Rural Wisdom Evaluation – What we are hearing from Scotland?

By OTBJanuary 15, 2021January 15, 2021 Contributing to age-friendly communities, Evaluation, Rural Wisdom Scotland Evaluation, Older People, Rural Communities Leave a comment

As part of the evaluation in Scotland, we have gathered people’s experiences and impacts from local areas. These are some of the things we have been hearing around the impacts for people

Fuel Poverty and Cold Homes in Moray

By OTBDecember 16, 2020December 22, 2020 Housing & fuel poverty, Rural Wisdom Scotland

Our Rural Wisdom project works alongside Burghead and Cummingston, two small villages on the Moray Coast. They are off the gas grid and people have been telling us that they are struggling to heat their houses due to rising prices and lack of fuel choice.

Creating a butterfly garden

By OTBSeptember 29, 2020December 22, 2020 Active & connected, Contributing to age-friendly communities, Living well, Rural Wisdom Scotland

By Shereen Devine and Rachel Evans We are six months in, and the pandemic continues to highlight loneliness, isolation and the frustrations that come with the lockdown. To address these issues, local colleagues are looking into reviving the Pembrokeshire Befriending Network. In the meantime, we continue to provide support for people who are still shielding…

Care Homes and Communities – our recent experience and what has helped

By OTBJuly 30, 2020December 22, 2020 Contributing to age-friendly communities, Living well, Rural Wisdom Scotland

The role of care homes has been so important over the past few months, and many communities have realised that they can help people who live there and staff who work in care homes. These are some of the things that we have been hearing about – both where the community helps the care home…

Our Journey so far in the Scottish Borders.

By OTBJuly 29, 2020December 22, 2020 Contributing to age-friendly communities, Living well, Rural Wisdom Scotland

Rural Wisdom is working to make rural communities work well for people as we get older and for other people who live there. We started working in the Scottish Borders in late 2018, and this video celebrates some of what we have achieved so far. For more information about our work in…

Pembrokeshire & Flintshire COVID-19 Response Project

By OTBJune 24, 2020December 22, 2020 Living well, Rural Wisdom Wales

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, 2020December 22, 2020 Living well, Rural Wisdom Scotland

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, 2020December 22, 2020 Living well, National policies, Rural Wisdom Scotland, Rural Wisdom Wales

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, 2020December 22, 2020 Housing & fuel poverty, Older people having a voice & leading change, Rural Wisdom Scotland, Shared learning

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, 2020December 22, 2020 Living well, Rural Wisdom Wales

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…