What we are about
The aim of Sus it Out™ is to enable community and voluntary organisations to work out for themselves how they already contribute to sustainable development and how they can build on this for the future. The organisations behind Sus it Out™ think it is important that community and voluntary groups should have the opportunity to plan their development so that:
- They can become more sustainable in the ways they think and act
- They can contribute to a more sustainable future for their communities and the wider world
- They can engage constructively with other organisations that are also striving to be more sustainable.
Why community groups?
Community and voluntary organisations exist because there is a strong desire in society for progress and improvement that does not damage the lives of others. Most active citizens want to leave the world a better place for future generations to live. This grassroots desire is the same motivation that has prompted political organisations at all levels to create the concept of sustainable development and the policies and strategies that support it. We want community and voluntary organisations to realise that sustainable development is what they have always wanted; it is only recently that politicians have given it a name.
Active citizens
Politicians are limited in what they can achieve without leadership coming from the communities they represent. We want people to appreciate that the driving forces that bring people together to sing, to challenge poverty, to practice sport, to care for local wildlife, to pray, to improve community health, to regenerate their local economy and to create numerous other forms of community benefit are the real power house of sustainable development. We want active citizens to be more aware of the potential they have to ensure that the future development of Scotland is sustainable in the ways they want it to be.
Sustainable communities
Organisations that fund the work of community and voluntary organisations are increasingly asking groups that approach them for money, 'what contribution will your activity make to sustainable development?' If community groups are not clear about what sustainable development means for them and how they are going to use resources of all kinds to work towards it, they will become involved in meaningless, 'tick-box', exercises and will, eventually, fail to acquire the resources they need. We want groups to be able to express their commitment to sustainable development in everything they do - not just in what they say in funding applications.
