…by employing six new wonderful people to bring even more energy and ideas to our work and help our projects grow!
Jill, Kate and Caroline have joined Outside the Box as Community Development Advisors (working alongside Louise and Ania). They’re going to be building on our Peer Support for Parents project; developing our work to raise awareness of older people’s mental health and wellbeing; moving forwards with Moving Forward which is working to create more choice and control in support for people in the criminal justice system; preparing this year’s roadshow of We’re Here Too events highlighting ways in which older people can be part of shaping the services they use – and much more.
Another Jill, Shona and Nicky have also been warmly welcomed into Outside the Box as Development Workers for our Rural Wisdom project, working to make rural areas work better for older people. Jill’s work will be focused in the areas surrounding Aberfeldy, Shona’s in the North Angus glens, and Nicky will be working across both.
We’re delighted to have them all on board and part of our growing team and look forward to being able to support even more people across Scotland to make a difference in their communities.
Read on to hear what our new staff are excited about working on and get in touch with any of them to say hello and find out more about what they’re doing (see About Us for photos and emails of our full staff team)
Community Development Workers
Jill Keegan – jill.k@otbds.org
Providing people with a fixed point to navigate from so that they are able to take the lead in affecting positive change for their communities is vital, particularly in our current climate. I feel very happy to be part of an organisation whose work promotes this. I’m particularly looking forward to helping progress the Families project in working with peer support for Mums going back to work – this is something that resonates with me having just experienced this new journey myself.
Caroline Peter – caroline@otbds.org
What stands out to me is the seemingly simple idea, at the core of Outside the Box, to enable local people to express what they feel is needed in their community and what would help them achieve their aims. Among other things, I have been tasked with taking forward some items of work within the Families project and I’m really excited about getting going with this so watch this space!
Kate Robertson – kate@otbds.org
After working with communities in North Glasgow for the past seven years I’m looking forward to working alongside and learning from a variety of different communities across the country. It’s great to be doing this with Outside the Box, an organisation that values and promotes the strengths, experiences and knowledge that lie within every community.
Rural Wisdom Development Workers
Nicky Bolland – nicky@otbds.org
I’ll be exploring how we can support older residents in rural communities to meaningfully shape the places they live in. I’m excited about this work because I think that creative and collective working is central to assisting communities in making the change they want to see and this is at the core of what Outside of the Box does.
Jill Davies – jill@otbds.org
I’m looking forward to meeting and working with local older people to find solutions for their community that meet the changing challenges of rural living in stunning Highland Perthshire.
Shona Laidlaw – shona@otbds.org
I am particularly looking forward to getting to know the older people in North Angus, to work with them in identifying what they enjoy most about where they live and what support can Outside the Box offer to continue to support them enjoying their communities.