Funding from the William Grant Foundation of £40,000 for 2 years supported a Marine Community Officer post. This was CAOLAS’s first paid role and allowed CAOLAS to focus on growing capacity both internally and externally and develop a community engagement strategy to raise awareness and appreciation of the marine environment in our local communities. One outcome of this approach was a Primary School Poetry competition celebrating the MPA.
That same year, funding from Fauna and Flora supported our collaborative work with three other coastal community groups in the MPA area, CROMACH, Friends of the Sound of Jura and Save Seil Sound who were also receiving support from F&F, in creating the Argyll Coast and Islands Hope Spot, the first Mission Blue Hope Spot in the UK. We sought this designation as a means to elevate the rich and under-appreciated marine environment of the MPA and as a tool for education and engagement each coastal community group could utilise within its own work.