Pembrokeshire & Flintshire COVID-19 Response Project

By OTBJune 24, 2020June 24, 2020 Wales Covid-19 response, Rural Wisdom, Volunteering Matters Leave a comment

We hope you are well and adapting to the current way of living. It certainly has been a challenging few months. Like many projects, Rural Wisdom delivery has been hugely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the safety of community members, volunteers and staff in mind, we stopped our face-to-face activities the week before our…

North Moray Coast’s Response to COVID-19

By OTBJune 10, 2020 Moray community Leave a comment

The North Moray Coast communities have come together and responded quickly and effectively to the Covid-19 pandemic. The first actions were taken by Burghead and Cummingston Community Council. They called for volunteers, with Chris Tuke as a focal point. The response was great with many more volunteers than tasks to do tasks like shopping for…

Rural Wisdom: How older people in rural communities are responding to the pandemic

By OTBMay 7, 2020May 7, 2020 Rural News Leave a comment

Rural Wisdom is a joint project between Outside the Box, Volunteering Matters Cymru and the National Development Team for inclusion. It is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund. It began in 2017 now operates in nine different communities across Scotland and Wales. We work with older people in rural communities to support community action…

Rural Housing Conference 2020 at Birnam Arts and Conference Centre

By OTBMarch 12, 2020 Moray, Rural News, Scotland Leave a comment

by Fi Thomson, Rural Wisdom Community Worker, Moray Housing in Rural Scotland is a complex problem. Key issues such as land ownership, demographics and depopulation, holiday houses and tourism, rural enterprise and affordability were all discussed at this conference in the lovely surroundings in Birnam. The attendees included journalist and broadcaster, Lesley Riddoch whose talk was aptly named ‘Not Doomed…

Food bringing people together..

By OTBMarch 10, 2020March 11, 2020 Flintshire Leave a comment

By Shereen Devine I think many of my Blogs involve food, and this month is no different. Putting aside my obsession and love of food, I do believe it brings people together and helps to remove barriers. An example of this is the monthly lunch club held in Ysgol Derwenfa in Leeswood. This activity brings…

Exploring alternative energy and fuel poverty in Moray

By OTBMarch 3, 2020March 3, 2020 Moray, Scotland Leave a comment

by Fi Thomson, community worker in Moray One of the first community meetings I went to was a get together to discuss Burghead, Cummingston and Hopeman becoming less reliant on oil and electricity and maybe even producing their own energy. There was interest in renewable and energy and the idea of a development trust to implement it, but it…

Rural Wisdom Evaluation Key findings, January 2020

By OTBFebruary 11, 2020February 11, 2020 Scotland, Wales Leave a comment

The National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTI) are the appointed evaluation partners of the Rural Wisdom project. Following their visits and research, they have now published their key findings fo far, along with a number of case studies that highlight the varied and interesting work of the project: Rural Wisdom Evaluation Key findings, January 2020…

Rural Wisdom 2020 News

By OTBJanuary 30, 2020April 14, 2020 Angus, Borders, Borders and Moray, Eaglesham, Flintshire, Highland Perthshire, Holywell and the Dale Peninsula, Milford Haven, Moray, Scotland, Wales Leave a comment

In this issue, we celebrate some of the initiatives, projects, events and ideas set up with older people in rural communities. Download the PDF version here In October, community members and workers from Scotland and Wales came together to discuss Rural Wisdom. It was a chance to take stock and reflect on all the successes…

Scottish Borders Transport – Transport & Medical Appointments

By OTBJanuary 20, 2020 Borders, Scotland, Transport rural communities, Rural Transport Leave a comment

The final area we looked at during the event in Duns was issues around transport to and from medical appointments. Issues raised Travel time and/or access to transport is not taken into account when appointments are being scheduled. It also feels like those who are making the appointments have limited local knowledge of how…

Scottish Borders Transport – Bus Stops & Pavements

By OTBJanuary 20, 2020January 20, 2020 Borders, Scotland, Transport rural communities, Rural Transport Leave a comment

Another area we looked at during our event in Duns back in November was Bus Stops & Pavements as a persons journey begins the minute they leave their home so that includes are the pavements even?, does the bus stop have a shelter? Or is their benches for resting? Issues raised Many of the issues…