

A central ambition is to help develop a more preventative, community-rooted approach to health, social care and wellbeing. Building on the multi-sector prevention workshop held on 22 October 2026, we will work with communities, third sector organisations and public service partners to explore how earlier support can help people stay well, maintain independence and avoid crisis. This work will depend on shared agreement, trust and appropriate resources.

Across the strategy, we will champion rural and island equity and community wealth building, helping more wealth, opportunity and decision-making power remain within local communities.

Over the next few months, we will develop implementation plans that translate ABTSI’s commitments into prioritised actions, responsibilities, timescales and measures of progress, while identifying where wider ambitions require joint work and investment. Alongside these, we will develop a communications plan, including a summary version and an easy-read version, to make the strategy accessible and useful to different audiences.

We will report on progress annually and use feedback from organisations, volunteers, communities and partners to refine delivery. Through this strategy, we want to give the third, community and social enterprise sectors a stronger platform for collective ambition and a clear account of how ABTSI will help turn that ambition into practical progress.