Our Membership

Outside the Box is an independent charity, with a board of trustees and members. Our membership is an important part of who we are and how we work at Outside the Box. We work with people across Scotland, supporting their ideas for making their communities work better for everyone. Our members bring community knowledge, diverse skills and ideas, helping to shape our plans and make positive things happen.

Leadership at every level

In Outside the Box we believe a big part of our role is supporting community leadership. We encourage leadership at every level - of our organisation, in partnerships, and in communities we work with. Being a leader can involve sharing your ideas and listening, using your confidence and supporting other people's confidence. We find working together, and letting all our different leadership strengths and skills shine, helps create the best impacts.

About Outside the Box membership

Our members are from communities we work with, in different places across Scotland and with different experiences. Our members share a passion and commitment for community-led action. Bringing a range of perspectives, everyone in the Outside the Box community wants to make things work in equal, supportive, inclusive ways for everyone.

Our membership includes people who are part of the projects Outside the Box supports. For example, women from Moments of Freedom, a network of New Scots women developing their community leadership skills to build connections and share culture. As members they bring their skills and experience to the Outside the Box, helping to guide our wider work too.

How membership makes a difference

People who are part of a community are best placed to have the deepest understanding of what it needs, what’s likely to work, and how to nurture creative ideas.

Our members have different skills and qualities they bring to working together. These include:

Passion for their communities
Deep knowledge about barriers and human rights issues people face
Good at working together – and helping other people work together
Experience of community-building, and developing good ideas
Technical skills – from digital to cooking and woodwork
Emotional strengths and empathy

We work with whole communities – across Scotland – and our membership needs to reflect that! This includes people of different ages and generations, and with different roles in their community.

Membership can be very rewarding for people who want to learn different things, or share what they know to help others. It can also be a good opportunity for people interested in having their voices heard in how things work. Being part of a charity membership is a way to gain experience in how different organisations work, share your ideas, and make connections with a wider network of people.

How to become a member

We hold one or two welcoming induction meetings for new members across the year, so we can support people in our communities to get involved. If you would like to learn more or become a member, you can ask any member of the Outside the Box team, or let us know you're interested using our Contact form. We will add your name to a waiting list, and email when we're planning the next induction for new members.

You can also subscribe to our e-newsletter to stay up to date with all our work.