Building Community Capacity: Guidance for staff working with communities 
Ministerial Foreword
The Scottish Government sees our people as the key to Scotland's future success and building confident, skilled and influential communities is central to this. Empowering Scotland's communities is vital to achieving our goals.
This is why one of the outcomes set out in the National Performance Framework is "we have strong, resilient and supportive communities where people take responsibility for their own actions and how they affect others." As a result, community capacity building is becoming an increasingly important priority across the Scottish Government.
Community capacity building activity supports people, particularly those who live in disadvantaged areas or are members of disadvantaged groups, to shape their own future and the future of their communities, and engage effectively with agencies to influence decisions and improve public services.
Working and Learning Together to Build Stronger Communities, the Scottish Government's Guidance on Community Learning and Development (CLD), recognises building community capacity as one of the three national priorities for CLD. The Scottish Government and COSLA issued a Joint Statement on CLD in November 2008 that sets out the key role of CLD in building the capacity of communities.
The Scottish Community Empowerment Action Plan - Celebrating Success: Inspiring Change supports community capacity building as a critical step in laying the foundations to community empowerment.
The Early Years Framework places strong emphasis on supporting the capacity of children, families and communities to secure positive outcomes for themselves and provide a supportive environment for children and families.
Achieving our Potential: a framework to tackle poverty and income inequality in Scotland recognises that a key component of tackling poverty involves building the capacity of individuals and families to lift themselves out of poverty.
However good our policies, delivering them effectively depends on the skills, knowledge and confidence of staff working with communities.
This guide aims to support staff working to build community capacity in Scotland to deliver their work to the highest standards. It provides practical advice about how to work with communities and build their capacity. It also includes case studies and existing resources to strengthen current work.
I would like to thank everyone across Scotland who contributed to the development of this guide and to wish you well in using it to help communities achieve their potential.
Keith Brown, MSP, Minister for Schools and Skills