bold
bold Scotland is a five-year project and stands for Bringing Out Leaders in Dementia. It is an innovative, creative and interactive social leadership programme for people across Scotland which recognises that across Scotland many people of all ages and from all walks of life, including persons living with dementia, are already taking a lead, making a difference and finding their place in the ‘dementia world'.
bold will bring these different types of leaders together on an equal footing. It is providing free social leadership development opportunities to new and emergent leaders to help them develop their leadership skills and build stronger networks so that they can grow in confidence and have greater impact.
bold (Bringing out Leaders in Dementia): An Entrepreneurial Approach
Dementia can significantly impact the lives of people who have a diagnosis. This includes stigma, social isolation and a lack of meaningful connection to their community due a lack of understanding and awareness and an unequal community culture.
There is some way to go to create an equal playing field where people living with dementia can remain active, productive, independent, and socially connected across generations for as long as possible.
bold (Bringing out Leaders in Dementia) is an already established innovative Social Leadership project that has provided opportunities for people living with dementia across Scotland to even out that playing field as they take the lead in creating positive social change in their communities and continues to empower people living with dementia to make those changes that are so needed.
We have seen the difference that bold makes first hand on the lives of people living with dementia and want that difference to reach out and benefit more people. However, our impact is limited to a set number of people in Scotland. We want to find innovative ways to push the boundaries, scale up our impact and be market leaders of positive social change for people living with dementia. We want to explore an entrepreneurial approach to achieving this impact. We will explore developing and marketing discretely packaged bold products, generating sufficient revenue to scale and sustain the programme whilst offering our products free of charge to those living with dementia.
What does bold hope to achieve?
bold believes that everyone should be able to flourish throughout their lives. We hope to grow a movement of leaders in communities across Scotland.
We will challenge the common view of dementia as a personal tragedy shared only by close family members. We hope to replace this with the understanding that flourishing is achievable for everyone, that we are all living with dementia in different ways, and can all make positive contributions.
Through the actions of bold leaders and the wider community, we hope to contribute to Scotland being a place where: having dementia doesn’t matter for who I am as a person or how I live my life.
Who are these different types of leader?
You don’t have to be in a formal position of authority to be a leader. A ‘bold leader’ is someone who is already making a difference and finding his or her place in ‘the dementia world’ - someone who would welcome the opportunity to further develop as a leader and build stronger networks, to become more confident and influential. bold is looking for all sorts of new and emergent leaders from across Scotland who are making a difference in lots of different ways – in their neighbourhoods, groups, communities, workplaces - the world around them.
Below are just some examples of possible Bold leaders:
- Persons with dementia
- Carers/family members
- Neighbours
- People concerned about their own future memory loss
- Dementia-friendly community leads
- People working for social care, NHS and third sector services
- Faith group ‘leaders’ and volunteers
- Organisers of inclusive lunch, walking and sporting groups
- Youth workers and young people
- People working in theatres, cinemas, libraries, shops, post offices
- People working for housing, leisure, transport, home delivery, gas, electric, care and repair services…
How can I get involved?
You can also follow us on Twitter to keep up-to-date with our work. To find out more or see how you can get involved visit the bold website.
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Professor Heather Wilkinson |
Director of Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia (ECRED), University of Edinburgh. |
|
Professor Brendan McCormack |
Head of the Divisions of Nursing, Occupational Therapy and Art Therapies; Head of the Graduate School; Associate Director, Centre for Person-centred Practice Research, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. |
|
Magdalena Schamberger |
Bold Creative Director; Honorary Professor, School of Health Sciences, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh |
|
Dr Lorna Hill |
Bold Project Facilitator, Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia (ECRED), University of Edinburgh. |
|
Dr Frankie Greenwood |
Bold Project Facilitator, Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia (ECRED), University of Edinburgh |
| Lorna Lyons |
Bold Digital Content Manager, Queen Margaret University |
| Alison Bacigalupo |
Bold Project Administrator |
This project is funded by the Life Changes Trust. Some of our partners on the project include Queen Margaret University Age Scotland.