At Outside the Box we like to stay busy and are working across Scotland on a variety of different projects. One project that started just last year is Local People Linking where we are looking at sharing an awareness of older people’s human rights to make life better for older people.

Caroline, one of our Community Development Advisors, has been working on this project in Moray and Aberdeenshire. Caroline helped with setting up a Conversation Café in Stonehaven. The café has been great at encouraging the community to come into the local care home once a month so residents can come along, meet up with old friends and neighbours or take part in an activity in a very relaxed setting. It is brilliant that so many different people of different ages have come along.

Through the Conversation Café Caroline has been able to invite along different organisations. This has meant that people from the organisations can chat about any issues people have in a relaxed and informal way. Through the café people have been able to talk about what keeps them well and share tips. People at the café have also benefited from getting copies of resources we have made for other projects, such as our Surviving Christmas and New Year booklet and our Winter Tips.

It has been fantastic to hear that people are saying such good things about the café, and care home has been especially positive about what Caroline is doing.

What’s next?

Caroline plans to hold a free training session looking at older people’s human rights this year. At the moment there is no confirmed date for this but the plan is that a session will take place in Aberdeenshire. If you fancy coming along contact Caroline by emailing caroline@otbds.org or by calling 07841015845.