New Community Outreach Hub to Boost Access to Services Across Skye and Lochalsh

Skye and Lochalsh Council for Voluntary Organisations (SLCVO) is launching a new Community Outreach Hub initiative, with the first event set to take place on Thursday 23 April in Dunvegan Community Hall, continuing across the Skye and Lochalsh region over the next 2 years.

Offering improved access to essential health, wellbeing, welfare and social care services across the region, the Community Outreach Hub initiative responds directly to challenges faced by rural communities: - including long travel distances, digital exclusion, fragmented services and persistent stigma around seeking help.

Each monthly hub event will take place within local community halls, providing a welcoming space, refreshments and opportunities for local people to access a wide range of advice, support and guidance including: - welfare and benefits information, cost-of-living support, financial guidance, counselling, mental health outreach, bereavement services, family support, children’s activities, and more.

The monthly hubs will rotate across the Skye and Lochalsh area with sessions taking place in Dunvegan (April to June), Lochalsh (July to September), and across Staffin, Portree, Broadford and Sleat (October and March).

Christine Gillies, Eilean a' Cheò Independent Councillor and member of The Highland Council Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Committee said:

“The need to bring access to services into communities has been raise repeatedly and this initiative has found a way to work with organisations to do just that. This project shows what can be done when communities are listened to and opportunities can be taken by the third sector to take those ideas forward.”

The Skye and Lochalsh Community Outreach Hub initiative is the first major programme developed through the Skye and Lochalsh Health, Wellbeing, Welfare and Social Care Collaboration, a multi-agency partnership formed in 2024. As a collaborative initiative, it will also help build long-term capacity across the third sector through shared resources and coordinated delivery.

More than 20 Third Sector organisations are committed to work together on delivery of the hub events including: - Skye & Lochalsh Citizens Advice Bureau, Counselling Care Skye & Lochalsh, Rag Tag and Textile, Skye & Lochalsh Mental Health Association, Connecting Carers, Befrienders Skye & Lochalsh, Crocus Highland, Mikeysline, Community Contacts and others. SLCVO will coordinate the overall model, engagement and transport support with statutory services including Highland Council, NHS Highland, Social Work and Public Health joining the programme as it develops.

For more information about the Community Outreach Hubs visit www.slcvo.org.uk

ENDS.