Where did VOiCE come from?

Over the period 2002-2005, the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) led the facilitation of the development of the National Standards for Community Engagement.  From 2005-2007, SCDC conducted, on behalf of Scottish Government (then Communities Scotland), a national support programme to embed and apply the National Standards for Community Engagement.  As a result of the evaluation of the national programme and in response to requests from community planning partners across Scotland, the VOiCE tool was developed with the core purpose of providing a framework within which to analyse, plan, conduct and evaluate community engagement activity at both strategic and operational levels. VOiCE provides a robust and consistent recording and reporting system.

The current version of VOiCE is in the public domain and its use is being supported at local community planning partnership level across Scotland.  The tool was developed and improved through application in six demonstration sites;

• Perth and Kinross Council
• Edinburgh Community Planning Partnership
• South East Glasgow Community Planning Partnership
• Equally Well site in Dundee
• The Health Impact Assessment of the Commonwealth Games
• South Lanarkshire Changing Places