Thinking Outside the Box for community health and well-being

The Drone Hill Wind Farm Community Fund supports community projects benefiting those living in the areas covered by Reston & Auchencrow, Grantshouse, Coldingham, and Cockburnspath & Cove Community Councils. The fund is provided by Schroders Greencoat, the owners of the Drone Hill Wind Farm in East Berwickshire.  The fund opened in 2012.

Outside the Box’s vision is a society where communities are welcoming and inclusive, and where people can contribute to making their communities work well for them and for everyone. They help achieve this by supporting people to make their communities work better. They applied to funding so that they could continue with their LINKS (Linking Ideas for Nourishment, Knowledge, and Support) project, to be delivered within Eyemouth and the surrounding Drone Hill Fund area.  

The project commenced in June 2023, and is due to be completed in June 2024.  LINKS connects families in Eyemouth and the Fund area, connecting them to healthy cooking and eating opportunities.

The project aims to primarily address energy saving techniques, as well as sustainable lifestyle changes. OTB hope that these workshops will help to directly tackle some of the concerns raised by local residents, as a result of the cost-of-living crisis and the inflation in heating and living costs.  

OTB estimate that 300 residents in and around Eyemouth will directly benefit from the project activities.  Since commencing in June 2023, 64 families from the Drone Hill Fund area have already regularly taken part in the LINKS sessions.

The programme delivers several sessions per month for different age groups and focuses on different themes. Themes include family cooking sessions for people with pre-school children, cooking session for adults who have challenges using basic principles of maths, or healthy recipe bags delivered in the community. Accessibility, diversity and inclusivity are key factors in the project.

Activities also include the provision of a warm hub for vulnerable residents, low and slow cooking classes, and energy saving sessions, which will offer information and signpost the community to resources. Funding has also supported support staff and sessional worker costs, venue hire and equipment costs.  

OTB are currently planning a recipe bag project via Coldingham Primary School Parent Teacher Association and have plans to engage with a further 60 Drone Hill families in 2024.

What people say about the project:  

We don’t do much cooking at home so this gives us a great chance to cook and eat together. Being with other families helps my wellbeing and helps my wee one to eat up too.

We really try to look after nature and the environment, it’s important, and you hope the children can learn about it by doing the LINKS activities and talking to other people.

I feel that we are building up our knowledge of family-friendly healthy recipes. We also have some good friends now in the LINKS community. It’s worth travelling here every time.

A wellbeing adviser put me in touch with the LINKS project – I’m so glad she did. LINKS is all about being well and staying well and supporting others too.