"The aim of the Fund is to offer financial assistance to local projects which will increase the resilience, sustainability and well-being of the community of Colonsay and Oronsay"

The COCF Ethos

The overall aim of the COCF is to help our community. As each of us have our own idea what this might mean in practice, what “community benefit” looks like on the ground, to help get everyone on the same page the community has adopted this mission statement for the fund:

   “The aim of the Fund is to offer financial assistance to local projects which aim to increase the resilience, sustainability and well-being of the community of Colonsay and Oronsay.”

In addition, the following brief statements help to further describe and clarify the ethos of the fund:

  

-Successful applications should increase community resilience, sustainability and well-being as outlined in the COCF Mission Statement.

​

-For our purposes, this ‘community benefit’ can take many forms; panel members are asked to interpret what constitutes, ‘benefit’ in broad, general terms.

​

-Panellists are asked to make their decision based on the awareness that ‘community benefit’ may be an indirect result - a ‘fringe benefit’ - of a project and not the main focus. Therefore, panel members are asked to bring all their experience of island living and community to bear on their decision making process. It is precisely this experience that makes your contribution to the award process so valuable.

-Therefore, the Fund welcomes projects that increase community resiliency, well being and maintain or increase population. It is to be noted that there is a tacit acknowledgement that ‘community benefit’ may be difficult to quantify in relation to an application to the Fund. Panellists are asked that in appraising applications, they bring all their own personal experience of island life and living to bear on their decision making process. 

​

What constitutes ‘community benefit’ is open to personal interpretation by panel members - and may vary significantly from person to person. We all know what makes living in such a unique - and sometimes, challenging - environment possible for each of us as individuals, what adds or detracts from the experience. It is precisely panellists specific personal viewpoints, borne of experience, that are required in this situation.

​

Panellists are asked to consider project applications in light of potential community benefit, bearing in mind that ‘community benefit’ does not preclude what could be seen as individuals benefiting, i.e. ’personal gain’. 

Realistically, it is unlikely that there will not be some element that could be interpreted as ‘personal gain’ in project applications, and panellists are advised that they do not need to turn down an application simply on the grounds of the for potential ‘personal gain’. Rather, panellists can take into account the potential ‘community benefit’ as well as the scope for ‘personal gain’.One does not necessarily cancel out the other. 

​

An individual benefitting from a project application is also an example of ‘community benefit’, in that our community is comprised of individuals. This is what makes ‘community’, and what strengthens one member of our community, strengthens us all.