About

Outside the Box provides development support to groups and people across Scotland who want to make a difference in their communities.

We began in 2004. We are a small, independent charity and aim to work as a social enterprise.

We give practical support and enable people to learn the types of skills that are important both for establishing new ventures and for sustaining them.

We assist people to contribute on issues that are about how their community or how society works. For example, we support people to share their skills and experiences, work with others to develop community-based solutions to challenges they experience, and have their voices heard in policy.

We encourage people to think of themselves and other people as citizens, rather than as recipients of services or as people who are restricted by a particular description or label.

Over the years have learned about the issues that affect the thousands of people and hundreds of groups with whom we’ve worked, and about what kinds of community development support work best in different situations. Watch our short video sharing what we do:

The starting point for Outside the Box’s work is our belief that in Scotland too many people are marginalised and disadvantaged or because of their age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability, or because they live in poverty or in an area which has few resources.

As a consequence, individual people do not have the same opportunities and choices that other people enjoy, and the community as a whole is poorer for the loss of those potential contributions.

We believe that people who are marginalised are part of the solution to these problems.

• Everyone can contribute to their community and to society if they have the right encouragement and support. One of the contributions we all make is our presence.
• Everyone’s experience and ideas matter.
• The labels society puts on people do not change the contributions we are all able to make.
• There are benefits both to individual people, and to our communities, when all people are welcomed and included.
• Everyone has the right to have access to services and other supports that are relevant to their circumstances and choices, which are delivered to high standards, and which treat them and others with respect.
• Organisations are better at what they do when they listen to, act on and learn from the views and experiences of the people whom they are there to serve, and when they work in partnership with their communities.
• Action to make real, sustainable change happen starts from where people are, and works with their strengths, enthusiasms and priorities.
• We can all get ideas from what other people have done and what has been tried in other places. We can also share what we have learned with other people.
• Society is stronger when we celebrate each other’s contributions and value our own.

We work under the following key themes:

Having Different Conversations

Creating Inclusive Communities

People Having More Choice in their Lives

Building Strong Sustainable Organisations

Our diverse range of projects have impacts for individuals, groups and communities, and in society more widely. Watch our short video on the difference Outside the Box’s approach makes:

Some of our work is delivered in partnership with the National Development Team for Inclusion.

All of our work involves partnerships with other people and organisations. Making positive change possible always involves teamwork, and we would like to thank everyone we have worked with across organisations, areas and communities.

Outside The Box is a recognised ‘Mum Friendly Workplace’, meaning we meet the standards identified by mums as being supportive and flexible for mums returning to work.

Outside The Box is a certified Living Wage employer.

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In 2020, Outside The Box received the Cyber Essentials accreditation.