Community grants

Equal Adventure, a highlands-based charity, will work with Ark Housing Association on the Isle of Lewis and a researcher from the University of Edinburgh to support disabled people, including individuals with Learning and Sensory disabilities, to actively participate in the design of outdoor physical activity provision on the Island. The researcher will lead on the training and exploring of research approaches as well as facilitating the collaborative relationship between Equal adventure and ARK Housing Community on Lewis.

OSHI is a peer led project that connects those with relevant lived experience to those living through experiences of addiction and recovery who need immediate help which is not met by an existing system. OSHI also hopes to influence change including on the language, stigma and the value of lived experience. Currently the group use multiple platforms to deliver their support but they would like to explore the option of a digital platform for support. OSHI are collaborating with digital media researcher, who brings learnt experience of technology to co-facilitate the project. The researcher will work in conjunction with the community group to identify key stakeholders for OSHI's work.

The OUT group is a diverse group of 12 people, some who have been in prison, with a collective interest in the prison and criminal justice systems. OUT wants to work with a researcher to support in their journey to become a more established group that has and clear identity and vision, and greater capacity to support others who are also within or outside of the criminal justice system. As a group they have decided that in order to do this they would like to explore and learn more about various topics linked to the justice system, both from an academic and other perspectives. They hope this will break isolation & improve mental wellbeing between people inside & outside prison, and form meaningful relationships that might lead to further collaboration, resource creation and sharing and peer support. The researcher is based at the University of Hull Criminology Department - both partners are viewing the project as knowledge exchange, with the researcher sharing learnt knowledge and current research on crime and the justice system, and group members sharing their lived experience. Together they will co-design sessions throughout the project.

Garelochhead Station Trust (GST) provides information, support, training and social opportunities for veterans and their families, of all ages. For this project, GST will work with two researchers from University of Highlands and Islands to co-develop a piece of peer-led research that will support the future of GST's work to best meet the wellbeing needs of the community. A group of GST members and trustees will work together with the researchers.

Relationships Scotland - Counselling Highland is the regional support organisation for relationship counselling support in the Highlands. The aim of this project is to collaborate with a researcher to explore the barriers to accessing relationship counselling in areas of disadvantage in Inverness. The project will explore ways to improve access to support and communication skills assistance for young parents, individuals and couples, thereby supporting their mental health. Once connections, trust and base line understanding has been made with young parents within the areas, the plan will culminate in a participant led community action research approach to create new understandings about healthy relationships in supportive environments and in a way that is driven by the participants and reflects their needs.

Youth Aspire Connect's NORM wellbeing project will co-create toolkits and creative outputs to support young people, parents and community leaders destigmatise and normalise conversation about mental health and wellbeing among young people from minoritised backgrounds. The researchers will support the community to identify what and why there are barriers to talking about mental health and wellbeing and to co-create the toolkits.

P.A.U.L for Brain Recovery's project will focus on improving the mental wellbeing of families living with acquired brain injury (ABI) in Hull. They will do this through working with people and families affected by ABI and enabling them to share their stories via creative activities, including storytelling, and arts, via different media - storybooks, pictures, videos etc. These creative pieces will offer a way for people to express themselves and will also be shared more widely. They plan to also have an exhibition of the outputs aimed at ABI community/stakeholders. The project will be co-designed with people with lived experience supporting a loved one with ABI, who will also have the opportunity to be co-researchers on the project. The researcher, who has previously nursed patients with ABI, will be supporting via developing and facilitating the steering group to co-design the project and supporting the co-researchers.

Emotions ARe Not Illness (ERNI) is currently a group of people who meet virtually, of both mental health service users and practitioners in Hull who are frustrated by the current mental health service systems. They will build real-world relationships and co-create resources together. The researcher will support the group to explore ways for people to share lived experiences with others, piloting in-person and online workshops and to reviewing the impact of this. They will support with the co-creation of tangible materials to share with others (whether film, written pieces, art forms etc). The sharing of these, and the involvement from everyone in the process, will provide those participating with a greater sense of wellbeing and agency. Workshops will also be supported by University of Hull drama students and creative professionals that will be commissioned by the partnership.

Project Insight will work with visually impaired children in Hull to research factors affecting both their physical and mental health and wellbeing. The project will work in collaboration with arts organisations experienced with working with children, to deliver a diverse programme of activities. The researcher involved will attend most sessions, building a relationship with the children involved and support the project to explore how different activities best support the children's wellbeing. This will culminate in a creative anthology in co-created collaboration with the group and children.

The project explores actively involving adults with learning disabilities as co-designers and collaborators in peer research with researchers on 2 core activities: Increasing Makaton use in the Kyleakin Connections Service (mainly the café) and the redesign of a Wellbeing Garden as a place participants and community members to connect and use makaton together, and how this impacts mental wellbeing. The researchers involved in the project will also learn and use makaton in their collaboration with the group.

The Highland Discovery College will use collaborative models to deliver mental wellbeing courses and peer support to people and communities with lived experience of mental health and/or substance use who are isolated or want to explore their community and network to improve their health. It will be co-led and facilitated by peer supporters - people who use their experience of mental health and/or substance use to connect with and support others. The project will work with University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) researchers and support peer researchers, to understand the pathways that students of the Discovery College have taken to get to the College and where they go next. Researchers from UHI will train and support peer researchers so they can design and develop an action research project with Discovery College students.