Have you ever wondered why some places feel special? And what you might do to make them even more so?
WHAT IS TREASURED PLACES?
Treasured Places is a free to use, open source guide, available for use by any individual or group, to help you explore local places that are special to you, including how they might be improved with respect to all users of place.
DOWNLOAD THE FREE TREASURED PLACES GUIDE
Treasured Places are everywhere and we all have our own. They can be any area of land: a river, hill, path, or riverbank. Or it might be your farm or your back garden, a community space, a woodland, or the area around your office. It could even be a whole river catchment!
HOW DO I USE THE GUIDE?
How you use the guide is entirely your choice. It has been designed to be very flexible, reflecting the fact that every piece of land is unique and has its own needs. It can be used
- to develop an action plan for a specific area of land or a view
- to run workshops or an educational programme in schools or across communities
- as a guide to developing thinking or a philosophical discussion
- to respond to planning applications for development to help make a response which addresses all needs with respect to place
- as part of local planning and decision making. For example, some community councils in Scotland are starting to include Treasured Places in their local place plans.
The choice is entirely yours.
The guide invites you, as an individual, group, school, or organisation to explore any ‘treasured place’ that is of interest to you. It asks who (both human and more than human) has ‘interests’ in the place you chose, and then invites you to explore measures that could be taken to increase the harmony between the various different users (including nature, community, climate, society, landowners and commercial bodies) into the future.
Treasured Places has been developed as a collaboration between researcher Steve Connelly and Ted Leeming, together with a multitude of contributors who have attended multiple workshops and offered their thoughts. The project has only been possible as a result of the generous support of Morag Paterson, Culture for Climate Scotland, the GSA Biosphere and Creative Scotland.
Downloads
Treasured Places Guide (PDF, 15MB)
Workshop Facilitators Guide (PDF)
Educational Pack (PDF)
A Few More Bits
Search engines are a great way to develop thinking, ideas and opportunities. But knowing where to start can be daunting at best. Here are just a few we have found invaluable in developing our own thinking:
On Values – the foundation to creative thinking for all. You could do worse than try The Common Cause Foundation or the Scottish Community Development Centre as starting points to developing your thinking, but may have your own sources.
On Collaboration – working together, and seeking advice occasionally, can be very useful, and bring new thinking to the table. There are many guides out there, and to start you on your journey you could explore working with individuals from the creative sector to help you develop your thinking, inspire and engage audiences and draw people towards your treasured place. Here’s just one idea on how you might develop your journey of inspiration.
On Workshops – Everyone has their own ideas on how to run a workshop, but here are just a couple of places you could go to if you are wanting to develop your ideas:
Howspace.com – How to facilitate a workshop
Researchgate.net – Trainers’ Guide for Participatory Learning and Action
On Grants – sourcing funding for any project can be daunting and often puts people off even beginning. But resilience and passion can be strong drivers. Local helpers and philanthropy are often good sources but if you need to look further afield a good search online can help. HERE is just one link you might try as a catalyst.