McLaren Communities Futures: Communities Collaborating across Catchments 

Written by Kelly Clapperton, Climate Action Hub Community Project Officer

McLaren Communities Futures (MCF) is a collective of ten groups representing the communities of the McLaren High School catchment, a vast and diverse rural area comprising much of the ​​west and north of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. Brought together in December 2024, the MCF aims to identify key cross-community challenges and opportunities and collaborate to take climate action. Specifically the collective is looking at improving resilience and community capacity building; ​peer learning, creating trusted relationships and seeking to secure large grants to help communities respond to ​our changing climate. ​ 

Since the beginning, FEL Scotland, through the Forth Valley Climate Action Hub (FVCAH), ​​have been one of the supporting partners in the project and have offered both​ financial and practical support.

The first phase of the MCF project was ​mapping out the existing context using Local Place Plans and Community Action Plans to ​collate a​​ ​baseline understanding of the catchment. This was then followed by three stages of ​engagement​ focusing on the five themes of Adaptation Scotland’s Community Climate Adaptation Routemap: 

1. Regenerate Nature
2. Improve Housing and Neighbourhoods
3. Support Self-Sufficiency
4. Getting Around
5. Growing Skills and Employment

The three stages of engagement on these themes were:

1.  An in-person workshop with representatives of the 10 community groups and the establishment of a Working Group.
2. Community representatives undertaking consultations across their communities. 
3. A workshop with the Working Group to analyse the results and prioritise actions. 

Of the five themes, the results from the engagement stages found that ‘Stronger Communities’ (Support Self-Sufficiency) and ‘Getting Around’ were the top themes for importance, scoring more than 90%, and with over 50% of respondents putting Stronger Communities as their top ranked priority. The remaining three themes scored more than 75%.

MCF are now in their second phase, focusing on governance and planning, using the gathered data to develop thematic delivery plans, ​and exploring ways of collective working ​and ​identifying​ funding avenues. They have submitted an Expression of Interest to the National Lottery and are investigating revenue funding for future project management. FEL Scotland have representation on their oversight group, governance group​ ​and their thematic groups, providing ​ongoing ​advisory and practical support. 

A map of the McLaren High Catchment area and the groups involved in MCF

MCF is an inspirational project and a true example of bottom-up community development. They are proving that multiple communities can come together to make real difference across a wide area. As the world changes, becoming more unstable politically, economically and environmentally, communities need to boost their resilience, security and sustainability, and the best way to ensure this is by working in partnership to combine skills and knowledge, and help smaller organisations be heard.

I am excited to be part of this project, both as an employee of FEL Scotland and the FVCAH and as a resident of the McLaren Catchment Area. I am fully aware of the challenges our communities face, whether flooding, storm damage, energy and food security, or public transport; this is a fantastic opportunity for our communities to band together and ensure we are resilient, sustainable and thriving.  

MCF Day Oot to Killin Community Hub, Tool Library and Food Pantry

Share this article