It’s all change at Outside the Box. We’re kicking off this summer with a move of office (just down the corridor, but we’ve been enjoying the summer sun through our new big windows). Even better, we’ve got four new members of staff to look after it. We’re delighted to welcome Alice, Ciara, Christine and Ruth to our team, with all the new enthusiasm and expertise that they are bringing to Outside the Box. We’re particularly excited about the boost in capacity for our projects as each of them will be working alongside Anne, Louise and our partners with different aspects of our work supporting vulnerable groups & building community capacity throughout Scotland.

Alice is working on Choose Life – a project which focuses on suicide prevention services in Glasgow. She is also working on our social innovation and micro enterprise work through our Getting There project, as well as doing work around self-directed support (SDS), particularly for those involved in the criminal justice system.

Ciara is involved in the next phase of our Peer Support for Parents project; we are researching parents with more complex needs who might be missed by existing support services and working with them to set up peer support groups and produce a series of hints and tips. She is also working on Permission to Dream, a project working with people with poor mental health to encourage them to imagine a positive future.

Christine’s work has a focus on food; she is leading on our Borders Food Buddies project which develops peer support for people living with dementia and for their carers, as well as Falkirk Food Buddies which is open to all older people – including people living with dementia – and their carers; both projects focus on all aspects of food and keeping well. She is also involved with Flourishing Borders which aims to encourage good mental health and wellbeing among older people in Scottish Borders.

Ruth will be taking the lead on our work with older people in rural communities through our new Rural Wisdom project, this builds on our Wisdom in Practise work and aims to better understand and find ways to improve the experience of older people in rural communities throughout Scotland and the rest of the UK. She will also be part of our development support work with Shelter.

With all this going on we’re going to have lots to share – make sure you’re following us on twitter, and give our new facebook page a like!