Our Work
The Scottish Civic Trust is the national voice for Scotland’s civic and heritage groups.
Our mission is to work in partnership with all communities to preserve the uniqueness of their place, promoting access to the historic environment and its stories to ensure its relevance in contemporary Scotland.
You can read more about our work in our Strategic Plan and learn about our recent activities in our Annual Reports.
Our activity strands
Supporting communities
- Planning and policy: Monitoring all planning applications involving listed buildings, conservation areas and ancient or historical monuments.
- Knowledge hub: Signposting resources and best practice for community heritage and built environment projects.
- Make Your Mark in Volunteering Campaign: Supporting heritage organisations to recruit and retain volunteers.
- Civic forums: Connecting local civic and heritage groups across Scotland. This work is forthcoming as part of our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan.
Promoting access
- National Doors Open Days festival: Celebrating our shared built and cultural heritage by enabling access to places, spaces, and activities not usually open to the public.
- Diverse Heritage: Supporting marginalised groups, such as women; people of colour; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people; and those in situations of economic disadvantage to become better represented in heritage.
Improving wellbeing
- Liveable neighbourhoods: Helping local groups feed back on planning decisions so they can campaign for higher quality environments.
- My Place Workshops: Enabling young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds to explore Scotland, grow a sense of belonging and develop heritage skills.
- Civic space: Improving community access to green spaces. This work is forthcoming as part of our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan.
Facilitating learning and skills development
- My Place Photography Competition: Encouraging young people to explore and learn about their local places through the medium of photography.
- Skills and apprenticeships: Piloting new pathways for under-represented demographics to access careers in the heritage sector. This work is forthcoming as part of our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan.
- Place anchor learning: Engaging young people with place anchors (historic buildings, parks, gardens and other civic amenities) to increase ownership and break down access barriers. This work is forthcoming as part of our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan.
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