Communities Working Together

Communities Working Together is a partnership bringing organisations across Argyll and Bute together — building the relationships and shared capacity needed for lasting change in our communities.

About

In 2022, partners including the TSI, NHS Highland/HSCP, Macmillan and LiveArgyll came together around a shared commitment: to shift how organisations work together to support and enable people to live a good life. Communities Working Together is the space where that commitment takes shape.

Our Approach

We draw on ideas like systems thinking, co-production and community wealth building — and we believe that working with people rather than for them leads to better and more lasting outcomes.

Our Aim

To harness the collective energy of local people to build stronger, more vibrant communities where everyone can live a good life.

What We Do

Create meaningful partnerships between communities and organisations
Deliver collaborative working that reflects local strengths and priorities
Build shared aspirations for health, wellbeing and sustainability
Put communities at the heart of decision-making and service design
Support community-led responses to local needs and challenges
Ensure long-term sustainability of services through local innovation and ownership

Alongside this, we have a number of specific projects and activities — some of which you can explore below.

Click to Explore

Big Picture Thinking Seminar Series

The Communities Working Together Big Picture Thinking Seminar Series brings people together from across Argyll and Bute to explore practical approaches and shared learning. These free online sessions connect people across Argyll and Bute with inspiring international speakers to spark fresh thinking and support positive change.

Sessions are open to everyone — whether you work in the third sector, the NHS, local government, or are part of a community group.

Details of upcoming events can be found below as can recordings of past events.

Stay connected, & keep the conversation going

Join our mailing list to be the first to hear about upcoming events, inspiring speakers, and new opportunities to learn and connect with people across Argyll and Bute.

Participatory Leadership

What is Participatory Leadership?

Participatory leadership is about creating the conditions for people to contribute their knowledge, energy and ideas to the challenges that matter most. Rather than decisions flowing from the top down, it makes space for many voices — and tends to build stronger, more sustainable outcomes as a result.

In Argyll and Bute, where the distances are real and the communities are distinct, that kind of approach matters. The challenges we face — around health, wellbeing, depopulation, rural isolation — are too complex for any one organisation to solve alone. Participatory leadership is a way of working that takes that complexity seriously.

One of the main approaches we have been developing through Communities Working Together is the Art of Hosting — a set of practices and tools for having better conversations and working together more effectively. It has been growing and evolving globally for over 20 years, co-created by a network of practitioners with no central body or single owner. What draws us to it is its practicality: these are tools you can actually use, in a meeting, a community session, or a strategic planning day, to help people think and work together more effectively.

Our Work So Far

Since 2024, we have been building a Community of Practice across Argyll and Bute — a growing network of people developing shared language and approaches to working together. We have delivered two residential Art of Hosting trainings, funded places on national training, and run regular online sessions where practitioners can share learning and support one another.

We have also developed a set of free resources — practice cards and guides — to help people bring these approaches into their everyday work. These are available to download below.

Get Involved

Join the Community of Practice — open to anyone interested in participatory approaches
Attend an Art of Hosting training or workshop when next available
Download the free resources below and try the tools in your own work

To join the Community of Practice or hear about future training dates, contact [email protected]

Free Resources

These resources were developed as part of Communities Working Together and are free to download and use. They are designed as practical prompts — most useful if you have had some introduction to participatory approaches, but accessible to anyone who is curious. The resources can be found below.

Art of Hosting is a participatory approach to leadership and engagement. It uses methods such as World Café, Open Space and Appreciative Trios to help groups have meaningful conversations, make decisions together and take collective action.

Over the past few years, Communities Working Together has supported people across Argyll and Bute to train in and practise Art of Hosting, through workshops and a Community of Practice. The people listed below have agreed to be contacted by groups and organisations looking for a facilitator.

Please contact facilitators directly. Availability, and any terms or costs, are agreed between you and the facilitator.

If you’ve trained in Art of Hosting and would like to be added to the list, email [email protected]

Antonia Baird
Area: Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands (MAKI)
Contact: [email protected]
Experience: Working with local groups to set goals, support them with community engagement and solve local issues collectively.
Availability: Antonia can facilitate where the work serves MAKI and its communities and community groups. Evening and weekend work is possible.

Ailsa Clark
Area: Based in Kintyre
Contact: [email protected]
Experience: I have been learning about and practising Art of Hosting and Collective Leadership work for over 10 years, having first experienced Open Space at the Scottish Rural Parliament in 2014. I have been fortunate to learn with Toke Muller on facilitating and Meg Wheatley on systems theory, which informs my practice.

Petra Pearce
Area: Oban, Lorn and the Isles (OLI)
Experience: Bringing local groups together to build shared understanding, identify common goals, engage community voices, and work together to address local challenges.
Availability: Petra is the Third Sector Support Adviser for OLI and is primarily looking to facilitate for communities and community groups in this area. Evening and weekend work is possible.