What does it mean to live well? And what does it take for a community to make it happen in the face of disappearing jobs, increased cost of living and a changing climate?

Join Kaska Hempel, our Story Lead, as she visits Shotts in North Lanarkshire to meet Mags Murphy and Mark Slorance from Getting Better Together, one of Scotland's innovative Healthy Living Centres. Together they explore how their community has led for 25 years on helping local people live well - building better health and, more recently, weaving climate action into everyday community life.

Hosts Laura McDonald (Scottish Community Development Centre) and Pam Candea (Scottish Communities Climate Action Network) reflect on the story, exploring how communities can improve health and wellbeing while creating a more resilient future, and what Unbound can learn from places where climate action grows naturally from the things that matter most to people.

Becoming Unbound is the pilot podcast mini-series for the Unbound Scotland project, which supports community-led action on climate and health across Scotland.

Through conversations rooted in lived experience, the series explores how communities are responding to climate and health challenges - and how these stories can help shape the future of Unbound.

Chapters

00:40 Host Introduction

02:25 Welcome to Shotts

11:39 Something Had to Change

16:38 Making Things Happen

21:34 A Place for the Community

24:11 Living Well

30:01 When the Weather Changes

33:45 Building Resilience

39:01 Keep the Wheel Turning

44:13 Host Reflection: The Story Beyond Shotts

Resources

Unbound Scotland project website: https://www.unbound.scot/

Getting Better Together website: https://shottshealthyliving.com/

The Community Health Exchange (CHEX): https://www.chex.org.uk/

Healthy Living Centres - the origin story and long-term survival through Healthy Living Centre Alliance: https://www.seemescotland.org/media/7290/one-vision.pdf

Scottish Communities for Health and Wellbeing - An alliance of community led health organisations dedicated to promoting and delivering health improvements and reducing health inequalities in Scotland’s communities: https://www.schw.co.uk/

Health Issues in the Community resource: www.hiic.org.uk

Shotts Climate Plan: https://shottshealthyliving.com/downloads/Shotts_Community_Climate_Action_Plan_20.05.22.pdf

Story of how Shotts Climate Plan came together:

https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/blog/2022/shotts-is-acting-now-on-climate-change/

Environmental Key Fund: https://environmentalkeyfund.com/

Info on Community Benefit Funds: https://www.gov.scot/news/communities-benefit-from-renewable-energy/

Investing in Communities Fund: https://www.gov.scot/publications/investing-in-communities-fund-round-2-approved-awards-2023-2026/

Credits

Kaska Hempel (design, production, interviewing, editing)

Blip Blop Tuesday by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/558270/ -- License: Attribution 4.0