Hub Groups Blog Posts

  Polmont Community Hubs new land group`s Land in our hands Land in Our Hands is a collective of communities with land ownership, connecting our communities to the land as a means to achieve food security, climate justice, land and racial justice. Healthy food for all Land In Our Hands believes that healing relationships with nature and land is also about healing the land and working in sustainable, reciprocal and caring ways. we strive towards collective land stewardship as a means to support our communities to access nutritious, delicious food grown using ancestral, alongside modern, sustainable, regenerative, permaculture practices. We aim to utilise different agroecological practices in our growing spaces. We are passionate about learning Scottish indigenous farming practices which worked in harmony with the land. We believe in Agriculture not Agribusiness Since its founding in 2025, LIOH joined in fraternity with Polmont Community Hub and set out to collaborate with other grou...

  Sharing libraries We have been sharing resources with our community since the day we took over management. We share our space, our help, our knowledge and skills, and we want to formalise this more. Although our booking system works perfectly for hall rentals, we need to expand our other sharing libraries. Our tool library team made research visits to the Linlithgow Tool Library and transition Stirling's Library of Things, which helped expand our knowledge for our own sharing libraries. We are applying for additional support from the Community Learning Exchange to assist with various team visits. As members of the parent organisation, Circular Communities Scotland, we request endorsement, allowing us to share our experiences and foster collective growth and learning. We are affiliated with both Circular Communities Scotland and Social Enterprise Scotland concerning our various sharing libraries. And zero-waste initiatives The first sharing library we established focused on knowle...

  Volunteer of the Month On the second Wednesday of every month, the management team holds their meeting at the Hub. There is always a lot to discuss, including work priority lists, progress reports, and both new and ongoing projects. As part of these meetings, we introduced a vote for "Volunteer of the Month" to be featured in our monthly newsletter, recognising the outstanding contributions of our volunteers. For our inaugural newsletter, the team unanimously decided that there was no better candidate for the first "Volunteer of the Month" than Monty, our zero waste champion. Monty has dedicated more time than anyone else and has been spreading joy and kindness to people of all ages at the Hub since day one. The second nomination is Ena. While we are still developing a method to provide some form of accreditation to our volunteers, we welcome any ideas you may have. As our volunteer numbers continue to grow, we need to find effective ways to reward their hard work...

  Polmont Community Hub SCIO Governance Development Workshop 2 October 2025 Nicola Hanssen In the lead-up to our Annual General Meeting (AGM) and year-end submissions to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), we reached out to Community Enterprise Scotland for assistance. With 35 years of experience, they specialize in providing tailored support to social enterprises, community groups, and charities to help them achieve greater sustainability and effectiveness. Their team of experts is dedicated to helping SMEs like ours navigate the challenges of turning our ideas into reality and ensuring our organization’s long-term success. Following an hour-long Zoom meeting with our sustainability manager, Community Enterprise allocated eight hours of professional help, which proved to be invaluable. At that time, our management team was at its smallest, and we felt overwhelmed and concerned about our workload in meeting our targets. The outside support from a government body ma...

  Apple Day Did Not Happen on Its Own   all animals are equal! Apple Day required extensive planning and coordination. The planning group engaged in discussions with other volunteers and stakeholders to determine what activities to include, where things should be placed, and what tasks needed to be accomplished.   One of the memorable lessons we learned was the conversation between the BFGs (Braes Friendly Growers) and PCH regarding what to do with the leftover apples and pulp. Permaculture and sustainability focus on waste management, which is central to our mission. At the hub, we are continuously introducing more zero-waste initiatives. Our sustainability manager at PCH suggested transforming the pulp into apple biscuit bars, perhaps with added honey, foraged seeds, or various spices, or even making apple pies for future events. He was quite excited about the idea of baking these snacks and pies for the upcoming Samhain event, which may now not happen. ...

  Falkirk Transition Network 01.10.2025 ─ Kenny Alexander Polmont Community Hub  Greeenpark Drive Falkirk, FK2 0PZ Overview Transition means change — a shift from one way of living to another. The Transition Movement, which began in 2006, has since grown into an international network of communities spanning 67 countries. It envisions a world where every individual can become part of a supportive community, feeling safe, welcomed, and empowered to thrive. It is only at the level of community that we are able to imagine and create resilient and thriving living conditions that actually work within a turbulent transition era. We can’t rely on others anymore. Transition emphasises local, community-led actions. It explores new ways we can work together to create communities that are fair, strong, and healthy for everyone. In practice, Transition groups create renewable energy projects, support local food production, encourage new businesses, bring nature back into towns and cities, ...