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Community Solutions

Community Solutions is the partnership work between Outside the Box and Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) that we have been developing since mid–2019.

The focus is finding practical solutions to many current challenges and increase the learning and options around community solutions that give people more access to social care and health care in Scotland.

People from organisations across Scotland have been sharing their experiences and examples of what is working and the challenges they face.

Community Solutions - by ihub and Outside the Box

What we're doing

In 2022 we:

gathered examples of community solutions to giving people better access to health and social care, and taking pressure off health services
held drop-in digital sessions to share the experiences of community organisations delivering support
produced a final report, report summary, digital diagrams and diagram notes.

In 2021 we worked with community groups and HSCP staff to learn from the experiences of responding to Covid. There are publications on how people find the support that is right for them, and how community sector services show the impact of the support they provide.

One focus has been learning how storytelling can help people working and volunteering in the 3rd sector and social care. In 2021 we held a series of workshops with Mindwaves and the Village Storytelling Centre, including podcasting, animation, zine making and storytelling.

The impact it's having so far

The 2021 resources have helped more people develop community solutions that work for their communities and are supporting partnerships between community organisations, health services and social care services.

One development is the Co-shadowing approach, as part of people from different organisations and sectors learning more about each other and building greater trust. You can find more information about co-shadowing here.

Participants from the communications workshops now have the skills and knowledge to make their own animations. Check out one of the videos from the sessions here.

We hope our new resources from September 2022 will help to make better use of local resources and services this winter and help communities to get ahead and be better prepared for future demands and pressures.

We know that small changes that positively impact people at a very local level are much easier to achieve – it might not affect as many people as big systems changes, but will make the lives of those local people much better, much faster.