# Time for a brighter outlook? I wasn’t surprised by the findings of SCVO’s Scotland’s Future survey undertaken this summer – they echo my experience of the lack of inspirational debate and poor engagement with the changes our decision next year could open up. I’ve remained very much on the periphery of these discussions, having long ago grown disillusioned with the petty point scoring of party politics which feels wasteful and has little impact on the massive ‘wicked issues’ we could be addressing. I sincerely hope the conversation around our future doesn’t suffer from the same, but unfortunately so far it feels like it has. While it’s important that we aren’t naive or don’t deny the very powerful factions involved in this debate, it is my intense hope we can think beyond these limited perspectives, and the associated squabbles, and explore what we want. What I long for is to use this historical opportunity to fully consider Scotland’s future. * As a country, what’s important to us? * What is our vision? * How can we get there? * What needs to be in place? * What needs to change? These are huge, exciting questions to me, which I don’t think we need to feel intimidated by. There are many clues to the potential answers already. It’s a matter of joining them up. Here are a few examples: * As a country we have historically consistently rejected Conservative policy and social injustice. * The [Postcards From Scotland](http://www.postcardsfromscotland.co.uk/) series published by Argyll Publishing and the Centre for Confidence and Well-being was designed to stimulate and communicate new thinking and new ways of living. Let’s use these potentially powerful materials to help us explore our vision. * The launch of [The Common Weal](http://www.scottishcommonweal.org/) and its intention to become an online speaker’s corner to explore our priorities and publish papers on the key areas it is important we explore. * An assets-based approach is much talked about. How about using this approach of valuing positive capacities, skills, knowledge and connections to build our future? * Scotland’s [Poverty Truth Commission](http://www.povertytruthcommission.org/) offers up some powerful challenges to us on how we could tackle poverty together. Their motto ‘Nothing about us without us is for us’ provides a baseline from which our exploration needs to be happening if it’s to be meaningful. I believe that as a sector it’s important we support engagement with this historic opportunity. For me, claims of neutrality are passive acceptance of the status quo. Yes it can be challenging to engage folk when they may have disengaged, not felt valued when they have engaged or never felt engaged. There are lots of tools out there, and with some time, people and resources we could get folk imaging their vision of Scotland’s future through the use of things like ‘wish webs’. Let’s share what our hopes for ourselves, our families, our communities and our country are. Then let’s see how best we can deliver. --- ## About SCVO SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) is the national membership organisation for Scotland's voluntary sector. Our role is to champion the role of voluntary organisations in Scotland and to support them to do work that has a positive impact. SCVO supports members and the wider voluntary sector with all aspects of setting up and running a voluntary organisation. SCVO represents the needs and concerns of the voluntary sector to the Scottish government in Holyrood and UK government and Westminster. Through our learning and events programme SCVO offers training and development opportunities to the sector. Members access an extensive membership benefits package including specialist, in-depth, 1-to-1 guidance from our Information Services team and from professional service partners. Access to exclusive membership networks (including comms, employers, governance and policy) supports members to grow their connections, stay up to date, exchange ideas and views with peers, and learn through tailored learning opportunities. SCVO members enjoy free access to Funding Scotland Premium to stay on top of funding opportunities to support their organisation’s financial resilience. Discounts and savings on SCVO products and services (including our HR service, managed IT support, payroll service and events and training) and partner offers provide members with support to allow them to focus on delivering their organisation’s goals. Further SCVO products and services include [extensive digital support](https://scvo.scot/support/digital), a climate action resource [Growing Climate Confidence](https://climateconfident.scot), a voluntary sector publication [Third Force News](https://tfn.scot) and a voluntary sector jobs and recruitment service [Goodmoves](https://goodmoves.org). For more information on SCVO membership, visit [SCVO membership](https://scvo.scot/membership)