A day with the New Beginnings Club Human Rights and Responsibilities planning day

NBC Planning Day For the last 18 months or so Outside the Box has been providing support to New Beginnings Club (nbc) members. nbc is a member led charitable organisation, offering friendship, activities, fun and adventure to people with disabilities throughout East Lothian. The ethos of nbc has always been about using people’s talents, skills,…

Read More
Summer sessions and Marie McNair MSP visit

Summer sessions and Marie McNair MSP visit At our latest Moments of Freedom session we met again in the fantastic Centre 81. This also happened to be last day of the summer kids camp and the centre was full of excitement and laughter. Group session The women have been working on bunting and a banner…

Read More
Could you be a Borders Buddy? 

Could you be a Borders Buddy?  Do you have a few hours to spare to support someone to get out a bit more? Maybe you could be a volunteer Buddy for Borders Buddies. Borders Buddies is a project of Outside the Box, which after running a pilot project now has Lottery funding to work for…

Read More
Neighbourhood Networks Evaluation of the Peer Support Network in North Ayrshire May 2023

Neighbourhood Networks – North Ayrshire Evaluation Neighbourhood Networks are a Scottish charity who have supported people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, and mental health issues for over 20 years. “Through local networks of mutual support, we will work with people in their neighbourhoods to deliver the support they require to live independently in their own…

Read More
Contacting elected representatives

Contacting your elected representatives Sometimes it’s hard to know who to go to for help about a problem. Finding out and then contacting your elected representatives can sometimes be even trickier if you haven’t done it before. As part of our Connecting Equalities project we have been speaking to people across Scotland to find out…

Read More
Borders Buddies Case Study  

Borders Buddies Case Study   From Anna, who is supported by her Buddy, Jayne: “I wanted a buddy to help me do my shopping and get out a little bit more, as I’d been in the house for too long, not able to get out much by myself. I couldn’t get out much with my daughter…

Read More
Borders Buddies in Hawick and Tweeddale

Borders Buddies in Hawick and Tweeddale  Borders Buddies began life as a post-pandemic pilot in Tweeddale.   The project works by supporting people who have become isolated due to various circumstances to reconnect, with the support of a volunteer Buddy. People are paired with others with common interests.  Thanks to National Lottery Improving Lives funding, we…

Read More
New Beginnings Club (nbc) - East Lothian

New Beginnings Club (nbc)  Nbc is a group for adults with a learning and physical disabilities but unlike most other organisations that support people with physical and learning disabilities, nbc is run entirely by disabled people.  Members are the Trustees, they make the decisions on their priorities and the activities they want to do with…

Read More
Community Solutions

How can getting together with other people for a chat make health services work better? Part 2 Over the past few years Outside the Box has been working with people in the NHS and councils, national bodies, and community groups.  The work was in partnership with  Healthcare Improvement Scotland.  All the ideas and case examples…

Read More
Community Solutions

How can getting together with other people for a chat make health services work better?  There is a lot of attention on the pressures that the NHS and social care services are facing.  Part of the solution comes from partnerships across different parts of the services and especially with the community sector.  That starts when…

Read More