Applications open for SURF Awards 2024

Deadline: 2 September 2024

The Scotland’s Regeneration Forum (SURF) in partnership with the Scottish Government is pleased to announce the SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration.

The purpose of the SURF Awards process is:

To recognise and reward best practice in community regeneration;
To promote and disseminate best practice across Scotland as means of sharing knowledge and experience, and thereby enhancing future policy and practice;
To highlight the important role that regeneration projects have in improving the wellbeing of individuals and communities.

Award Categories

There are five categories of entry in the 2024 SURF Awards:
- Improving Scotland’s Places
- Housing and Regeneration
- Removing Barriers to Employability
- Creative Regeneration
- Community Led Regeneration

Purpose

Improving Scotland’s Places
- The Improving Scotland’s Places 2024 SURF Awards category will identify, celebrate and share the positive impacts of participative planning and regeneration processes in Scottish places.
Housing and Regeneration
- The 2024 SURF Award for Housing and Regeneration is intended to recognise and promote the achievements of all housing providers in ensuring that their investments are planned and delivered in a way which produces substantial, lasting benefits to resident communities and the shared aims of wider regeneration partners.
Removing Barriers to Employability
- This 2024 SURF Award will be presented to a project that supports community regeneration by providing skills and employability support to help people fulfil their potential.
Creative Regeneration
- This 2024 SURF Awards category will reward best practice in placing artists, arts and creativity at the heart of community regeneration efforts. This includes highlighting creative organisations and projects which support the ongoing recovery and rebuilding of their communities.
Community Led Regeneration
- This 2024 SURF Awards category will reward best practice in a regeneration project which features representatives of a community of place or theme in a leading role.

Why you should Enter?

Demonstrating Value
- The SURF Awards are widely recognised as the most prestigious in the field of Scottish community regeneration. Past winning and shortlisted projects report that recognition in the SURF Awards process has been beneficial in demonstrating their success and value to partner bodies and funding agencies.
Recognition and Team
- Building The SURF Awards process is helpful in increasing wider awareness of the often underappreciated hard work that goes into regeneration projects large and small. It also supports teambuilding by recognising the contribution of partners, management, staff and volunteers.
Showcasing Success
- Winning projects in each of five award categories will be presented with a certificate from a leading Scottish Government Minister at a high-profile celebratory dinner event on Thursday 5th December in Glasgow. Winning projects will also be showcased in a variety of SURF and Scottish Government events, publications and online channels in 2025.
National Profile
- A special SURF Awards publication will highlight all shortlisted entries. It will be widely distributed to over 3000 regeneration stakeholders and key policy-makers across Scotland.

Eligibility Criteria

The SURF Awards are open to any project or initiative, taking place in Scotland, which is currently in place or which has been completed within two years of the closing date.
Improving Scotland’s Places
- Entries will be expected to show the journey that the place has been on, demonstrating progress against the following aspects:
  - Participation:
    - How has the project supported effective participation with the community, public and third sector organisations, and other bodies;
  - Resilient Economy:
    - In what ways has the project improved economic opportunities for local people and businesses, and delivered better engagement with private businesses and social enterprises;
  - Outcomes for the Community:
    - How has the project achieved social and other benefits for local residents, workers and service users;
  - Physical Improvements:
    - How has the project improved the whole place, such as better public spaces, access to public services, transport and digital infrastructure;
  - Pride of Place:
    - How has the project improved the image/ identity of the place, and enhanced ‘pride of place’.
Housing and Regeneration
- Entries will be expected to demonstrate the following:
  - Need:
    - The demand for the project and the appropriateness of the response;
  - Cooperation:
    - Effective partnership collaboration in producing an appropriate strategy and practical outcomes;
  - Engagement:
    - Evidence of meaningful community engagement in the development process;
  - Outcomes:
    - Evidence of wider regeneration benefits, beyond housing itself, for the area(s) and/or target community(ies);
  - Sustainability:
    - A realistic plan for building on the initial benefits of the development, towards its wider and longer term legacy.
Removing Barriers to Employability
- Entries will be expected to demonstrate the following:
  - Effectiveness:
    - Evidence an ability to progress participants into sustained positive destinations;
  - Flexibility and Creativity:
    - Detail flexibility, creativity and tailored support to individuals;
  - Inclusion and Barrier Removal:
    - Showcase examples of the support offered which encourages inclusion and assists barrier removal and the successful progression into employment, education or training;
  - Collaboration and Partnership:
    - Evidence effective engagement with partners, or other organisations, to support participant’s progression;
  - Legacy:
    - Be able to evidence successful learning outcomes, models of good practice and examples of how you have/will share this with others.
Creative Regeneration
- Entries will be expected to demonstrate:
  - Need:
    - The need for the project and how the local community benefits in terms of wellbeing and creativity;
  - Engagement:
    - Involvement from the community, working with artists in the concept, design and delivery of a project to benefit participants and/or the wider community;
  - Creativity:
    - Creative approaches designed to celebrate cultural and artistic ambitions that are rooted in the local community, or encourage ongoing creative activities in the local community. Under this criterion the judges will also consider how creative organisations support communities, artists and creative practitioners;
  - Cooperation:
    - Evidence of appropriate and effective partnership engagement;
  - Outcomes:
    - Practical benefits from the work of the project, for example, increased community cohesion or creative ambition within the community and/or targeted area;
  - Sustainability:
    - How the project can continue to support communities in the longer term, or may change in the work of the organisation/project in the future.
Community Led Regeneration
- Entries will be expected to demonstrate the following aspects:
  - Need:
    - The demand for the project;
  - Local Leadership:
    - High level involvement of the local community in the conception, design and operation of the project;
  - Activity:
    - Enhanced levels of participation and cohesion within the community concerned;
  - Outcomes:
    - Benefits for the wider community, including positive impacts in preventing or offsetting deprivation or exclusion;
  - Cooperation:
    - Evidence of committed partnership activity;
  - Sustainability:
    - A practical vision for the viability of the project in the longer term.