VOLUNTARY ACTION SHETLAND 

The OPEN Project will help young people to make better informed choices about their health and wellbeing; on issues such as relationships, alcohol and drugs, mental health, and online safety.

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This group will use the funding to support carers across Shetland with vouchers for food and utilities loan out tablets if required and provide virtual meetings and catch-ups to prevent social ....more

This group will use the funding to support carers across Shetland with vouchers for food and utilities loan out tablets if required and provide virtual meetings and catch-ups to prevent social isolation.

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This group will use the funding to continue their befriending service for people with dementia.

We are looking to get carers more involved in the planning of services, specifically short breaks. We have had difficulty in the past in getting the carers engaged but at the moment, one of the ....more

We are looking to get carers more involved in the planning of services, specifically short breaks. We have had difficulty in the past in getting the carers engaged but at the moment, one of the council local services has been engaging with their carers about the respite service that they are offered. This group are interested in working with us and we would like to bring them together but expand the group to cover those that aren't within the current scope for the local authority review, for example including carers of people who are in children's services, as these will be future users and also those caring for adults who do not have a learning disability. Within the local authority review they have looked at some options but we would like them to go further, to do this we need to inspire carers to look at ways of doing tings differently, much of the current project has worked on making changes to the staff attitudes. From some of the information already gathered there are ideas that the service will be able to change but the project is very much local authority led. We hope that by opening up the group to a wider group of carers and us being able to contribute by using our budget to explore other options we will truly be able to offer carers choice in how they receive their shortbreak. Some of these ideas will need to be tried and tested by carers before other people will be willing to put them into practice. For example this may involve bringing up speakers to give new ideas for example some of the campaigns that are being run South such as "Stay up Late", "Shared Lives" or "Gig Buddies" We would like to create a few opportunities for carers to come together where we will facilitate how things can be done differently to give people new ideas for different ways of achieving their short break. We would develop a short action plan from this which would have money available to overcome hurdles that may be put up by the local authority. We will need to work closely with the local authority to make any changes but we have already identified that some staff are open to doing things differently so we will involve these people at all stages to ensure we are working from within too. We will measure the change by providing case studies of where a new idea has been tested to show how things can be done differently. We will organise an end event to promote to all carers "Real life changes in their community in achieving a shortbreak" and also put them on our website. We hope the impact will be more choice for carers and that to achieve a shortbreak it does not have to be in the traditional way that has always been offered. The process will be to inspire the carers of how things can be done differently, follow some sort of support planning to help them come up with the ideas that would suit their personal circumstances and then test the change. So this should work that we would look for 2-3 people to come up and speak, examples of this may be Shared Lives, Gig Buddies, Stay up Late, Altogether Travel – these give people ideas about how things could be different for a shortbreak. We then work with a trainer / organisation to do support planning with families We then give each of the families a budget of up to £600 to try something that hasn’t been done before. The process will be to inspire the carers of how things can be done differently, follow some sort of support planning to help them come up with the ideas that would suit their personal circumstances and then test the change. So this should work that we would look for 2-3 people to come up and speak, examples of this may be Shared Lives, Gig Buddies, Stay up Late, Altogether Travel – these give people ideas about how things could be different for a shortbreak. We then work with a trainer / organisation to do support planning with families We then give each of the families a budget of up to £600 to try something that hasn’t been done before.

This project will provide a befriending service for young people with learning disabilities living in remote islands. Young people matched with volunteers will have fun, become more confident and ....more

This project will provide a befriending service for young people with learning disabilities living in remote islands. Young people matched with volunteers will have fun, become more confident and independent and feel more socially included.

For Voluntary Action Shetland (VAS) and Shetland Care Attendant Scheme (SCAS) to buy ipads for staff so that when they are completing support plans, providing advice and information they will be able ....more

For Voluntary Action Shetland (VAS) and Shetland Care Attendant Scheme (SCAS) to buy ipads for staff so that when they are completing support plans, providing advice and information they will be able to use the ipad to complete the information straight into the case management system. It will also mean that the ipads will be able to have access to information and advice on websites whilst you are out at the visit. We have now realised that inputting the information straight into the database will make us more efficient rather than entering the data at a later date. Getting people to sign the support plans and the consent forms on the ipad will reduce the turnaround time for carer support plans / assessments which will lead to carers being referred into council services and other information and advice services much quicker. Between VAS and SCAS there are four individual members of staff. This means that we would require 4 times the following:- ipad 9.7 (this is compatible with ipad pencil). We require 128GB (so we have the ability to hold some leaflets and info directly on the ipad. This will also support a number of apps which are relevant to carers. Wifi plus cellular is required so that we can access the case management system whilst out of the office on visits. To allow staff to fill in the case management system it will be quicker with a keyboard and to allow the assessment / support plan to be signed by the carer then an apple pencil is required.

The salary costs of the OPEN Project Coordinator

We want to provide a befriending 1:1 voluntary support to those aged 60+ living in the Shetland community who are affected by Dementia.

YOYP OPEN Peer Education Project, inform your peers, gain experience, get involved - Take a Lead

Shetland Befriending Scheme - Running Costs

This project will provide a befriending service for young people with learning disabilities living in a remote rural area. By taking part in activities the young people will have fun become more ....more

This project will provide a befriending service for young people with learning disabilities living in a remote rural area. By taking part in activities the young people will have fun become more confident and feel more socially included.

The project will support isolated older people in Shetland through a befriending service. The project will deliver 1:1 volunteer befriending over the project's length. The befriending sessions will ....more

The project will support isolated older people in Shetland through a befriending service. The project will deliver 1:1 volunteer befriending over the project's length. The befriending sessions will allow the older person to take part in community activities, access local services and amenities, and provide time for social 1:1 interaction. This grant will fund a development worker, marketing, training, travel, office furniture, office equipment and a percentage of overheads.