Badenoch and
Strathspey Community ConnXions (BSCX)
Badenoch and
Strathspey Community ConnXions (BSCX) is a registered charity
that was set up in 1999 by the community for the community. Our
purpose is to strengthen our community by providing accessible
transport and wellbeing opportunities. Over the years we have
grown our services based on local need and now offer social
activities, assisted shopping, green health and a befriending
service.
We believe that
transport is the building block to good health and wellbeing.
Our work prevents loneliness and isolation, and we provide
accessible transport so people can attend health appointments,
leisure activities and weekly shopping trips. We work closely
with many local groups and provide the transport to enable their
activities to take place.
We have 25
years of experience in operating our services and are well
regarded across the Community Transport Sector, winning UK
Community Transport Association Provider of The Year in 2023.
We have service level agreements and a range of long-term
funders.
Our work
directly supports around 400 people every year and has a social
value of over £320k. We have a small team of 8 P/T staff and 60
volunteers who all care deeply about our community.
This funding
will allow us to replace our accessible minibus which is now
uneconomical to repair. The new vehicle will be utilised
straight away and will provide many years of accessible
transport for our wider community.
Highland Homeless Trust
t/a Gateway
Gateway values affording
opportunities to vulnerable adults. Pioneering in approach, we
work hard to provide creative, innovative solutions through
collaboration and partnership.
Gateway has invested
significantly in purchasing a beautiful home to provide
supported living for six people with learning disabilities. The
house is in the small hamlet of Upper Myrtlefield, Inverness,
with extensive grounds allowing residents to enjoy the outdoors
and create spaces of interest.
Being a successful
recipient of Highland Cross funds will enable the purchase of a
vehicle that will suit the needs of our supported people,
providing the last essential to this bespoke project.
Transport can be difficult
to use for people with additional support needs. By promoting
residents' well-being and in keeping with our values and
principles, Gateway wants to ensure that the residents have many
opportunities and independence to socialise and participate in
the many varied community-based activities in and around
Inverness.
Through listening, we have
learned that being active and out in the community can help
those we support feel happier, included, and valued. We want
people to be able to do what they enjoy and make their own
choices about what they do, when they do it and who they spend
their time with.
This vehicle will benefit
the residents by improving their opportunities for further
integration into the community, providing access to new events
and places, and providing opportunities for learning through
experience to maintain and improve long-term health outcomes.
Rag Tag and Textile Ltd
We are a charity on Skye
providing support through creative craft workshops to people
with mental illness or poor mental wellbeing. In this rural area
where statutory services are often missing or overstretched our
service is vital. The people we help are referred to us by
healthcare professionals because they need our support.
Students receive training
in a variety of crafts during tutor-led workshops, gaining
self-esteem from producing items they keep or offer for sale in
our attached charity shop. We aim to increase students’
confidence, motivation and wellbeing, to improve social skills,
and to help them make friends and connections within the local
community, where we often do joint work. We are
recovery-focussed and provide opportunities and assistance for
students to volunteer and, where appropriate, to move on to
employment.
Many of our students
struggle to reach us because public transport is poor, or
because they need a door-to-door service owing to physical
disabilities or anxiety issues. We provide a limited taxi
service but the cost at over £1000 per month is unsustainable.
We face the prospect of having to deny some students a service
if we cannot find an alternative.
Our application for a
minibus would solve this problem, and would also allow us to
engage more widely with other community groups. It would allow
us to take students to craft fairs, exhibitions of their own
work, horticultural therapy sessions, and on social visits away
from our home base – to enhance their mental wellbeing and to
have fun.
Skye and Lochalsh Mental Health Association
If successful in gaining this Highland Cross
funding, we would purchase a hybrid minibus in order to provide
equality of access to our well-established drop-in
centre (Am Fasgadh) in Portree. We
would use the minibus to provide transport for the people of
South Skye and Lochalsh (SSL), at least twice a week and one
weekend in 5, from home to Am Fasgadh and back again.
Living with mental illness is isolating,
sometimes just managing to get up and dressed takes all your
effort far less trying to get to a bus (that might not be there)
to access support services. The remote and rural nature of SSL
means it is more difficult than in other areas to access
services. We have researched what our members need and want
from our service. Overwhelmingly, they have told us, what they
want is to feel a bigger part of our community and to be able to
attend Am Fasgadh in Portree.
Am Fasgadh is a safe place where we can meet,
build relationships, and access a hot, home cooked meal daily.
Running this minibus service will allow SSL members to access
the same facilities and supports as the Portree and North Skye
service users.
We would also use the minibus to provide improved access to
trips for all our service users. Just because you have mental
health issues that should not prevent you from having great
experiences and making memories while still being supported.
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