Are you looking for a new challenge? We’re looking for a Chief Tech Officer…

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Andy

ALISS is a growing set of processes, ideas, partnerships and projects that allow us all to create collections of hyperlocal health and wellbeing resources.  These open data collections can be used to enhance existing local information services and also be a platform to develop new ones.

At the heart of it is the technology, the ALISS Engine. It’s up and running but there’s still lots to do and we’re looking for a Chief Technology Officer to lead the Engine’s development.

We’re looking for someone to join the team full time, initially for a 6 month contract, potentially extendable. Salary is negotiable, depending on experience. We’re based in central Scotland and, while it would be ideal if you were close by, it’s not essential.

The Human stuff

This is more than coding … we’d like to talk if you:

  • would enjoy working at the interface of developer networks, health, the voluntary sector and community development
  • have experience of using, developing and managing open source code
  • will care for and nurture the ALISS code base
  • have a calm eye to the future and think about appropriate technology in architectural terms
  • (like us) believe that:
    • Less is More
    • nothing should be hard-wired unless it has to be
    • if it can be social (IRL) then it should be
  • are OK with the rest of us turning to you when someone out there says “but it doesn’t work, help!”

So, that’s who you are.  This is what we’d like you to do:

Technology Development

  • keeping the Engine in sync with ideas & developments elsewhere in the ALISS technology ecosystem
  • ‘Forming’ and shaping the ALISS technology ecosystem e.g. supporting (advising, creating example code, generally fostering enthusiasm) 3rd party development elsewhere
  • supporting hack events
  • supporting student projects and other developers
  • developing and managing processes associated with taking on data e.g. import of institutional directories

Architecture and Planning

  • Providing development advice, guidance and recommendations for the architecture of ALISS as a platform
  • Assisting with the development of apps and interfaces that draw data from / add data to the Engine
  • Defining high-level Statement of Requirements for the Engine

Technology Support

  • Hosting: commissioning & management
  • dealing with difficult/complex queries & problems
  • commissioning support arrangements, as the system usage scales

Experience 

You’ll probably have knowledge of:

  • Open Data standards and organisations
  • web and smartphone app development and publishing
  • application programming languages (e.g. Python, Ruby and PHP)
  • databases and search indexes (e.g. PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Solr and Redis)
  • web development frameworks (e.g. Django and Ruby on Rails)
  • web development technologies (such as HTML5, REST, JSON, RSS, GeoRSS)

As well as:

  • deep familiarity with Open Source tools
  • comfort with Architecture development
  • connections with tech communities and networks
  • experience of commissioning/sub-contracting development

If this sounds like you then please do get in touch, we’d love to talk.

You can email us or find us on Twitter

Andy Hyde @mrhyde

Peter Ashe (Programme Consultant) @peterashe

Jane Ankori (Programme Director) @JaneAnkori

 

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Asset mapping events – unpacking the content by Joanna Ptolomey

Posted on February 22, 2013 by LesleyR

On the ALISS blog we try and give a flavour of an asset mapping event. Usually you will find terms like fun, social, lively and good day attached to the descriptions.

But what happens later? What is the purpose of discovering and collecting the assets and where is it leading to? Who is taking ownership? How will they be shared with the community?

I have seen asset maps in many shapes and forms. Sheets of brown paper, wallpaper lining, aerial photos of locations and not to mention a multitude of sticky notes, felt tip notes, and let’s not forget the Lego. When the event is over, all the shortbread has been eaten, and the event space is empty the reality of what next kicks in.

The realisation that these maps need to be unpacked, unlocked, be made to give up their intelligence can be a sobering thought. It should not be undertaken lightly or flippantly. It is not an admin task to be underestimated or underappreciated.

Assets need to be filtered, unpicked for relevancy, currency and appropriateness. Communities like Annan, Craigmillar, Govan, Parkhead, and Johnstone have shown me that. The asset metadata needs to be uncovered (or researched in some cases) and there are lots of conversations to be had by the community.

Even simple metadata can cause some controversy – such as what is an assets name? What is an asset officially called and known as can be quite different. Dubiety around what an asset does is also common.

How would we describe and tag an asset? There are definitely clues around condition or activity specific. But from a user’s perspective what tags would help them find a resource – smoking cessation clinic or NRT (nicotine replacement therapy) may seem normal vernacular to a health professional. But how often would a user search for gum or patches with cigarettes?

One of the real outcomes of an asset mapping event is to capture the very hyperlocal content. Sometimes this can be a very local version of a national service.  Most commonly, a service that does not have a web presence at all.

My experience with the ALISS communities has shown me that usually there is a further deeper intelligence level commonly known or available.  Sometimes through community agents (or link workers), health improvement teams, local library service and indeed the community themselves. This could be contact details for a local service agent – a name and number. It could be pathways to referral or just really useful information like ‘always call the club contact first as they regularly have days out and we don’t want to miss you’.

This of course leads onto the question of frameworks of confidentiality if a community wants to include a person’s name and their contact details. Do you have permission?

And so we are ready to load the asset into the ALISS platform. With some user education material, help from a visit or telephone call we can work through questions, comments. This very morning I got some great feedback from a user that will become for a requirement for a possible change in design of the ALISS platform.

This process may seem a lot but it need not be too onerous with careful thought and consideration. But it should not go unnoticed or appreciated. It is my experience too that this is the part of the process whereby ownership becomes real, tangible.  Building community capacity, resilience and coproduction are all grand ideas – but unlocking content from asset maps makes it real and alive.

Users are the first to complain when they can’t find what they need. Careful and thoughtful unpacking of content from asset mapping sessions is an important process – your results will be better for it.

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More intelligence behind Annan assets, demo publishing tool and building community capacity by Joanna Ptolomey

Posted on February 19, 2013 by LesleyR

The ALISS team have already shared a couple of interesting events with the Annan community – one very wet evening and one very early cold and crispy start in November 2012. Both events encouraged the community to share – what does Annan have to offer and what keeps you healthy In Annan?

These asset mapping sessions were interesting, poignant and most agreed were good fun. But what happened next?

After the community departs a realisation begins that the output from such events needs some work and shaping. The reality of screeds of wallpaper lining, sticky post-its and cartoon drawings, although illuminating on an event day, may seem lifeless and perhaps even useless in the cold light of day.

Very quickly the team at NHS Dumfries and Galloway decided that they wanted to show the community the output from the November events. In many ways to keep the momentum moving and send the message – you shared, we collected, we sorted and this is where we are and even here is something we have made. They also needed to community to share further, deeper – a discovery of more intelligence behind the assets already collected.

On the 6th February 2013 the community of Annan were invited back to help unpick and discover some further intelligence behind the assets collected so far. They were also invited to see, and play with, a demo version of an ALISS sharing platform that had been populated with their local assets discovered from the November events.

 

Some sorting processes before the February 6th event

The ALISS process and engine has 3 main sections – collecting (asset mapping sessions), sorting and making senses (the process from November to end of Jan for the Annan team) and publishing (where will this information pop up and what will the platform be)?

 

Sorting is a very important process and a key stage in moving forward.  It is also a period of discussion around asset validity, key metadata for assets, tag development, user education around data upload, and management and caring for your assets.

It is also an important step in community ownership of assets.

From the Annan event 10 asset maps were produced. The following process was developed

  • Compile a list of total local assets – around 122 were identified from the Annan events
  • Each asset is individually investigated
    • Does it have an online presence and unique URL?
    • What is the official name of the asset – but could it be known as something else locally?
    • Could there be any dubiety around what an asset does or is – worth chatting through
    • Location – either a particular postcode or general area name
    • Description – short description if the asset has a URL if not slightly longer. What is the purpose of asset and further intelligence eg. referral pathway?
    • Frameworks for confidentially – having permissions to use a names person and contact details.
    • Tags – how can we make this asset more findable? What terms would help?
    • Uploading assets into the ALISS platform – the ALISS team 6 step user guidance giving advice on uploading, editing and saving records.

One of the main issues that faced the Annan team and ALISS were assets with no URL.

Hyperlocal assets can commonly have no digital presence. We discovered that some of the most useful and relevant information had come directly from NHS Dumfries and Galloway community agents and health improvement team.  But what to do if an asset does not have a web presence, or that URL is unsuitable, then what to do?

The ALISS platform is a signposting platfrom. User experience has taught the ALISS team that people do not like to be signposted to a general web page that has no specific information about the asset in question.  It has led to some interesting community solutions.

For example a local Dumfries and Galloway version of a WRVS Good Neighbours Scheme was generated as an asset. However the WRVS web page was too general, more of a general service description, and did not contain specific local contact information. That local information was held locally through the community agent team.

The community agents took ownership of the asset and time was spent discussing confidentially frameworks for capturing people/contact information.

Publishing Annan assets – a demo

The ALISS team developed a demonstrator platform to show the assets collected so far.

 

The Annan community were invited to try the sharing demo out. It has a simple interface and is limited in what it can do in publishing results such as filter, email, share further. The community were also introduced to the idea that eventually they may be able to have accounts to share further assets.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway are looking to build community capacity and resilience for this model of service delivery. It is another step forward in that goal to what a publishing platform could be developed from.

 

Next stages

There are 3 burning questions

  1. How to manage, filter and add intelligence behind local assets into metadata and a record?
  2. How to move to a publishing solution for an Annan ALISS platform?
  3. How to build further community capacity with accounts?

 

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ALISS cold and crisp and even (Service innovation & co-production in NHS Dumfries & Galloway – part 2) By Joanna Ptolomey

Posted on January 15, 2013 by LesleyR
What I love about living in Scotland is that the weather changes rapidly. At the last event in Annan we were swimming our way to the location. One week later and a very different story – it is very clear and frosty. An early start from Glasgow and I see a lovely sunrise as the train trundles southwards.

As usual the Annan Health Improvement team have been working hard and the church hall is organised and ready for the full day event. People are already arriving and with teas/coffees on offer it is a good time to mingle and chat for a wee while.

This full day event will allow for longer periods of asset mapping and most importantly service-design.

29th November 2012 (10.00-4.30pm) – what we were doing that day.

Following on from the evening taster event we thought it would be useful to make available the ideas generated on service design that groups could follow up with and develop. Or they could start fresh with a completely different idea.

Time plan:

1. Quick intro about project. Explain the exhibition central area and encourage people to visit, network and get talking – Elaine Lamont (10 mins)
2. Short exercise – what keeps us well? A little ice breaker to get the chat going and lead into main session – Joanna & Peter (15 mins)
3. Identifying resources in your community – asset mapping exercise – Joanna & Peter(60 mins plus 10 mins for viewing other maps)
4. Browse products/new service design ideas generated at evening event 30 mins
5. Lunch, exhibition area -12-1230
6. 1230 –4.15pm Service design session and presentations
7. 430pm close

Asset Mapping

This low tech approach to community discovery of local resources (assets) is always a fun activity. The wall paper lining, post-it notes and felt tip pens makes a welcome return. People immediately get scribbling, doodling, and organising.

Folks get sandwiches and cuppas whilst they study their asset maps.
This map shows the variety of assets in Annan. Tesco, a national supermarket chain, gets amention but also the local spiritualist group, dog walking with friends, WiiFit games platform, and 2 local cafes (Solway and Royal).

Look closely and there is a post-it reminder with the word FUN underlined. A timely reminder of what people consider an asset should be or ‘would like’ assets in Annan to be. A community member shared a private moment with me – FUN is what she wants and needs. She wrote it down on the post-it and handed it to me. It was a powerful and emotional moment for both of us.

The blue group take a completely different approach and use some aerial photographs with tendrils coming out to post-it notes.

Service design

Now that the groups have discussed what are the assets or the good things about living in and around Annan, we turn our attention to what is missing in Annan.

This group chew over what they think is missing in Annan as a service. Yup some of us still have coats on – it was very very crisp and even that November day.
One of the ideas generated was around a free community bus service called Free Connect. It was developed round Bob’s story – a power plant worker made redundant from the Chapelcross nuclear power plant which is in the process of being decommissioned. Divorced and isolated, with children and grandchildren living in another town. This free bus service and pass allows him to reconnect with family, get out and about and meet friends and increase independence.
An ecosystem was even developed
Age Engage was another idea that could provide some nice inter-generational working locally. Firstly what about a free soup kitchen, with high school students working in the café and cooking.The children get a qualification in catering and the community is served.

Another idea was older people engagement with the WOW group – Women of World @Eastriggs. A place for older people to grow in confidence and share their experiences back – could be with the local schools or the police.
Another idea to sprout in one shape or form was the Local Information HUB or one stop shop forAnnan – a treasure trove of information and signposting. This should be a central accessible building in Annan. It should have computer access points and staff – 1 supervisor and volunteers. You should be able to get a cuppa too if you pop in.
These are only some of the ideas that surfaced on the 2 events – but what next?

Moving forward

The pace in co-production in Annan knows no bounds and within a very short time there is talk of the discovery of further asset intelligence. Also making the assets (and their rich intelligence) available via an ALISS-designed platform for sharing in the community, developing the curation community and some business planning around the service innovation ideas.

2013 will be a busy year for the Annan community.
Posted in co-creation, Health Assets, News, workshops | Comments Off

The night that ALISS nearly swam to Annan (Service innovation & co-production in NHS Dumfries & Galloway – Part 1) By Joanna Ptolomey

Posted on January 15, 2013 by LesleyR

Thursday 22nd November was one of the wettest nights of the year of 2012. As the ALISS team travelled by train down to Annan we wondered whether a boat would have been more suitable.

 

Image of local flooding in Dumfries and Galloway courtesy of BBC website – via news story.
On arrival at a local church hall we were immediately greeted by the Annan Health Improvement team setting up the hall for the evening event. No sooner as the coats were removed we were given hot soup and sandwiches. It was a good start.
This evening event would be a condensed version of the full day event happening the following week. It would last around 2.5 hours.

Format for evening

The hall was set up with informal tables. Each person on arrival was allocated a table.
A central exhibition area was set up and participants were encouraged to learn more about the Annan team’s effort to find out more what their community were saying from a recent questionnaire. Interestingly 31% of the people who completed the questionnaire said they would like to be involved in developing new community services.

Luckily for us they came out to support on a cold and wet November night.

Hot soup, sandwiches and the famous NHS Dumfries & Galloway homebaked shortbread was available throughout the evening to keep the energy levels up.
The Health Improvement team would place themselves at tables to facilitate groups.
1. Quick introduction to Annan work and their project. Explain the exhibition central area and encourage people to visit, network and get talking with Elaine Lamont. (10 mins)
2. Short exercise – what keeps us well? A little ice breaker to get the chat going and lead into session on identifying assets. Peter and Joanna (15 mins)
3. Identifying resources in your community – asset mapping exercise. Peter and Joanna (30 mins)
4. New service development – fast service design version. Ideas and storyboards. Joanna and Peter (1.5 hours)
5. Taking this beyond this evening events – what can you do now. (15 mins)
a. Organise your own event
b. Outreach
However, it would be good to take some of the new service ideas developed in part 4 and re-use these ideas for part of the full day event.

Asset mapping

It is amazing what you can do with rolls of wallpaper lining, post-its and colour pens. We liked the different approaches the Annan community took to mapping their assets.

One of my favourite resources of the night – dog walking by the river!

Bananas are not the only fruit – this group take a very systematic approach with an activities subject list (front right).

Even in a very small area such as the riverside walk in Annan there is lots to do. People highlighted good viewing and photography points, free fish, dog walking, duck watching and climbing on the rocks.

Service design – speedy version

Develop an idea for a service or resource that could help to address some of the issues that people living in Annan have.
We will use a storyboarding sheet, lots of post-its, pens, tables. Each group created personas and a back story.
Part 1 – The group chooses a theme from the following themes (10 minutes)

  • encouraging participation
  • improving self confidence
  • people are good sources of information
  • reducing isolation

The groups seemed to use one as a starting point but brought elements of the others into their ideas.
Shout out some ideas on your theme (10 minutes)
Groups were asked to shout out solutions around their chosen theme. Not too much talk about the problems – think about potential solutions. The challenge was to capture them…
Choose your favourite idea and work it up in more detail (15 minutes)

Then the fun really began. We asked the groups to choose an idea, or draw together their best ideas, to tell a story of a new type of service. We provided some blank storyboards and lots of colourful pens. The groups provided ideas, experiences and lots of imagination.

Supreme concentration and chat in this group in developing the storyboard.

Tell your story (10 minutes)

Each group had 2 minutes to describe their idea. The storyboards seemed to make it easier to put their ideas into context. Each group also looked at the problem and solution from the perspective of an individual, which helped us all to see their story in context. This is what they came up with in previous workshops:


Moving beyond this event…….

So, 45 minutes, a change of programme and some focused thinking later, we had these ideas on the table. Well, all over the floor really.

Ideas that wouldn’t take a lot of investment to get off the ground. All of them tapping into existing networks, services and technology. So what would it take to make them real?
This process doesn’t have to stop at the scribbling stage!

We take some of the ideas generated tonight and put them forward for the full day innovation event the following week. You can see more of the service design output in Asset mapping and service design in NHS Dumfries & Galloway – part 2.

 

 

Posted in co-creation, Health Assets, News, workshops | Comments Off

Derek Hoy

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Andy

It’s difficult to write these words, but Derek Hoy, the chief architect of the ALISS Engine, passed away on 10th November.

Four years ago Derek started this whole Engine thing off with the words ‘D’you have five minutes?’ and then proceeded to sketch out some ideas which still act as our blueprint to this day. Over the years he has gently guided us, created elegant code, calmed us when things got tricky and inspired others to join our efforts. It was his insistence on releasing the Engine code as open source that shaped the approach of the entire project.

Coding was just one of his many talents. As his twitter bio says ‘Escaped an early brush with architecture, to become a nurse, informatician, musician’ and the memories currently unfolding across the web tell stories of his many contributions in these fields.

We’ll miss Derek enormously. He drew the best out of us: we held him in great respect, and seeking to earn some of his, we found ourselves doing our very best.

Of course, we’ll miss his technical genius, his ability to translate ideas into things that work on the web and he has left us with an amazing legacy of code and plans for the future. Most of all, however, we’ll miss his kind and generous nature, uniquely blended with a dry wit and a great sense of fun.

Posted in aliss engine, reflections | 2 Comments

ALISS at Strathcaro Hospital – Mapping sources of support in Angus

Posted on October 31, 2012 by LesleyR

Our workshop in Strathcaro hospital in Angus brought together local practitioners, voluntary organisation staff and people living with long term conditions in the one room for an afternoon to discuss what keeps them and the people they support well within the community. Participants were based in various locations across Angus and over the course of the afternoon, provided over 60 assets which have been added to the ALISS Engine.

We began with short presentation, describing ALISS:

  • The ALISS Engine, what it is and how it works
  • How to add resources
  • Examples of how others are using the ALISS Engine

Participants got to know each other by describing themselves and their expertise using, simple forms to help us to focus on a few key questions.

 

We then asked participants to work in groups to list all the local, regional and national directories and databases that were known to them and to name organizations which have large amounts of data on local services. This encouraged participants to think about directory-based resources in terms of local, regional and national.

We focused on four locations – Brechin, Montrose, Arbroath and Forfar and explored hyper-local support resources such as support groups, community centres, classes, walks, choirs etc. A good prompt was to think about ‘what helps to keep you well locally?’ Participants shared their local knowledge and experiences with each other, often hearing about a local resource for the first time – the resulting 60+ resources gathered include:

Carer drop in centre for dementia

Mutual support and sharing of information in a confidential setting. For spouses, couples, partners. Organised by Alzheimer Scotland Angus.

Music Cafe

The music cafe is for anyone who has early onstage dementia and their carers. We sing old hymns and well know other tunes from musicals as well as famous Scottish…

Angus and Mearns Fibromyalgia Support Network

AM-FM function by offering individual, family and group support in a variety of ways. Group meetings provide a welcoming, positive atmosphere with a sympathetic ear.

Pain Association Scotland – Tayside Group

The Pain Association holds regular meetings across the region.

Towards Employment Team (TET)

The Towards Employment team in Angus provide help for individuals and families on a low income by removing the barriers they face when trying to move into employment, education, training …

The Pitstop Youth Cafe

The Pitstop Youth Café is open to young people aged 11 years and upwards. The centre offers young people a safe and friendly place where they can catch up with …

Forfar Reid Hall

Based in the heart of Forfar the Reid Hall is one of the most notable features of the town. Various events from dances, exercise classes, meetings, training courses and community

Westmuir Village Hall

Activities include Tai Chi, Kung Fu, SWRI, Bellydance…

Kirriemuir Path Network

The Path Network offers walks of varying distances ranging from 1.5 to 3.5 miles. Longer walks can be planned by combining a number of sections from several walks. Angus Council …

The full list of resources can be seen in the ALISS Engine.

Beyond the data

In addition to gathering new data, asset mapping events like this encourage new connections, pooling resources and help build local networks. To explore these themes we asked participants to work in groups to develop the following ideas:

Group 1 – how might ALISS help to power an existing service? How could it enhance it?

Group 2 – design a new service that could be enabled by the ALISS Engine

Group 3 – how would you go about improving today’s event?

Group 2 suggested a GP surgery health info-point powered by local information from ALISS. Meanwhile, Group 1 wondered how such a service (that already exists) could be enhanced by ALISS. The group saw the potential to use asset mapping workshops to improve existing services, share information and good practice.

Feedback

Participants’ feedback included:

“This is a great opportunity to start making excellent connections and remove wellness from the traditional health care structure”

“worth the trip!”

“I understand ALISS a lot better now”

“interesting to hear different health professionals’ thoughts on its use”

 

 

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Service development – so much better than product placement

Posted on October 29, 2012 by LesleyR

I like using tools to help manage information flows, and discover and share information. But I like them to be integral to my service delivery rather than to be the focus.

A couple of scenarios have been popping into my mind recently. I think we all recognise these situations.

Situation 1 – marketing people are explaining to potential users a product’s unique selling points and asking us to imagine how we could wrap our service delivery around this tool. Situation 2 – your find yourself referring to your service as the name of an off the shelf product.

To be honest it is rather unfair of me to make these statements. It is part of the world we live in. We are bombarded by products. We are given products in our organisations to help us deliver.  They can help, but do they detract us from the real questions about service delivery innovation?

I often question the service development versus product placement question. Let me give you an example. I was recently asked for marketing material about ALISS the community wanted to get people start to start talking about ALISS. What it was and could potentially do. Not a real issue but whilst chatting through a community engagement strategy plan we all began to ponder the same fundamental question – what is being developed and delivered. A new co-produced service or a product?

As it turned out it is the co-production of new, as yet not discovered, innovative services for older people in Dumfries in Galloway. I think I few light bulbs went on that afternoon.

Rest assured I am in team ALISS corner. But for quite different reasons than pushing a product.

ALISS has unique selling points – it is flexible in format, where you want it to be accessed or pop up. It could be a desktop widget, a smartphone app, web portal or digital tv. With the ALISS process of encouraging and enabling co-production of your service you get technology that is built around your service requirements.

I think that puts the horse back in front of the cart.

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Volunteering Opportunities with ALISS

Posted on October 23, 2012 by LesleyR

Throughout the life of the project, we’ve sought natural (as in ‘it makes sense to them in their context’) ways for people to make a contribution. Right from the start, we’ve seen this as an important aspect of trying to make the thing self-sustaining.

So we’ve…

  • explored the idea of school students and young people being ‘hunter-gatherers’ (here and here);
  • supported asset-mapping workshops in a variety of different contexts;
  • talked with Benefits Agency workers about the value of small-scale structured activities for people who have been unemployed for the long term;
  • discussed the idea of recovering addicts spotting resources as learning exercises at their IT classes…
  • and worked out proposals for ALISS resource-spotting being a volunteering opportunity.

The latest in this concerns the new ‘Involvement Network’ that the ALLIANCE is helping into being. Here’s what we said to them recently:

“The Engine welcomes contributions from everyone – whether you’re an individual living with a long term condition, a large organisation with a long list of local services or a small charity.

We’ve all got examples of what makes our life better, we can all be contributors.

Anyone can access ALISS at www.aliss.org but you will need to sign up for an account in order to add new resources to the collection. Resources can vary from a local walking group, crafts classes, or support group, to poems, a view or a service. Whatever you feel helps you or people you support to keep well with a long term condition.

To add some of your own resources you need an account, here’s how you can get one!

  • Go to www.aliss.org , click on ‘contact us’ at the top of the page and send us a message, we will get you started.
  • We will send you an invitation to join ALISS and some simple instructions on how to set up your profile and add a resource.

If you aren’t ready to start adding resources to the ALISS engine you could:

  • Start collecting examples of support (e.g. leaflets, flyers, posters, take a note of anything you hear of locally) that you discover when talking with peers, people in your area or the people that you support. You might be surprised at how much information there is out there once you start looking out for it.
  • Or do a few searches on ALISS to see what resources others have added in your area to get an idea of the kinds of things you could include. If there isn’t much in your area, then we could do with your help and knowledge to find out what’s available.

Asset mapping:

A good way to gather resources for ALISS is by asset mapping. You can asset map with your friends, supporters, colleagues etc. Asset mapping happens all the time during conversations when we talk about things that help keep us well and happy in our local area, but this information is often stored in local silos, and we want to share this information wider, by capturing it and putting it in ALISS.

 

 

The ALISS project runs asset mapping sessions. We bring people together and ask them to share what keeps them well. We often do this visually; pens, paper, post its, drawing maps of local areas and asking people to map out all the places and things which help them manage their condition better.

In our experience, this isn’t a complicated process, and people enjoy being involved. If you would like to organise an asset mapping session we can help support you to do so, email us and if we are running any sessions we will add these to the events page on the ALLIANCE website, were you can sign up to come along.”

 

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Asset mapping in the garden

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Andy

We’ve had a go at asset mapping in various venues, but the SAMH Spaces Conference at Redhall Walled Garden in Edinburgh was our first attempt in a garden … and what a special event it turned out to be.

Originally the kitchen gardens of nearby Redhall House, this beautiful, hidden space is now host to a SAMH project

“… a beautiful 18th Century Walled Garden within a 6 acre estate where SAMH offers training in horticulture, conservation, maintenance skills, ITC/admin and life skills for people with mental health problems”.

 

It’s just one of the many examples of therapeutic projects that we heard about during the day, providing training in horticulture while developing skills and confidence.

Spaces 2012 brought together people from mental health organisations, NHS Scotland, environmental groups and others to meet and learn from each other but, in particular, to experience at first hand some of the activities discussed.

It redefined audience participation!

Spaces Conference - 24 May 2012

(photo from TCV Scotland’s Flickr Set)

People dug holes, made seed bombs, wove willow and made fire. So, why were we there?

It was a great opportunity for us to introduce ALISS to participants, to make connections and to illustrate how ALISS might help to illustrate the extent and nature of horticultural therapies across Scotland. Asset mapping is one of the ways that we find new discoveries to go into the Engine, but it’s also a good way to explain what ALISS is all about. So we brought along some simple tools – just a map of Edinburgh, some forms for people to use to describe the local assets that they recommend or work with, and some sticky arrows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the end of the day we had mapped around 30 new discoveries, some quite unexpected, some just at the embryonic stage – a piece of land and some willing volunteers ready to start work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was exciting though was that each form didn’t just mean a data point, it was the beginning of a conversation. We learned about Green Gyms, community gardens, an art  gallery established to create employment opportunities and experiences for people with Autism, Historic Scotland’s Ranger-led activities in Orkney and Trellis, an organisation with a list of over 170 horticultural therapy projects and organisations around Scotland. During the opening presentations we heard some compelling stories of recovery through activity at Redhall , in particular a poetry recital which moved us to add the first poem to the ALISS collection.

You can see all of our discoveries from the day here.

So yes, we found some new resources for the Engine but more importantly we had some really useful conversations that felt like the start of something. Hopefully the feeling was reciprocal.

There’s a lot we took away from the day – here are just some of them:

  • We had a go at geocaching – in a nutshell, hide something in the wild, give it a GPS coordinate then map it somewhere such as this. Send people off on a treasure hunt to find the hidden object and ask them to log their visit. Fun? yes. Useful? well, how about adding a new dimension to walking groups? or using it to describe locations of those services or self management resources where postcodes just won’t do?

  • links were made between the activities on offer and NHS Lothian’s mental health strategy A Sense of Belonging.
  • lots of people are creating maps of services, greenspaces and some are creating mobile apps – ALISS can help to bring together and share data to make these services even richer resources…
  • time in the wilderness can have real benefits for people living with schizophrenia – Rab Erskine compressed a day’s worth of discussion into about 15 minutes but we would have loved to have heard more…
  • there’s interest in green prescribing but we missed the session discussing it – again, we would love to know more about this…

More photos from TCV Scotland are here on Flickr and the tweets were nicely captured on Storify.

Thanks to everyone for organising the day, putting on the activities, making the flapjack and welcoming us so warmly to the event.

 

Posted in aliss engine, Data, Health Assets, Self Management | 2 Comments