Report to the People
Community Parliament Partnership
Last Friday saw the launch of a new project which will bring the Scottish Parliament even closer to the people of Inverclyde.
James Watt College and my local office have joined forces to launch the "Community Parliament Partnership."
In the first ever initiative of its kind in Scotland, the Partnership will allow us, through pooling our talents and resources, to run a number of projects which will increase access to, and participation in, the work of the Scottish Parliament. The Partnership will also give students at the college and those involved in the community unprecedented access to the Parliament, constituency events, politicians and other staff to assist them in their course-work or in gaining valuable work experience.
We began on Friday by donating a wide range of reference materials to the College library. Any student or member of the public will soon be able to have free, easy access to the Scottish Parliament Official Report, Committee Reports, Parliamentary Questions and other official documents published by the Parliament.
In addition, the library will hold major Scottish Executive publications, briefing and policy material from a wide range of interest groups, and the annual reports of important Scottish organisations.
Throughout the year, we will be rolling out further projects. For example, we intend to host events to encourage more people to take advantage of further education, together with Scottish Parliament information days throughout the area.
The Partnership will also be operating a scheme whereby students at the college can use the Parliament as a basis for course-work or work-experience. Asides from the obvious benefits to politics students of seeing how a Parliament runs on a daily basis, media studies students could, for example, witness how lobby journalists work. Graphic design students would have the opportunity to devise methods of getting the complex ideas and messages across to the public in an accessible form.
Indeed, as we said at our final meeting before the launch - "The possibilities are endless."
Since being elected as your MSP over a year ago, I have been working to widen access to the political process. Under the umbrella of the Partnership, access to such expertise and resources will broaden the knowledge base of our community organisations and enhance the learning process for our students.
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