At Outside the Box we know co-production is important. Without working with the communities we support we can’t ever achieve real change. That’s why, this co-production week 2018, we are celebrating the ways we have used co-production well at Outside the Box.

Local People Linking is a project where we work with older people to help them be aware of their human rights during informal training sessions. Before these sessions we have open chats about what issues are affecting the people, and we use co-production in this way to make sure that we talk through the real concerns. The old saying ‘nothing about us without us’ still rings true and we know that the best people to describe the issues in an area are those living there.

Thanks to this approach we have uncovered some obstacles that we were not aware of. People have opened up to us about barriers they experience and we have encouraged groups to open up about things that could work better for them, no matter how small they may seem. Our Local People Linking project has just rounded up our work in East Renfrewshire. In East Renfrewshire we were able to work with many groups to help support improvements by providing information and connecting older people with the organisations, groups and people that could help. We also have created a booklet on how to get support in your local area – so be sure to keep an eye out on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages for when we release it!

We are now continuing the project in West Dunbartonshire. If you know of a group of older people that would be interested in our free learning about rights sessions then get in touch by contacting Alice by emailing alice@otbds.org or by calling 07925 219 327. To find out more about Local People Linking take a look at our project page.