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Exchange Case Studies
Long Term Conditions Hebrides (LTCH)
Network: Community Health Exchange
Exchange: Long Term Conditions Hebrides (LTCH) is a community organisation in the Western Isles of Scotland which aims to enhance the life experience and wellbeing of people living with a Long Term Condition (LTC) and their carers. In 2023, LTCH purchased Mindful Creative Craft Packs from local social enterprise, Red Chair Highland, as well as four sessions of online Reiki provided by Glasgow-based social enterprise, The Wee Retreat. The Mindful Creative Craft Packs were used at LTCH’s monthly face-to-face sessions with around 15 participants at each session .
Impact: “The sessions enabled our members to connect and enjoy a sense of wellbeing by participating in new activities. The activities provided through the Community Wellbeing Exchange allowed us the freedom to source provision from a diverse virtual market place to improve mental health and social isolation.” LTCH
For Red Chair Highland and The Wee Retreat, the Exchange connected them to identified needs and confirmed demand for their services.
Healthy n Happy Community Development Trust
Network: Scottish Communities for Health and Wellbeing (SCHW)
Exchange: Healthy n Happy Community Development Trust were able to further their support to local community groups affected by the cost of living crisis- offering a menu of free of charge, purposeful opportunities to local adults to build confidence and self-esteem. Their place-based approach meant they were able to buy in local services from social enterprises with a focus on mental health and wellbeing to support people experiencing poverty and poor mental health.
Impact: “The Community Wellbeing Exchange funding enabled us to provide adults living in communities in the top 5-20% SIMD in Cambuslang and Rutherglen who are disproportionately affected by poverty, unemployment, poor health, poor educational attainment, poor housing and crime- free of charge positive, wellbeing supporting activities they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.”
For local social enterprises, access to the Community Wellbeing Exchange helped them to develop new relationships with community groups and organisations across Rutherglen and Cambuslang. This provided them with access to new markets through extended reach in their local area.
Creative Natives
Network: Social Enterprise Scotland (SES)
Exchange: Creative Natives is a partnership project between Community Enterprise and Cyrenians. It provides a space where young people aged 12 to 24 can grow their creative potential, confidence and connections in an Art and Design studio. Creative Natives wanted to buy in services from Eat, Sleep, Ride to improve opportunities for young people experiencing poverty and gender discrimination leading to poor mental and physical health.
Impact: This session allowed our young people to have a positive outdoor experience, which they rarely get to experience due to economic status and mental health. A few of them commented on how they didn’t think they could enjoy being outside so much! Overall, the staff were excellent at creating an emotionally safe space, and were able to ease the anxieties of the young people not through forcing them to participate, but by letting them take things at their own pace and providing gentle encouragement. The difference in the young people’s confidence between the start and end of the session was astonishing.
For Eat, Sleep, Ride the Exchange allowed them to explore a sustainable enterprise model by increasing awareness of their services and the confidence to offer their services to a more diverse customer base.
