Emma Whitelock, Author at Lead Scotland

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Celebrating a Milestone: Lead Scotland Wins the SCVO Scottish Charity Awards Digital Difference Award

Posted on Friday, October 18th, 2024

We are thrilled to announce that Lead Scotland has been honoured with the prestigious Digital Difference Award at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) Scottish Charity Awards. Pioneering Digital Inclusion At Lead Scotland, our mission is to support disabled individuals and carers to become empowered through personalised learning opportunities, befriending support, helpline advice and […]

Assistive technology

Posted on Monday, September 18th, 2023

Assistive Technology refers to any item, piece of equipment, software programme, or product system that can be used to increase, maintain, or improve the level of independence of disabled people. Some people prefer the term ‘enabling technology’. There are a wide variety of free, low cost and costed technology solutions available. Disabled people in schools, […]

Lead Scotland Evolves

Posted on Tuesday, June 13th, 2023

From what I’ve read, in 1979, Edinburgh University Settlement and a passionate group of volunteers were worried that a lack of funding for REHAB Scotland was going to herald the loss of supported post school learning opportunities for disabled people. There was no Equality Act in 1979 – no rights or entitlements and some disabled […]

Adult learning supports a cyber resilient Scotland

Posted on Wednesday, May 10th, 2023

Lead Scotland has a new Linking Cyber and Accessibility Project Tens of thousands more adult learners have devices and data thanks to national initiatives such as Connecting Scotland and the Digital Inclusion Fund and local schemes. Digital access to services is incredibly exciting! New flexible, inclusive ways of engaging and supporting community based adult learners […]

Combining learning resources leads to two qualifications for adult learners

Posted on Friday, September 2nd, 2022

Education Scotland and Girvan Academy have produced combined resources for school pupils to work towards two qualifications: SCQF level 4 Internet Safety & SCQF Level 4 Cyber Fundamentals. Find out more about this work: Level 4 Resources for Cyber Fundamentals and Internet Safety – DigiLearn Lead Scotland has been working with Education Scotland and the […]

Digital CLD Award Achievement

Posted on Thursday, August 25th, 2022

Lead Scotland is among the first in Scotland to be recognised under a new digital award scheme for community learning and development organisations. The Digital CLD Awards seek to recognise the ways that CLD (Community Learning and Development) services and organisations promote effective use of digital technologies to enhance learning and engagement opportunities in youth […]

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2020-21 Strategic Performance

Posted on Wednesday, September 29th, 2021

Our staff and volunteers have been brilliant, navigating the new challenges thrown up by the pandemic. We are incredibly grateful to all our partners who supported us to stay open, to extend our Befriending Services, to offer Scotland wide learning services and flex our services to meet people’s changing needs. This webpage offers a brief […]

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Accessible Engagement and Participation Online

Posted on Monday, May 10th, 2021

This webpage relates to an input to a CLD webinar about digital tools for online participation and engagement, held on the 12th May 2021 . Why accessibility is even more important now Accessible information considerations Holding accessible online meetings The voices of disabled people may have been underrepresented in the last round of CLD plans. […]

#DYWSummit Bridging the Digital Divide

Posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2020

Digital inclusion is a social justice issue, unchecked it has been exacerbating social inequalities. We all need to work together to turn things around. At Youthlink Scotland’s #DYWSummit on the 8th September, I talked about four tactics to bridge the digital divide and create a fairer Scotland: Firstly, the Digital Inclusion Fund The Scottish Government […]

Coronavirus Update Lead Scotland Services

Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2020

Last updated 11/10/2022. We are offering remote, outdoor and indoor meetings, risk assessing our activity. HELPLINE: Our helpline is open as usual. REMOTE: Staff members and volunteers can offer everyone remote support by phone, text, email, online and by post. OUTDOORS: Staff and volunteers can meet people outdoors, following these rules: If you feel unwell […]

Lead to Better Cyber Resilence

Posted on Tuesday, January 28th, 2020

If you are worried that you are not safe online please come along to one of our Cyber Resilience events! We can help you learn and feel more confident. Our Cyber Scotland Week events All events are supported by Lead Scotland staff and volunteers, have a free lunch and travel costs are provided for disabled […]

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Making and Using Strong Passwords

Posted on Wednesday, January 8th, 2020

Strong passwords are really important for protecting your devices, such as your smartphone or tablet, as well as protecting your online profile including your email account. You might have heard about strong passwords before but do you know how to make one? Here are some trusted rules to follow so that you can feel confident […]

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Adult Learning Survey

Posted on Tuesday, November 12th, 2019

It’s Adult Learners week and Lead Scotland is asking all disabled adults, carers and supporters to complete this Scottish Government adult learning survey. Who is able to access lifelong learning opportunities? Who is being left behind and why? Please do spread the word and have your say before the middle of January 2020. The Adult […]

Fair Access to University Campaign

Posted on Tuesday, November 12th, 2019

Disabled people in Scotland can face multiple barriers in trying to access university. Students along with their families tell us that inadequate additional support to learn at school, interruption to school education from serious illness, and inability to re-locate due to complex needs are just some of the issues that can have an impact on […]

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Connecting with Nature and Learning

Posted on Monday, April 8th, 2019

“When I heard I was being nominated for the Award I felt such a lovely warm sunshine feeling. I had – in my previous life – many years ago in my career some achievements but because of my illness and years of pretty awful experiences that I’ve been through, this nomination means far more to […]

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Keep Cyber Safe and Pass it On, Inverness 24/4/19

Posted on Thursday, March 7th, 2019

Come along and help us celebrate our 40th anniversary, have afternoon tea and learn something new, in this case staying safe online! the event is being held at the Best Western Inverness Palace Hotel & Spa in the Ness suite on the afternoon of the 24th April, 2019 in Inverness. Please register to tell us […]

Help us shape Lead Scotland’s 2020 to 2023 Strategic Plan

Posted on Tuesday, March 5th, 2019

Every day people contact our learning, befriending and helpline services looking for options and the right support to begin learning, volunteering, having a say and working within communities across Scotland. Please tell us what you would like us to be doing in 2023 by responding to our strategic planning survey. Answer as many questions as […]

Lead’s next empowerment meeting is in Kirkcaldy

Posted on Friday, March 1st, 2019

Come along and help us celebrate our 40th anniversary, have afternoon tea and learn something new! In Fife the topic is participatory budgeting and we will be in St Brycedale Church, St Brycedale Ave, Kirkcaldy KY1 1ET on 28th March, 2019 between 1pm and 3pm. Register to tell us you are coming and share your […]

Lead Scotland AGM 2018

Posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2018

In the week when the new national living wage rate was announced and people were shouting “time for change” on international volunteer managers day we held our AGM, in the very beautiful Perth North Church, an accessible and welcoming venue. We’ve had a good year reaching more learners, befriendees, helpline callers and supporters so the […]

Looking back to 2017-18, looking forward to 2018-19

Posted on Friday, August 10th, 2018

Our 3 strategic goals are to reach more people who can benefit from our services, extend our national coverage and to be sustainable. Lead Scotland 2017-18 review by Emma Whitelock We reached more people We’ve exceeded our target by supporting 342 disabled people and carers compared with 307 people in 2016-17. To dig a […]

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