Webinar
Community Wealth Building and what it means for Community Woodlands
15th September 2026. 3.30-5pm. Online. Free.
Community Wealth Building is an approach to making local economies work for local people. Instead of wealth being extracted from a place by outside interests, it focuses on ‘bottom-up’ action – enabling local partners to generate, retain and circulate economic, social and environmental wealth for the benefit of everyone who lives there. The Community Sector in Scotland - the part of the third sector owned and run by local communities - is key to shaping the delivery of CWB. The Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Act promises to rewire Scotland’s economy, but the test is whether it provides a lever for devolved decision-making and investment to the local level. Local groups and organisations have been pioneering this work for decades- shaping fairer, more resilient places at a time when communities feel increasingly fragile. In this webinar, we will explore why our sector and the work being done locally should be at the forefront of shaping the future of community wealth building and how our collective work fits in this context.
Sharon Smith, our Member Support Officer, along with Jill Keegan, from Scottish Community Alliance, and some representatives from member community woodland groups will explore this topic further.
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Jill is Programme and Partnerships Manager at the Scottish Community Alliance, with over 20 years’ experience in community development and rights-based work. Her role is to support collaboration across national community - based networks and intermediaries, sharing learning and opportunities to strengthen Scotland’s community sector. Jill is motivated by the diversity, creativity, and resilience of our communities and by their role in shaping Scotland’s future.