SI magazine Spring 2014

Interview Duncan McLaren

social, strategic and sustainable investment and innovation

ISSUE 5 // MARCH 2014

Are your investments ethical and sustainable?

Economic Growth Social Enterprise

Leading by Example

Employment in the sector we speak with Trishna Singh Olivia Giles of 500 miles

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Spectrum Events is proud to provide Social Investment conferences and seminars for Scotland’s third sector. Our events focus on social investment, funding, preventative spend and other key strategic issues for the sector.

We work with partners from across the third, public and private sectors to create genuine and productive debate and real business development opportunities.

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You can register to be kept up to date on our upcoming events buy emailing events@spectrum-events.co.uk.

SI magazine March 2014

IN THIS ISSUE Page 24

Page 28

www.simagazine.co.uk SI magazine is a quarterly digital publication designed to bring together original content which affects business within the third sector at a strategic level such as grant and loan funding, partnerships, social enterprise and efficiencies.

2 News 8

Lead story We examine ethical and sustainable investments

Published by Spectrum Solutions Publisher Andy Crielly publisher@simagazine.co.uk Registered office Spectrum Outsourced Solutions Ltd, Catchpell House, Carpet Lane, Edinburgh, EH6 6SP Editor Jen Dunn jen@simagazine.co.uk Editorial steering panel Social Enterprise Scotland, Scottish Community Foundation, SCFDG, ACOSVO, Scottish Financial Enterprise, Inspiring Scotland.

Advertising Lesley Fraser lesley@simagazine.co.uk Graphic design LBD Design and Print www.lbd.uk.net The views expressed in SI magazine are those of invited contributors and not necessarily those of Spectrum Solutions.

Spectrum Solutions does not endorse any goods or services advertised or any claims or representations made in any advertisement in SI magagazine, and accepts no liability to any person for loss or damage suffered asa consequence of their responding to, or reliance on, any claim or representation made in advertisements appearing in SI magazine. By responding or placing reliance, readers accept that they do so at their own risk.

12 Q&A We speak to Duncan McLaren about his varied career within the third sector

17 SI Awards Join us in congratulating the winners of our inaugural awards

20 Economic Growth We examine employment in the third sector

23 Recruitment Find out about exciting new career opportunities

24 Leading Lights We speak with Bruce Tait of Bruce Tait Associates

28 Social Enterprise Trishna Singh tells us more about Punjab Junction

32 Leading by example We talk to Olivia Giles, founder of 500 Miles about the difference her organisation is making to children overseas Marguerite Hunter Blair discusses the importance of play and Play Scotland’s work

40 Service Directory 41 Balancing the books Investments Legal services

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1

Welcome!

SI NEWS

Welcome to the Spring 2014 issue of SI Magazine.

The Scottish Third Sector has plenty of inspiring people, and we’ve been talking to some of them over the past few months; Trishna Singh from Sikh Sanjog, Olivia Giles from 500 miles, Duncan MacLaren, formerly of Sciaf and Cafod, and Marguerite Hunter Blair of Play Scotland.

However, our main focus is on recruitment. As the economy picks up (fingers crossed!) many people are considering a job move. We’ve been speaking to Bruce Tait, a longtime leader in Third Sector recruitment, and carry a feature on human resources in the Third Sector.

Also on a finance bent, you might have read recent coverage on unethical investments by big financial organisations, and be wondering if your pension fund or ISA could be put to better use. In which case, you should check out our feature on ethical investment.

Finally, we also have an update on how the inaugural SI Magazine Awards went, at the end of 2013 – congratulations to all our winners and comiserations to those who narrowly lost out.

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The Big Sell Off On 6-7th February, a range of Scottish politicians, Third Sector leaders, and celebrities took part in the Big Sell Off, to support the Big Issue Foundation.

Participants included Humza Yousaf, Anas Sarwar, Sandra White, Patrick Harvie, Helen Liddell Shareen Nanjiani and Greg McHugh of Gary: Tank Commander fame.

Participants spent an hour at a busy pitch in Glasgow and Edinburgh, selling copies of the Big Issue. As well as selling copies of the magazine, the temporary vendors also raised sponsorship money from family and friends.

The event was run by the International Network of Street Papers, as part of INSP week.

Gordon Sloan, the chair of Glasgow Housing Association, raised the highest amount of sponsorship money – over £4700. Karen Cunningham, the Director of Glasgow Libraries and Aye Write! Was the most successful vendor, selling 50 copies in an hour. The vendors were thanked at an event in Glasgow City Chambers, held by Lord Provost Sadie Docherty, a patron of INSP. Lisa Maclean, Executive Director of INSP said: “The Big Sell-Off is a fantastic way to get Scotland’s big businesses behind homelessness.

“More than 20 Scottish bosses media executives and government ministers will show their support by seeing first-hand what it’s like to sell The Big Issue.”

SI magazine March 2014

“Parliament can endorse the £20 million of support we are providing so that local authorities can ensure people affected by the bedroom tax have as much financial support as possible.

“And Parliament can back business by retaining the most competitive business rates package in the UK supporting the small businesses who are the foundations of Scotland’s economy and our communities.

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT NEWS

Budget time A roundup of the other main news items are below, but the big news from the Scottish Government in recent weeks has been the publication of the budget, the last before the autumn independence referendum. This includes: • £55m over two years to expand the provision of free school meals to all P1-P3 pupils; • £59m over two years to provide additional childcare places – taking the total additional funding for childcare to around £250m over two years; • £77m over two years to further enhance the competitiveness of the Scotland’s business rates regime; and • £20m to offer further help to those affected by the UK Government’s bedroom tax in 2014-15.

the Scottish budget on our economy and their relentless austerity agenda.

“This budget contains proposals that will help Scotland’s children, tackle poverty, increase the opportunities for parents to work and protect some of our most vulnerable people from the impact of welfare reform.

“Parliament will get the chance to support our commitment to tackling child poverty by extending free school meals and to providing more support for children and parents by increasing the availability of childcare not just to 600 hours but to more of Scotland’s two year olds.

“With the full powers of independence we would be able to do more on childcare, to address the problems of the welfare system and to back business.”

Despite Labour’s backing of the budget, they have criticised the Bill for not doing enough to support the must vulnerable Scotland. Greens believe that the SNP are not doing enough to support sustainable transport initiatives.

Government Launches Scots Language Prize Communities with strong links to their Scots heritage are being urged to nominate themselves for the new Scots Toun Awards.

Unusually, the main opposition, Scottish Labour, has vowed to back the budget. Labour have also vowed to work with the Scottish Government to try to find a legal loophole that would end Scots having to pay the ‘bedroom tax’.

John Swinny, Finance Secretary, said, “Within our limited powers we are doing everything possible to tackle the effects of Westminster’s cuts to 3

SI NEWS The widespread consultation marks a significant step forward in recognising and addressing the needs of unpaid adult carers and young carers across Scotland who care for their families, friends and neighbours.

The proposed legislation, which was announced by the First Minister in October, aims to ensure that carers are further supported and are fully involved in decisions affecting their lives and those they care for.

Announcing the consultation, Minister for Public Health Michael Matheson said:

The first prize of £6,000 will help the winner to develop new projects aimed at encouraging the Scots language, Minister for Scotland’s Languages Alasdair Allan announced today.

The first prize of £6,000 and second place £4,000 will be announced at the end of April. The judging criteria and application form can be found at www.scots-toun.co.uk

The awards have been launched by the Scots Language Centre and applicants have until February 28 to put themselves forward. Dr Allan said:

Government consults on carers – new plans to help carers and young carers

“With the last census showing 1.5 million people describing themselves as Scots speakers it is clear that Scots remains an important and vibrant part of our communities.

There are many excellent projects across the country to encourage its use and these awards recognise that we can’t be complacent about supporting a language so ingrained in our national identity.

“We want to hear about festivals, writers groups and the many and varied ways that people use Scots to promote cultural and community vitality and tourism.

“The prize money will help groups who have created successful projects celebrating Scots to develop, expand and share their expertise so that many more people can benefit. I would encourage all groups and individuals supporting the Scots language to visit the Scots Toun website.”

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Carers and young carers are being asked for their views on specific legislation to promote, defend and extend their rights.

“There are now more people than ever before who are caring intensively, for more hours each week. This means that they are facing considerable challenges.

“We have put significant effort into supporting carers and young carers over the past few years.

But this success cannot take away from the fact that many carers are experiencing considerable stress and anxiety and are not receiving the support they deserve. “ The consultation can be found on the Scottish Government website, and the closing date is 16th April.

SI magazine March 2014

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SI NEWS • Training for special-needs teachers in Malawi; • Creating an emergency response system for a rural community in Tanzania • Teaching English in Bangladesh and • Helping a rural community in India build capacity to increase their food security.

Minister for International Development and External Affairs Humza Yousaf said:

“No Makeup Selfie” trend raises £3m for Cancer Research

Scottish Government accounce international development grant awards

A social media phenomenon, the “No Makeup Selfie” campaign has raised millions for cancer research. No-one knows who started the campaign, which encouraged women – and some men also took part – to take a photo of themselves without any makeup on an post it on Facebook.

International development organisations across Scotland are to benefit from grants totalling almost £450,000.

While the campaign initially appeared to focus on awareness rather than fundraising, Cancer Research UK quickly highlighted the need to donate rather than simply post, and encouraged particpants to solicit donations when they posted.

There are a few lessons for fundraisers in the campaign. Not everyone got the text details right; predictive texts or using the wrong words meant some donations went astray, although the unintentional beneficiaries have agreed to transfer the money across. Some posters, realising the idea was a good one, chose to support a cause other than Cancer Research UK. These points highlight that the informality of social media can make it difficult for charities to control, although the sponatenous nature of the fundraising is undoubtedly part of what made it succeed.

6

“During my recent visit to Malawi and Zambia I saw for myself the transformative effect that Scottish organisations, with the support of Scottish Government funding, can make to everyday life for the poor and most vulnerable in these countries.

The announcement was made in the Scottish Parliament by Minister for International Development and External Affairs Humza Yousaf.

“That’s why the awards announced today are so important. They will allow this vital work to continue in Malawi, Bangladesh, India and Tanzania, taking Scottish skills and expertise to these countries and delivering life-changing improvements for communities there.

The grants, from the Scottish Government’s International Development Small Grants Programme 2014-15, total £431,279 and will be used to support the work of Scottish-based organisations abroad, which includes:

“I would like to thank the Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland, the Network of International Development Organisations in Scotland and the Scotland Malawi Partnership for all their hard work in bringing this Programme to fruition.”

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7

LEAD FEATURE

Put your money where your mouth is No matter how much money you’ve got, you can consider buying ethical financial products.

L

et’s face it – most of us don’t particularly enjoy making investment decisions. The chances are you’ll use a combination of financial products from your usual high street bank and price comparison websites, pay into a company pension, as well as possibly going to a broker if you have a more complicated or bigger decision to make, like where to invest a lump sum or which company to take out a mortgage from.

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Most people are fully aware that the money they pay into any sort of account doesn’t just sit there – the bank invests this money in businesses to generate more funds, some of which are paid back to account holders as investments or dividends.

In a world where we’re being increasingly urged to be ethical about where we buy goods, to minimise our environmental footprint and maximise the social and welfare benefits of our

purchases, it seems sensible to also think about how the money in our ISA or pension is being invested too.

After all, there’s no point in buying fairly traded clothes if some of the money we give to our local bank is being invested in a company whose profits rely on sweatshop labour, or volunteering for an international aid charity if your pension is being invested in a company whose activities help to cause climate change.

SI magazine March 2014

It’s not a new idea – most building societies, and particularly credit unions, were founded under some sort of ethical code, although usually one with the welfare of community of which they served in mind. The first modern ethical bank is often thought of as being the Co-Op, which introduced an ethical investment policy in 1992. The first ethical fund aimed at mainstream investors was the F&C Stewardship Growth Fund, which is launched in 1984.

For individuals, then, there are a range of options out there – from doing business with a bank with a entirely ethical policy, like the Co-op or Triodos, researching an ethical investment portfolio within a mainstream bank, to finding an ethical investment manager, pension, insurance policy, child trust fund, or even a not for profit rent deposit scheme – the market is opening up. Ethical investment might not be mainstream yet, but there certainly are plenty of options.

For institutional investors, investment ethics have traditionally not been seen as a priority – sometimes with embarrassing results. In July last year, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s criticism of payday loans companies, and stated intention to put them out of business by working with credit unions on church premises to offer affordable loads, was somewhat undermined when it transpired that the Church of England actually owned a stake in Wonga. The CofE lost further credibility when the Guardian reported in December that it still owned a £80,000 stake in Wonga.

importance of ethical investments by the public sector. People want to know what their pension is being invested in, and here will be more scrutiny of public investments and more demand for ethically compliant funds. This will put more pressure on pension board trustees to become informed about ethical investments and to make ethical decisions”.

But it’s easy to also find institutions in Scotland that have been criticised for not investing ethically. The Sunday Herald recently ran a story on the unethical nature of some investments made by Scotland’s biggest public pension funds, which routinely invest in tobacco, arms manufacturing and fossil fuels. These big pension funds, like Strathclyde Pension Fund and Lothian Pension Fund, hold funds on behalf of thousands of Scots not just working in the public sector, but in further and higher education and in Third Sector organisations.

But ethical investment, like anything in life, comes with some grey areas – and a lot of them depend on individual beliefs. For example, you might be suspicious of GM crops, or you might think that they have the potential to feed thousands of people who go hungry. A strict vegan might disagree with investing in any company that tested on animals for any reason, or any company that produced food or clothes from animals, but another investor may wholeheartedly support testing on animals to develop new medicines.

How do you keep everyone happy?

So, are local authorities and other state organisations more likely to invest ethically in the future?

Scott Murray from Virtuo Wealth Management thinks so.

“I think people are becoming more and more informed about the

But what are ethical investments? If you think of an unethical investment, examples that might spring to mind are blood diamonds, nuclear weapons, sweatshops and fur.

Scott says, “Virtuo have a tailored investment scheme which can match investor’s preferences with the portfolio we offer. We’d tend to encourage investors to focus on what a fund will be used for, rather than ruling varying investment

I think people are becoming more and more informed about the importance of ethical investments by the public sector. People want to know what their pension is being invested in, and here will be more scrutiny of public investments and more demand for ethically compliant funds. This will put more pressure on pension board trustees to become informed about ethical investments and to make ethical decisions.

Scott Murray Virtuo Wealth Management

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LEAD FEATURE

areas out. Some funds focus particularly on companies that take a positive response to human rights, environmental issues, employee welfare and social impact, or that work to improve animal health or welfare or invest in recycling.”

However, different ethical funds and banks have different policies on what is and is not acceptable. Some allow varying levels of input from investor, although if the fund in question is a collective one, like a company pension scheme, then the ethics of every employee are not going to be ideally matched by the profile of 10

the investment; decisions can be taken on a collective profile of the organisation.

The million dollar question is whether or not ethical funds match up with standard funds when it comes to performance. While ethics are one thing, cold hard cash accumulating in an ISA or pension fund is likely to be more persuasive.

“I think the idea that ethical investments have a lower return is an old fashioned one,” argues Scott.

“The return on an investment isn’t determined by how ethical it is – it’s

determined by the level of risk that the investor is willing to accept. High risk investments can lead to high returns, but also of a reduction in the amount invested, and the term that the investment is made over.”

Just as with standard investments, high risk ethical investments on offer include venture capital trusts, where money is split between several small businesses, and stocks and shares in ethical companies.

So, whatever financial products you’re looking for, you should be able to find an ethical option. There may be few

SI magazine March 2014

Faith banking As well as ethical investment fund which match personal beliefs to investment portfolios, finance management which adheres to religious principles is becoming increasingly common.

The best known are specialist banking services for Muslims, and comply with Sharia law.

Islam prohibits charging interest (or riba) on loans and mortgages; financial growth must come from trading and activity. Most finance is arranged on a risk sharing model between the customer and the bank, and any percentage gain is through a share of profit, rather than interest. Sharia permits the use of standard indices like bank rate and Libor, to ensure that products are comparable with those in the wider market.

guarantees in life when it comes to money – but at least you’ll know that yours is working for a good cause, even if you can’t afford that Porsche quite yet.

How to invest ethically Ask what your money is being invested in – ask your broker or bank to explain where your money is going.

Any ethical fund worthy of the name will be happy to explain this to you.

However, don’t just ask questions at the start; if anything concerns you, or even if you haven’t had contact about your investment for a while, ask for more information.

Most of the big public pension providers are administered by local authorities. If you’re part of one of these funds, write to the chair or to your local councillor to ask them to invest ethically. If you’re part of a Third Sector or private organisation and would like to be part of an ethical

pension plan, then raise this with your HR department.

Consider what your own ethics are, and adhere to them consistently. It makes no sense to pointedly refuse to invest in whisky if you drink.

Consider your attitude to risk. A low risk strategy may sound like a good idea for a pension scheme, but some element of high risk investment will help your money to grow, particularly in the long term. High risk doesn’t inherently mean unethical – for example, when it comes to start up renewable energy companies.

Keep an eye out for new products – for example, Virtuo have just launched a new “We give you give charity ISA”, which allows investors to donate a percentage of their returns to good causes.

Don’t be afraid to ask for advice – most brokers have at least a basic

As well as adhering to the Sharia laws that government interest, Islamic funds do not invest in alcohol or pornography. Most UK high street banks offer Shariacompliant banking, as do a number of specialist financial institutions.

However, religious investment schemes aren’t limited to those run in accordance to Muslim principles. Christian banking schemes available, including one, Reliance Bank, run by the Salvation Army. There is also at least one savings account available in the UK which is run

by Triodos and supports the work of Buddhist projects.

knowledge of ethical investment funds. If you’d like to find out more about ethical investments online before you make a call, then http:// ethicalinvestment.org.uk/, http:// www.yourethicalmoney.org/ and the Guardian Money websites are all great places to start.

11

Q&A

Man on a mission 12

SI magazine March 2014

If you put together a list of Scots who began life working in the Third Sector at home and went on to have a career that influenced developments far beyond our small, rainy corner of the globe, then the chances are Duncan MacLaren would be high up the list. He talks to Jen Dunn about international development, poverty porn, independence and Kippers...

D

uncan was previously the Executive Director for SCIAF (the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund) for thirteen years, and then moved to the headquarters of Caritas Internationalism, living and working in Rome. He says, “I then became Secretary General of the Caritas Confederation, one of the largest international aid networks in the world. I did this for two terms – it involved a lot of travel to meet member organisations and attending humanitarian situations, so while I enjoyed my time there, I decided to move on.”

“I was then offered a visiting professorship at the Australian Catholic University in Sydney. I was initially offered a position for six months but stayed for six years. “ “My work there included coordinating a programme to offer higher education to Burmese refugees in Thailand, which I’m still involved with.

I also designed and taught a degree in international development studies for Australian students.”

Now that you have returned, what are your plans?

“The spur for me returning was the chance to take part in the referendum debate. I think that this could be an opportunity for a root and branch regeneration and reform of Scotland as a whole.”

“I’m also going to be volunteering on the Thai-Burma Border for three weeks, teaching a course in international development studies, and working as a consultant in Rome for global leadership training

sessions and possibly going to projects in some African countries and Pakistan as a consultant.”

“However, my big personal project is going to be doing a PhD at Glasgow University, which will involve a mixture of theology and international development. It will be a continuation of the work I covered previously in my Master of Theology degree at Edinburgh University and which I was doing in Australia. I hope my 30 years’ experience in the field will also contribute towards the project.”

You mentioned the referendum – what sort of work do you expect to be doing?

“I’m going to be working with Third Sector Yes. I’m in the luxurious situation in that I’m not working for an NGO, so I can use my own name in the debate, as many organisations are reluctant for their staff to be seen to openly take sides. Third Sector Yes is primarily about sharing ideas and boosting debate. I think there are points in the referendum debate related to the Third Sector that will be of interest to everyone. So far, the politicians have been making the running. It is now time for civil society to come up to the mark and

delineate how they see society in a new Scotland. “ More generally, I think the media focus on economics is wrong. The Union can’t guarantee a rising standard of living and wages.

Economics and bribery about what path will leave people better off shouldn’t be the focus; the real focus should be on democracy.

Scotland is a communitarian society that puts people before the market, publicly funded health care before private, and state run schools before private education. Unlike a famous British PM, we do believe in society – a fair society.

South of the Border, society is fractured and becoming more so, and, as demonstrated by the rise of UKIP. Westminster policy is being driven by an anti-renewable, antiimmigration and anti-European agenda, which is the opposite of what Scotland needs. The European Union referendum is worrying, as votes from other parts of the United Kingdom could pull us out of the EU, which most Scots are happy to be part of and which is vital for our economy and for peace.

I think the media focus on economics is wrong.

The Union can’t guarantee a rising standard of living and wages. Economics and bribery about what path will leave people better off shouldn’t be the focus; the real focus should be on democracy.

Duncan MacLaren

Q&A

It is not democratic that a party not elected by Scots can alter the Scotland Act. A government influenced

by UKIP could decrease the powers of the Scottish Parliament.

With independence comes a chance for deliberative democracy – one where Scots take part in the political process in between elections so that decision-making reflects the will of an informed electorate. I wouldn’t be against making voting compulsory, but I’d also like to see a government that was closer to the people, making decisions to fit Scottish needs.

I used to work as a researcher for the SNP in Westminster. MPs and researchers worked together as a team in the group, while much of the rest of the Parliament functioned as 14

a nineteenth century old boys’ club.

Westminster is too hidebound to tradition to be a functioning, modern democratic system. The important future power relationships for Scotland will be between Edinburgh and Brussels.

Do you think the scandals in the Catholic Church have affected its international development organisations?

The scandals have been appalling and the church needs to do more to never allow them to happen again. Cardinal Winning called the international aid agencies the “jewel in the crown” of the Church; Caritas produced guidelines years ago on protecting children; they were way ahead of the official church, and are regarded as being removed from the scandals.

The international aid agencies are involved with practical projects to improve the lives of the poor, and, like Christian Aid, we don’t discriminate on the basis of religion or politics or anything else. We want to support good, integral human development programmes. The first agencies working in the developing HIV/AIDs crisis in Africa were CAFOD in England and Wales and SCIAF in Scotland. We campaigned for HIV/AIDS to be seen as a human and developmental issue, not just a health issue, and where stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS had to be tackled...

The Caritas agencies have contacts at all levels in most countries - from individual grassroots parishes to the international level through our UN delegates in Geneva and New York.

SI magazine March 2014

With independence comes a chance for deliberative democracy – one where Scots take part in the political process in between elections so that decision-making reflects the will of an informed electorate. I wouldn’t be against making voting compulsory, but I’d also like to see a government that was closer to the people, making decisions to fit Scottish needs.

Duncan MacLaren

We can raise issues that we know are problems at grassroots to the appropriate level where assistance or solutions can be sought.

The scandals haven’t tainted our international development, domestic poverty work or the work of most religious orders, but I do think the official Catholic Church must do more to condemn abuse and put more rigorous schemes in place will ensure such abuse never occurs again.

Do you think overseas volunteering is always beneficial to people overseas?

I’ve been involved in immersion programmes as part of international development for many years. What is important is to prepare people properly. In ACU, our development studies degree had an immersion experience as part of the programme but there was also a preparation course beforehand.

Some volunteers may be ill prepared, see themselves as “white saviours” or have a colonial-style attitude towards the people in the communities where they are volunteering. Volunteers should be interviewed thoroughly to make sure they are empathetic and see themselves as showing solidarity with the community whose life they are temporarily sharing. The idea that someone has saved the world by pitching up for a few weeks and building a classroom is nonsense.

I remember explaining to students on a trip to South America that the most important thing they could do was

to listen to the people they worked with and learn from them. They need to understand what causes poverty, which is the world economic and political structure.

Volunteering is about preparation and careful selection, and about listening and learning. It is about becoming a better global citizen.

Volunteering works best as a benefit to volunteers, and allows them to become advocates for the global poverty movement when they return home.

Do you think people are less likely to donate to international causes when there are food banks at home?

I don’t believe fundraising has been too affected, but many NGOs have gone back on a promise to stop showing images of people begging or demeaning their dignity as human beings in some way to generate donations. This doesn’t chime with sustainable development.

Some appeals, such as a recent one I saw handing out backpacks to schools children, are unsustainable.

Appeals can be in bad taste; for example, there’s a “48 hour fundraising famine” promotion; doing without food for 48 hours is a health regime, not a famine, and it is insulting to people who are actually starving.

I do worry that people will respond to heart-tugging images rather than solidarity; that they prefer ‘poverty pornography’. An increased drive for

funds are causing some fundraisers to break from good practice.

More generally, it is appalling that there is an increase in the need for food banks here, and it doesn’t add up in a country as wealthy as Scotland. Austerity will continue under the current UK government.

To end poverty at home, government must work closely with the Third Sector, but the Third Sector must also retain its independence and hold Parliament to account.

The Scottish Government has small international aid budgets which is well targeted but think what it could do when all budgetary decisions are made in an independent Scotland which is not thrilled to imperialism.

The UK is steering towards an aid budget that is 0.7% of national income, a target that was set in the 1970s. However, in Scotland, this could be enshrined in a legislative commitment.

However, under independence, NGOs in Scotland can’t just be fundraising hoovers, sending money to headquarters based elsewhere.

Research, education and project work must be done in Scotland so that the full richness of being involved in one of the great moral crusades of our age – an end to global poverty – can be expressed.

An independent Scotland could lobby for a UN humanitarian agency to be based here creating jobs and being a magnate for discussion and action on global issues.

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SI AWARDS

Starry starry night 28th November was the inaugural SI magazine awards, held as the Grosvenor Hilton Hotel in Edinburgh. The evening was introduced by Chic Brodie MSP, the wine flowed, the food was excellent, and everyone had a fabulous time.

O

f course, the evening wasn’t purely about having fun.

The purpose of the awards was to showcase the best and most innovative projects in Scotland this year. A great deal of time and work went in on the part of the panel to choose the best projects; judges included Jackie Killeen, Director of

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the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland, Andrew Muirhead, the Chief Executive of Inspiring Scotland, Fraser Kelly, the Chief Executive of Social Enterprise Scotland, Pat Armstrong, the Chief Executive of ACOSV, Paul Bannon, the Chair of the Scottish Charity Finance Group, Mike McCarron, the Chair of Apex Scotland and, last but not least,

Giles Ruck, the Chief Executive of Foundation Scotland.

All of the nominees for each award had excellent credentials and all would have made worthy winners.

However, in time honoured fashion, there could only be one winner for each of the categories. These were:

SI magazine March 2014

the way their funds are targeted at improving life in Scotland’s most marginalised communities. The Trust’s focus in the recent past has been on alcohol abuse and the rehabilitation of reoffenders.

However, the Robertson Trust supports a large range of voluntary and third sector organisations. In the last year, it has distributed awards of £60,000 to the Strathcarron Hospice and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, among several other recipients of grants over £20,000.

The Robertson Trust have also distributed smaller amounts to projects too numerous to mention, but that includes the Govan Youth Project, Handicabs and the Scottish Wheelchair Dance Foundation.

The Trust have also given large development grants to Queen Margaret University for work on a project on the relationship between young people and alcohol, facilitated with pupils from Portobello High School, and to Evaluation Support Scotland for their Funder Learning Programme.

Cross Sector Partnership of the Year: SIS and HIE Social Investment Scotland and Highlands and Islands Enterprise have a longstanding relationship, which has recently become stronger and more formal. This has ensured that social enterprises in the Highlands and Islands will receive support; no matter how isolated the community is that they serve.

A key element of this development is the establishment of a permanent SIS presence in the area in the form of a new Investment Manager, who will work with social enterprises across the Highlands and Islands.

The role is part-funded by HIE in its early stages, but with funding reducing over time, in line with a defined plan and set milestones.

The new SIS Investment Manager will work with HIE staff to identify potential opportunities for targeted social investment. It is widely acknowledged that investment, when partnered with appropriate support and advice, offers organisations a greater chance of achieving success and their intended social impacts.

Funder of the Year: Robertson Trust The Robertson Trust are one of Scotland’s best known funders, and were established in 1961 by the Robertson Sisters, whose family made their fortune from trading whisky and rum.

Although the roots of the Robertson Trust are venerable, this is an organisation with its sights set to the future – in 2011/12 they committed over £15 million to good causes, an increase of over 25% on the previous year.

The Robertson Trust won their SI award not just because they distribute funds, but because of 17

SI magazine March 2014

SI AWARDS

SIS will also work closely with both HIE colleagues and Third Sector organisations to develop their investment readiness skills and knowledge.

the anchor organisations to establish a culture of greater investment readiness; leading to securing funding from alternative, nontraditional sources.

Through its Community Account Management (CAM) approach HIE is currently engaged with fifty communities, helping and encouraging them to develop and implement plans for local growth. It is envisaged that the SIS Investment Manager engage with these CAM communities, offering advice and support in developing the capacity of

The partnership was chosen for an award as it will help to develop the capacity, capability and overall resilience of social enterprises in some of Scotland’s most fragile rural economies, through access to targeted investment readiness support and signposting to investment and funding options.

Project of the Year: All Grants Under ÂŁ50k: 18 and Under Dundee-based 18 and Under run Reach Out, which is funded through Foundation Scotland with a small grant of ÂŁ20,000 over a 2 year period. They recruit and train volunteers and go out onto the street in the evenings to target vulnerable young people who are involved in sexual exploitation or who are at risk.

Through reaching out to these hard to reach young people, 18 and Under 18

are able to give them support and information and help them to become safer.

Many of the young people the project has contact with have grown up in families living in poverty, been part of the care system, and have few or no reliable adult family members that they can turn to. They may also be suspicious of statutory authorities like police, teachers and social workers.

This makes them even more vulnerable and more likely to become groomed and victimised.

18 and Under encourage aim to develop a supportive and communicative relationship with young people, and also to provide them with information and direction into a better and healthier lifestyle.

They provide practical support with helping them access services, helping them talk to professionals and provide emotional support to young people, to help them move on from the circumstances in which they find themselves in contact with the project.

SI magazine March 2014

18 and Under work with around 500 very vulnerable young people a year and, in the project’s own words, “help to prevent them becoming another statistic”.

trainees at a time. The workforce tends to begin as volunteers and then progress and targets ex offenders who have completed relevant courses while in prison.

The panel felt that 18 and Under did excellent work with a difficult client group, and fully deserved recognition for their efforts.

The long term objective of the business is to repay its initial investment and then gift aid future profits to the parent organisation.

More importantly, All Cleaned Up aim to create real jobs for some of the most disadvantaged individuals in the job seeker market

Project of the Year: Some Grants Over £50k: All Cleaned Up All Cleaned Up Scotland is a social enterprise wholly owned by national charity Apex Scotland. Apex Scotland’s primary mission is in supporting employability for offenders, ex offenders and young people at risk.

The project was created because of an identified need to create new funding streams, as well as provide employment opportunities for Apex Scotland’s client group.

All Cleaned Up Scotland was formed in May 2012, with trading beginning in Edinburgh in May the same year.

The scheme works on the basis that ex offenders are employed to carry out industrial cleaning and waste clearance, and now operated in several locations throughout Scotland. Last year, the business expanded into commercial kitchen cleaning, building refurbishing and ground and facilities management.

The scheme was deemed a winner because, not only does it provide employment opportunities to a sometimes challenging group, who are often distant from the labour market, it has been a commercial success.

From an initial fund of £50,000 from Apex Scotland to pay for initial costs and salaries, All Cleaned Up has earned more than £160,000 from sales, contracts and SLS. In terms of employment, All Cleaned Up began with three employees and now has ten salaries staff, as well as providing opportunities to eight

Most Innovative Project of the Year: Perth and District YMCA Perth and District YMCA won this award through their establishment of the have the first, and to date only, Social Impact Bond funded project in Scotland. Called Living Balance, the YMCA have run the project efficiently since its inception.

The project is not just innovative because its funding mechanism is a Social Impact Bond, which is still relatively unusual in Scotland, but because of the locality of the investors involved. All but one of the twelve investors are based in Perth and Kinross, and have invested between £5,000 and £50,000. This is very different from the normal investor profile, and allows individuals to make ISA-sized commitments to social enterprises.

To add value to the project, many of the investors have become more hands on in the development of the project, and offer work experience, job interview training, and other support to the young people who benefit from the scheme.

Around 95% of the young people who gain employment through the scheme have stayed in employment.

As well as benefiting the young people themselves, Living Balance has also led to the YMCA in Scotland’s development of a Social Impact Investment Partnership structure, which will assist other

medium sized local voluntary and third sector organisations to access similar streams of capital.

Living Balance won the award because it could be crucial in developing new funding streams and new ways for young people to gain support from existing entrepreneurs across most communities in Scotland, at a time when traditional funding and traditional work placements are the subject of fierce competition.

We’d like to wish a big congratulations to all our project winners. We would also like to offer our commiserations to the projects who were nominated but did not receive a rewards; they all do fantastic work and we really hope that each of them continue to be innovative, enterprising and exciting, and that we may see some of them again next year.

SI would like to thank all the guests who made the event a fitting and fun start to the festive season; although it may seem a long way off in the post-Christmas gloom, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and that we will see you again next year.

Finally, we don’t just wait for our awards to cover innovative and entrepreneurial projects from across Scotland. If you weren’t nominated but do want to tell us about the great work that your project does, please e-mail us at jen@simagazine.co.uk 19

ECONOMIC GROWTH

The one for the job With the economy slowly becoming more buoyant, the dearth of job adverts in the last few years seems to be ending. While broadsheets went through a period of having half a page of job adverts, rather than the pull out supplements seen in the heady days of the early noughties, they’re now back to running a few pages of vacancies.

Y

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ou might have been stuck in the same job for the last few years and be sensing an opportunity to move on, or you might have been unlucky enough to have been laid off during the recession.

Volunteering is also an excellent way to build up skills, either to get a first position in the Third Sector, or to build on your existing role and go for that promotion or find a job that’s the next step up on the career ladder.

Either way, if you’re looking for a move into the Third Sector, Bruce Tait from Charity Careers Scotland has some good advice, “Look at the previous jobs that you have done and how they match a job that you want to go for. Job titles don’t matter so much, but transferable skills and experience do.”

So, with that in mind, here’s SI magazines rough guide to the type of jobs you’ll find in the Third Sector.

organisations, with paid staff, leaders will have to make day to day decisions about staffing and resources, answer queries from team members, possibly delegate tasks to a personal assistant – and, crucially, be accountable to trustees.

Leaders

Chief Executive Officers have the highest level of responsibility within a charity, but larger organisations may have more than one director.

Even the tiniest charity needs someone to be in charge and make decisions. For larger

There are interminable websites and books that cover how to be a

SI magazine March 2014

Look at the previous jobs that you have done and how they match a job that you want to go for.

Job titles don’t matter so much, but transferable skills and experience do.

Bruce Tait Charity Careers Scotland

successful leader, but most involve being able to, well, lead people, hard graft, perspective, and expertise in the policy area that the charity operates in.

Having experience as a charity trustee can help with being successful in applying to a leadership role – as can professional qualifications, good networking, and a fair bit of luck!

Communicators It’s essential to let people know what your charity does – which is where communicators come in.

Often, communication roles can be interlinked with fundraising – supporters need to be told what the charity is doing to encourage them to donate, and publicity can generate more income.

One increasingly important method of communication is social media – whatever type of communication role you have, you’re likely to be doing an increasing amount of it on Twitter and Facebook, as well as specialist supporter e-mail systems.

Press officers, or a member of staff with responsibility for press, are essential for most charities.

Public affairs officers are particularly important for charities which run campaigns – these guys tend to have a background in politics, and work as lobbyists to ensure that parliamentarians take their charity’s message on board.

The upside of these roles is that they can be great fun, fast moving and exciting. The flip side is that they often involve being on call or working at unpredictable hours.

Fundraisers Fundraising comes in many forms.

Direct fundraising, either on the street or by phone, is perhaps the method most of us experience.

Although there are paid positions on offer for this, they tend to have at least an element of commission. You also could find yourself managing volunteers or other staff members to take part in direct fundraising.

Speaking of volunteers, supporters are themselves a source of funds – some charities hire support assistants to communicate with them, and supporter legacies can be a lucrative source of income.

There are also other ways of gathering a few pennies together.

Corporate fundraising involves getting larger donations from companies; many run “charity of the year” type schemes, as well as one off events and corporate social responsibility schemes. Sometimes these events are administered through partners, like Foundation Scotland.

Trust fundraisers have to be good at filling in forms, with an eye for matching their charities aims to the aims of the trust.

Finally, event based fundraising is possibly the most glamorous task, as this fundraising involves contacting both the rich and famous for donations and appearances, and the well heeled to ask them to turn up and part with their cash.

Most fundraising roles involve elements of all of these things, although larger charities may have enough resources to divide roles.

Administrator/technical They often aren’t the most glamorous roles, but the people who work in technical and support roles for charities are the unsung heroes of the Third Sector. These roles vary, but most charities have space for at 21

ECONOMIC GROWTH Social entrepreneurs are distinctive because they never accept the world as it is and see improvement in the human condition as a personal and global priority.

Mike Stevenson Thinktastic

least one administrative assistant.

Human resource officers, personal assistants and people working in finance and accounts also fall into this area.

Some support roles can be done as consultancy work – IT support, legal and fundraising advice, training and mapping exercises are often delivered externally rather than internally.

And although they might seem unappealing, entry level administrative roles can be excellent for building up skills, contacts and experience within the voluntary sector. Particularly if you work for a small organisation, you may find that you’re asked to fulfil fundraising or media tasks, which look great on your CV.

Service Delivery There are almost as many different types of service delivery roles as there are charities – this umbrella covers care assistants, animal welfare inspectors, counsellors, 22

youth workers… the list is endless.

Some of the jobs listed above could be included – for example, a public affairs officer working for a campaigns charity is technically delivering their key service.

If you’re interested in this type of role, then the chances are you’ll have a fair idea of what you want to do; many of them are particularly attractive if you don’t want to be stuck in an office all day.

Social entrepreneur Of course, you don’t have to be employed by a charity or social enterprise – you can create your own.

Which can be a lot of responsibility, but also very satisfying.

“Social entrepreneurs are distinctive because they never accept the world as it is and see improvement in the human condition as a personal and global priority.” Says Mike Stevenson of Thinktastic, who has worked with many social entrepreneurs. He

continues, “What really marks them out is their ability to find solutions that are often so simple that they have to pinch themselves. As a society, we have too often created interventions, processes and systems intended to support people but that ultimately ties them in knots and demoralise them. When I was homeless many years ago, I was picked up in a van, taken to a holding hostel in London, lined up naked and hosed with a delousing spray.

At least I retained some dignity on the streets. Social entrepreneurs cut through that because they listen and see without cynicism and through a human lens.”

“They are persuasive in conversation and unrelenting in their pursuit of an idea. They won’t indulge negativity, have bags of moral courage, won’t compromise their vision and stay with their passion­proving that social purpose is a more powerful motivator than money alone. The finest people I have met are social entrepreneurs and I support them in any way I can.”

GREAT JOBS. JUST FOR CHARITIES. JUST IN SCOTLAND. What if recruitment could be like online dating?

Stop kissing frogs: minimise inappropriate applications We all know someone who has met their significant other through online dating, it’s becoming the norm.

It occurred to us at Charity Careers Scotland that finding the perfect person for your charity’s vacancy is much the same. So how can we stop kissing so many frogs and find our prince? Many charities are inundated with inappropriate applications which take time and effort to filter through. By advertising your vacancy with us you can be assured that you will reach a very specific audience of individuals who are actively seeking a career within the third sector.

The voluntary sector’s greatest asset is its staff. At Charity Careers Scotland we recognise that having the desire to work for a charity is the fundamental driver behind great voluntary sector recruitment. That’s why we only recruit for charities in Scotland, here’s a selection of our current roles:

CURRENT VACANCIES MANAGER Organisation: ECAS Salary: £32,000 pro rata Location: Edinburgh Closing Date: 11th March 2014 Ecas is an Edinburgh based charity. The post holder will support the chief executive by managing key elements including classes & activities, health & safety, HR, client liaison and elements of finance and general administration.

PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER – COMMONWEALTH GAMES Organisation: UNICEF Salary: £30,000 per annum (9 month fixed contract) Location: Glasgow Closing Date: 24th March 2014 This is an amazing opportunity to be part of such a major and prestigious event and to work for one of the most respected charities in the world.

ASSISTANT RETAIL MANAGER

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

Organisation: Kilbryde Hospice Salary: Circa £14,000 per annum Location: South Lanarkshire Closing Date: 17th March 2014

Organisation: Kilbryde Hospice Salary: £21,000 per annum Location: South Lanarkshire Closing Date: 14th March 2014

Vacancies have arisen within the retail department of Kilbryde Hospice for assistant retail managers. This is a time of great excitement and growth within Kilbryde Hospice as the build of our purpose built hospice is now underway.

Kilbryde Hospice has a vacancy for a part time Volunteer Co-ordinator for 21 hours per week flexibly over 5 days.

This post is currently based within our head office in Blantyre but will work between all our premises and in the South Lanarkshire area

www.charitycareersscotland.co.uk

LEADING LIGHTS

Finding the right match Like every other sector, the voluntary sector has had to make some tough decisions about people and finance. We speak to Bruce Tait, one of the leading recruitment and fundraising consultants in the sector about how your organisation can both make its recruitment process more efficient and maximise its fundraising potential.

“I’ve worked in the voluntary sector for over 20 years, both here in Scotland and around the world. Right now, I’m the CEO of Charity Careers Scotland and Bruce Tait Associates.

Both provide recruitment services to charities in Scotland, although Bruce Tait Associates is also a fundraising consultancy, “says Bruce.

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“My background is in fundraising. I worked as a Director of Fundraising and Chief Executive with several Scottish charities and am a former Chair of the Institute of Fundraising in Scotland.

When I became a Fundraising Consultant I was often asked by charities to help to find people to

work for them, and my recruitment business grew out of that. I hadn’t been impressed by the way some recruitment agencies work with the Third Sector, so I set up my own company which grew and became successful. I still do fundraising consultancy, but recruitment is now a major part of my businesses.”

SI magazine March 2014

“What’s been key to our success is gaining the trust of the charities that we work for. Everyone that works for us has already worked for at least one charity, and we all volunteer for a range of causes. We do really understand the sector.”

Bruce Tait

So how has your business developed?

Third Sector is around £16,000, and around £20,000 in the private sector.

“Recruiting excellent staff for charities is a passion of ours and we’ve learned a great deal since we started Bruce Tait Associates in 2007. What’s been key to our success is gaining the trust of the charities that we work for. Everyone that works for us has already worked for at least one charity, and we all volunteer for a range of causes. We do really understand the sector.

However, there are other rewards; alternative management models, and projects, and alternative working styles. 80% of the Third Sector workforce is female, with good access to jobshare’s, compressed working hours, and family friendly working. This means that there is less of a glass ceiling, with more female senior officers.

One of the biggest changes is the emergence of online recruitment websites. I don’t think the voluntary sector is very well served in this area and some recruitment sites are particularly poor and unsuited for charities.

But this brings another challenge, which is how to recruit more men.

Some parts of the Third Sector, particularly in child and care based organisations, have very few men.”

How does Charity Careers Scotland work and what makes it distinctive?

To meet this need in the market, two years ago we started working on creating a new site, specifically for Scottish charities to use to recruit online. We then got support from Scottish Enterprise to develop this area and earlier this year launched Charity Careers Scotland – a new online recruitment resource specifically designed for and aimed at Scottish charities. It’s very innovative and contains many features designed to let charities tell their story, and in doing so find great new members of staff.”

“It’s about making a perfect match.

Candidates have to be informed about the charity that they want to work for, and be passionate about what they do. Charity Careers Scotland lets charities tell their own stories and have a microsite within our site, including videos, photos, annual reports, and social media links – whatever they need to help put their story across.

What are the challenges for recruiting for the Third Sector?

“The main challenge is financial.

Pay is around a third less than other sectors, across the board. The starting salary for a graduate in the

Charities don’t want to be inundated with application forms, and don’t want to be in a website that uses a search engine which encourages applicants to upload CVs to fifty different employers in a sitting.

We want to be more nuanced than that. Our key is innovation; our site has functions which no other sites has, and can allow charities to filter applications before they apply.

Third Sector organisations can also use Charity Careers Scotland to upload adverts for unpaid voluntary positions for free. We know that many of our clients have found this particularly useful when they are in the process of recruiting more Trustees.”

What advice would you give to anyone who wanted to start a career in the Third Sector?

“There is advice on our website, but one of the main things I would advise people to do is to volunteer with a charity. This shows commitment, and that you’re prepared to give, and put part of yourself in. It also gives very good experience of the culture and values of the Third Sector.

Third Sector doesn’t offer the same financial rewards as the other sectors but it is very satisfying and rewarding. It’s all about making the world a better place.”

What advice can you give on fundraising?

The best advice I can give is for charities to maximise the income they have already raised, and reclaim Gift Aid. It’s like free magic money from the government! A lot of charities just don’t have the administrative procedures in place to claim it, but there is a substantial financial gain.

Do you think charities should become more enterprising?

“I think that enterprise can be a two edged sword. Fundraising is 25

LEADING LIGHTS

“The best advice I can give is for charities to maximise the income they have already raised, and reclaim Gift Aid. It’s like free magic money from the government! A lot of charities just don’t have the administrative procedures in place to claim it, but there is a substantial financial gain.”

Bruce Tait

getting harder and enterprise can be an important new source of funding which charities should investigate.

However, charities can get carried away with ambitious entrepreneurial schemes, particularly if they have little or no experience of commerce.

Charities should think long and hard before they begin to compete with established businesses.”

Part of the Third Sector is concerned with providing sustainable employment in rural areas, yet other organisations in the sector cluster around Glasgow and Edinburgh. Is there scope for charities to spread their offices and staff over a wider area than they do currently?

“Certainly the voluntary sector is very central belt focussed and doesn’t reflect the population spread of Scotland. But Scotland has large rural areas and I do think that charities should strive to provide

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services throughout all of the country, or even prioritise support for rural areas. For example, the challenges of looking after a severely disabled child are more difficult in rural areas.

There is always going to be an extent to which charities will want to be located close to the government and sectoral organisations so that they can influence decision making. It would also be financially difficult for charities to locate their headquarters somewhere remote as that would make operations very expensive.

But in terms of service delivery, any charity with a national remit should ensure that they provide services that are accessible to everyone.”

If you’re interested in finding out more about Charity Careers Scotland, then check out charitycareersscotland.co.uk. If you want to find out more about Bruce Tait Associates, then have a look at brucetaitassociates.net.

SI magazine March 2014

LEADING LIGHTS Great leadership is crucial to the development of charities of all sizes At Bruce Tait Associates we’ve been helping Scottish charities recruit senior level staff for over seven years.

When you’ve found the perfect person it’s great to be able to tell the world all about it.

So we’re proud to bring you “Leading Lights”.

This is your chance to tell the world about your new senior management appointments, introduce them to the limelight and make it just that little bit easier for them to shine in their new role.

To be included in Leading Lights in future editions please email jen@simagazine.co.uk or If you’re looking for a change or a new challenge visit www.brucetaitassociates.net

NEW APPOINTMENTS Celia Tennant, Chief Executive of Inspiring Scotland The new Inspiring Scotland CEO, Celia Tennant, was previously the organisations’ Head of Funds, where she led fund development and delivery. Celia has been with Inspiring Scotland since the organisation was formed, in 2009.

Prior to joining Inspiring Scotland, Celia worked for Pfizer as Business Director for Scotland and Northern Ireland, after heading up the organisation’s Regional Medical Research Division.

Celia says, “Inspiring Scotland’s first five years have been incredibly exciting and I am now delighted to lead the team.

We will continue to work with Scotland’s voluntary sector to improve the lives of the country’s most vulnerable people.”

Fraser Hudghton, Scotland Manager, Institute of Fundraising

Catherine Henderson, Head of Partnerships with ProjectScotland.

She says:

Fraser Hudghton recently moved from the world of politics into his role as National Manager with the IoF in Scotland. With a long record working in political campaigns for the SNP, and for Finance Secretary John Swinney and First Minister Alex Salmond, Fraser has the edge required to make this new role his own. Fraser says: “The Third Sector is a wonderfully forward-looking environment to be involved in during this momentous period for Scotland. No area of public life will remain untouched by the year ahead of us and I look forward to making sure IoF members get their voices heard.

“Fundraisers I have met thus far are innovative and adaptable - indications of a very strong sector. I feel privileged to be able to represent their views and am very excited about creating opportunities to expand on the work we do in Scotland.”

“Volunteering after graduating enabled me to better understand my own personal motivations, values and beliefs; the opportunity to now work for a Scottish charity which is committed to providing volunteering based opportunities for young Scots is one that I feel hugely energised and motivated by.”

Catherine previously led the Scottish growth and sustainability strategy for award winning charity Place2Be, seeing the charity’s presence in Scotland grow by 300% in the last four years.

Having worked with Place2Be, focussing on giving children prospects rather than problems through providing emotional health support inside schools, Catherine now looks forward to harnessing the skills and talent of young people in Scotland through the exciting range of volunteering based opportunities on offer through ProjectScotland.

www.brucetaitassociates.net 27

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

Bringing the colour of

the Punjab to Lei

28

ith

SI magazine March 2014

Sikh Sanjog’s café, Punjabi Junction, has garnered a rave review from no less than Joanna Blythman. Jen Dunn speaks to Trishna Singh to find out about the social enterprise behind the food.

“More to life than Sikh Sanjog was founded in 1989, for the women of the Sikh community in Edinburgh.

The Sikh community has no castes or sects, but depending on which part of India your ancestors come from, this can have an affect on your standing in the community.”

For me, there was an issue around that in that Sikh women are meant to be equal, but our lifestyle didn’t reflect that. The project was set up to address these issues, as no-one else was looking for that.

Sikh women were stuck in a time warp – we were never given options for education or other opportunities, instead we were being groomed for being wives and mothers. But I could see that other people from different backgrounds had opportunities and education.

It made me wonder why we were growing up on the sidelines, more from observation than anything else.

Then when I started reading the Sikh scriptures, it made me think. There’s a fine line between Sikh culture and religion, but Sikhism has championed equality for women since the 15th century – women had equality in everything.

I saw doctors and health visitors afterwards, and they’d make suggestions of how to look after myself. I’d agree to everything they said but then I’d put the older members of my family first.

It made me realise that there were all these services available to us but the community wasn’t using them properly. We were being held back by internal, invisible barriers.

That was the starting point. I had support from Leith Homestart, who helped families with children under 5. I was on their board, and raised issues relating to Sikh women in Leith. This made me realise that we needed our own organisation to deal with our own problems.

How did your social enterprise café start?

For the first part of the project’s life, we were a one stop shop, doing all sorts of activities relating to culture, heritage and youth. Most of the community’s daughters didn’t access mainstream services.

Yet in late 20 th century Edinburgh, Sikh women who wanted to stay on at school or go out to work were seen as being Westernised.

From around 2005, there was a push to look at bringing in our own income, rather than being reliant on grants. The Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO) acted as an interface in a scheme funded by the Scottish Government, helping organisations to build funding capacity.

My first step in starting the project was to bring that all together. Then my son was killed in an accident, after we moved from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

An officer from CEMVO met with us and, she realised that whenever we had an event, or a festival, that all the women would bring food – and the food was amazing.

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SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

The women involved in the project were initially open to the idea of having a women-run café but only if it was open only to women! Although some of them were involved in their family businesses, helping to run shops and so on, they didn t believe they could run their own café, which would be open to everyone.

However, we looked at how to take the idea forward, and applied to the Scottish Community Foundation. I’d just finished a degree in community development, which helped us to develop our vision. We got funding to run a pilot project, and I became the business development manager, as well as the project manager.

I knew about cooking but not about business. The food side and catering for large numbers was easy as most of the people involved with the project were used to catering for events for two to three hundred people. But I had no business background of, say, buying ingredients.

I put the idea of running a café to the women in 2007 and they said Oh my God! No! , and insisted that their mother in laws or husbands wouldn t like it!

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However, we teamed up with Dr Bell’s Family Centre in Leith, a community centre run by a manager and volunteers. They already had a café facility, and we agreed to send a team from our project in, twice a week, to make and sell Indian food.

Steven, who was the centre manager, helped us with the buying and pricing, while we did the food. The women objected when they discovered the manager was a man. However, we got around it by deciding Steve was their brother – in Sikh and other ethnic minority cultures, a man who is your brother is safe. So Steve acquired Sikh sisters!

We organised ourselves as a team of nine – with three of us working on a shift. Two of us would be in the kitchen, while the other worked on the front of house. We rotated roles, and operated like that between January and April 2007.

Steve found his takings went up on the days that we were in. When we took a break at the end of April, customers started asking when the Sikh ladies were coming back.

After that, we applied for more funding, and leased café premises on a shared basis from a church. This ran from April to October 2008.

From these pilots, I learned an enormous amount about business, but was also continuing to lead our community development work as well.

We realised that, in the long term, we needed our own dedicated space. We closed the café in October 2008 and applied for funding from Third Sector Enterprise. We received just under £70k as a start up grant, and also had support from Skillnet.

So many times, people that we met by chance were so helpful; one of the board members of Skillnet, Brian Smith, was an architect. My husband worked for Skillnet and when he told Brian about the project, Brian helped us to design a kitchen and find premises.

We used the grant we had to refurbish the property, which had been empty for fifteen years. It was mad at the start – board members were in there until 8 or 9 o’clock at night putting up curtains and sewing cushions; we just hadn’t realised the amount of work we had to do.

SI magazine March 2014

“The women involved in the project were initially open to the idea of having a women-run café – but only if it was open only to women! Although some of them were involved in their family businesses, helping to run shops and so on, they didn’t believe they could run their own café, which would be open to everyone” Trishna Singh

John Swinney officially opened our project in March 2010. It has grown, but generating a sustainable income takes time. We’ve applied to the Big Lottery Fund and the Esme Fairbairn Foundation for funds to hire more staff, as we found that we couldn’t function using only volunteers.

The board is very strong – we have a mixture of about half and half white and ethnic minority women. We find the white board members have experience of business and the wider communities, and bring in expertise we wouldn’t have otherwise.

The Sikh community is very traditional; there have been shifts and changes, but there are still lots of internal barriers.

Taking the step to come here and serving customers from outside the community is a big deal.

What are the challenges of running Sikh Sanjog?

Like any project, there are financial challenges. The ideas are there, but we’re constantly looking at different funding options. We also need to keep track of where we are within funding cycles and new places where we can find funding.

There are also challenges within youth work. People assume that barriers will have broken down for people who are second or third generation immigrants, but they

haven’t. Girls quietly disappear off the radar in terms of training and employment. We work with five schools and Positive Destinations to try and encourage them into work or higher or further education.

One bright, intelligent girl attended our youth group, and thought she wouldn’t be allowed to go on to do much else. We encouraged her to volunteer, but her family didn’t want her to go out to work. We created a position for her at Sikh Sanjong, which they agreed to her taking on, and now she’s done a qualification in youth work and visits schools to talk to other young people about opportunities. If she hadn’t attended Sikh Sanjong then that just wouldn’t have happened.

We’ve also had six girls attending the project on placements since 2001, and we’ve helped them to gain administration skills. Some of them have gone on to do college courses, sometimes in beauty or non admin subjects.

One of our mums has started doing youth work too. She was born in Edinburgh but left school at 11, and has now gone onto college to get a qualification.

Things are changing for the Sikh community, and becoming more open, and there is more discussion about options for Sikh women. Sikh women are becoming more visible

in Edinburgh, and not just in family shops.

How would you like the project to develop?

I’d like us to have our own premises, to run projects like Pathways to Employment. We’re always looking for places to rent. If we had our own rooms, we could open them up to the whole community.

I’d also like to identify new blood, and get a new generation involved.

Our social enterprise has helped many people, usually women from the Asian community. We’ve also had white women volunteering with us as well, which I think is very important.

You recently spoke at Time for Reflection in the Scottish Parliament – what was that like?

It was really good. I was recommended through contacts, and was asked by the Parliament to lead the session.

It was an important moment for me, as I came from a restricted cultural upbringing where those sorts of opportunities didn’t used to be available.

I mentioned to the Presiding Officer that I wondered what I was doing there as I was just a wee girl from Glasgow. She said, “Well, I’m a wee girl from Cowdenbeath – the Parliament is there for all of us.”

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LEADING BY EXAMPLE

500 Miles 32

SI magazine March 2014

500 miles is a small Scottish based registered charity that help people to get access to and to afford prosthetic or orthotic devices. Jennifer Dunn speaks to Olivia Giles to find out more...

S

arah Selemani is 7, and lives in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.

In 2009 Sarah contracted malaria. After a few days, her left leg started to swell and a wound opened up and became gangrenous. At that time she was admitted to hospital and underwent an amputation high on her left leg. The surgeon advised her to come back after 3 months to allow the wound to heal and the swelling of the stump to reduce, and then to go to 500 Miles for a prosthesis.

At the 500 miles Centre in Lilongwe, Sarah was fitted with a prosthesis with a knee joint. Because she has such a short stump, it is hard for her to control the leg without walking with a locked knee. 500 miles encouraged her to exercise so that she can walk using the knee joint.

Despite this and her experience, Sarah is bright and active. Thanks to her prosthesis, she is able to help her mother out around the house, and play ball games with her classmates.

As Olivia points out, in some parts of Africa, not having a limb often means being left behind in the most literal sense; of being housebound.

In a continent that’s often associated more with large scale public health projects – eliminating malaria is one of these – attitudes towards those living with disabling consequences of these same problems can leave a lot to be desired.

“There’s a deep rooted and poor attitude to disability, which pervades everything. Disabled people don’t get the same priority that they might do here; there are many other health issues to tackle, and disability is at

the bottom of the pile,” says Olivia, who set up 500 miles after having a quadruple amputation because of meningococcal septicemia, and realising the profound extend of the problems facing people who required orthotics or prosthetics in subSaharan Africa.

Most people in the areas 500 miles now operates in cannot afford to buy or otherwise access the type of mobility aids the charity provides (prosthetics replace missing limbs, orthotics, like splints, support weak limbs). 500 miles has had a massive effect on the lives of thousands of people, some of whom must have previously been about as able to walk as they were to fly.

“If an adult who has a job requires a prosthesis or orthotic which can be fitted quickly, then they should be able to continue in that job,” explains Olivia. “Having a device which makes a person mobile is not a guarantee of a job and people with disabilities will often, if not usually, face discrimination no matter how able they are to function - but at least it will give the person a fighting chance of getting a job and even if a person can’t find work, his or her quality of life will be dramatically improved simply through being more able to get out and participate. We can’t keep track of our patients or offer them work but we do give them a chance to continue in employment, find work and join in normal social activity of all kinds - and most importantly for children, go to school.”

The opportunity for education provided by a prosthetic or orthotic device are profound, particularly in countries which have little or no resources allocated to pupils with

special needs, down to even the most basic human requirements; “Children who cannot walk or otherwise function normally without assistance, for example go to the toilet independently, are usually unwelcome at school. Class sizes are so big that the staff can’t cope with children with special needs.”

500 miles operates in Malawi, Zanzibar and Zambia. The charity doesn’t simply ship prosthetics and orthotics from the UK to SubSaharan Africa, as that would be unsustainable. Instead, 500 miles sponsors the training for locals to produce and fit aids which are produced in-country, themselves.

In Malawi, those that are able to pay for the service do so, creating a sustainable income for the project.

People who cannot pay are paid for by 500 miles. Scottish and UK donations are massively important to 500 miles. However, eventually,

LEADING BY EXAMPLE There’s a deep rooted and poor attitude to disability, which pervades everything.

Disabled people don’t get the same priority that they might do here; there are many other health issues to tackle, and disability is at the bottom of the pile.

Olivia Giles

the charity’s goal is to hand the running of the clinics over to the Malawi government. They will then be left with a reasonably self-sufficient operation which it can operate itself with Malawian staff that 500 miles has trained, with 500 miles only providing external assistance in the form of income by paying for devices for those they can’t pay.

“The Zambian government has not engaged with us – I think due to a fear of their involvement leading to obligation – but it is quite happy for 500 miles to fund services for poor people. This means that we work privately with agencies within Zambia, rather than working in a similar partnership to that used in the Malawi model.”

Olivia says 500 miles is operating most successfully in Malawi. “We have two clinics there, one in Lilongwe, in central region, and the other in the north, in Mzuzu. The clinics were constructed by 500 miles in the grounds of large government orthopedic hospitals.

Ideally we would operate that way everywhere. The idea is to show the Malawians how to run the service both from a clinical perspective and an economic perspective.”

Speaking of partnerships, does 500 miles work with other agencies?

However, different governments work in different ways. In Zanzibar, the government health service wanted to take funds generated from the clinic we intended to support and put them back into central funds, meaning that the workshop would have no chance of becoming self-sustaining, with all the money we would have been generating through our investment in the workshop disappearing to the government’s own priorities.”

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“We work with other agencies all the time,” confirms Olivia.

“Someone might present with an unrelated problem at another clinic, but will be signposted to us if they have an issue that their initial agency thinks that we can help with. Likewise, we help to direct our patients who may have an issue with, for example, deafness, to other specialists who we know can help them.”

However, Olivia is keen to emphasise that care in Sub-Saharan Africa must stay within the ownership of the indigenous people. “In Africa, there can be a culture of getting what you can today, because you don’t know what tomorrow will bring, and this culture can be limiting. Sometimes the practices

of well-intentioned international organisations can be disempowering to local people, and this manifests itself in a reluctance to take on responsibility and to drive things forward for themselves.”

So how can this be overcome?

“In Malawi we try very hard to lead by example – to show that if you work hard, you will get more in the end. Our projects give financial incentives to hard workers and for taking responsibility. We want to show that ‘live for today’ isn’t good enough, and ultimately we want to empower local people to take control of providing their own services.”

The scale of what 500 miles have done in a few years is inspiring. In Malawi, their Lilongwe clinic, which opened in March 2009, has produced well over 3,500 devices and now, together with the Mzuzu clinic, which opened in December 2012, 500 miles is fitting an average of around 110 devices a month. That’s thousands of people, like Sarah, that would never have been given the chance that they have been.

If you are interested in finding out more about 500 miles, their website can be found at www.500miles.co.uk.

Alan McNiven MSc Social Enterprise.

Chief Executive, Engage Renfrewshire.

BRIGHTER FUTURES BEGIN WITH GCU. A unique programme in partnership with the Social Enterprise Academy for those working in and with social enterprises.

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LEADING BY EXAMPLE

The work of play Marguerite Hunter Blair has long experience in the play sector, and is keen to emphasise the positive difference that play can make to children’s lives, as Jen Dunn finds out.

“I worked for 15 years in Belfast,” says Marguerite, “first as a community worker then as a community services manager. I then became the Chief Executive for Playboard (check) Northern Ireland, which promoted play at afterschool and other care, and ran a training centre. We also administered peace and lottery funding.

“I then moved to become the Chief Executive Officer of Play Scotland.”

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What are the main differences between working in the Third Sector in Scotland and in Northern Ireland?

“The main difference between Scotland and Northern Ireland is that people in Scotland are closer to the government. Northern Ireland had a stop start devolution process, and that created distance. I also find that the charity sector in Scotland can be a bit too close to government,

and there’s sometimes not the relationship of constructive criticism that you would ideally want. Things can be quite cosy, and while this is good in a way, sometimes the relationship between the Third Sector and government lacks dynamism and the will to progress. For example, when I moved here, I found that some funding opportunities within the play sector had been missed.”

SI magazine March 2014

“Childcare is sometimes provided as an inherent anti-poverty measure, and allows parents to work.

The children’s needs can come second to this, and after school can have an emphasis on homework rather than play. However, many children are increasingly getting most of their play experience in school and in after school club” Marguerite Hunter Blair

school clubs. After school care has massive potential. At the moment, children can feel that they don’t have time to play, but afterschool care can put play at the heart of their activities.

Balancing the needs of children, parents, childcare providers and legislative requirements can be difficult. On the requirements of providers and legislation, some carers and care organisations may be very cautious about play that involves risk.

They may also be overly timid about what food they provide and whether providing activities like baking and eating food will break legislative requirements - for example, they may be reluctant to make top hats, cakes and so on. We have heard that some providers will only give crackers and water because they were too frightened to give anything else.

There are plenty of charities in Scotland that run play schemes or afterschool clubs. How can you help to promote best practice?

What’s difficult with after school care is that the parents’ needs can be at the heart of it. Childcare is sometimes provided as an inherent anti-poverty measure, and allows parents to work. The children’s needs can come second to this, and after school can have an emphasis on homework rather than play.

However, many children are increasingly getting most of their play experience in school and in after

But making and baking are very important skills, and help with understanding science. It’s important that carers can provide these opportunities, as parents can be too busy working to give their children the chance to do them at home.

What are your own favourite childhood play memories?

“I used to really enjoy making jewellery from melon seeds. My mother would get us to colour the seeds with food colouring and then dry them out in the oven. They could them be used to make necklaces and bracelets, and it was great fun on dark winter evenings.

In the summer, I enjoyed playing in the river, keeping minnows, and like most children, had a mania for collecting things like flowers and conkers.

I also enjoyed playing games like hide and seek, although the pleasure at finding a really good hiding place could sometimes tip over into anxiety that no-one could find you and you would be left behind. But then, it is important to teach children how to manage in situations they might find stressful.”

What would you like to see the Scottish Government do more of?

“The Scottish Government have just launched the national play strategy, and an implementation forum is being established. I’d like to see them support this work on a national level to get everyone to understand that free play is very important in promoting wellbeing, co-ordination and mental health.

A national level strategy makes it easier for local authorities to engage with a play strategy; it is very difficult for an organisation of our size to work with 32 councils simultaneously. A national campaign could be backed by a media campaign to raise awareness.

However, while we’re on the subject of media, another area that government should be concerned about is the media manipulation of our children and how addictive they can find certain types of media.

Some multimedia companies promote electronic activities that can be done on a device like a laptop or mobile phone with their parents. However, this 37

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

The bottom line to all of this is that we want, and governments want, children to do as well as they can. If we all knew simple things, like play would help, then it would make a big difference to society. I wish I had known what I knew now when I had my first child.

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SI magazine March 2014

is still screen time, even although it is being shared with a parent.

We know screen time can have an impact on long range vision, the development of which can only happen at a certain window within the early years. If this development doesn’t happen properly, it can never be rectified later on.

The bottom line to all of this is that we want, and governments want, children to do as well as they can. If we all knew simple things, like play would help, then it would make a big difference to society. I wish I had known what I knew now when I had my first child.”

How do you think economic hardship has impacted on play?

“The downside of austerity is that parents might have to take on secondary jobs that eat into family life.

Children want time, while parents need time to work and run the household, as well as spend with their children.

Sometimes, parents pay for activities because they seem like something high value. But the best thing to do is to spend time with your children, doing fairly simple things like playing with a jigsaw or going to the park.

The recession has taken its toll, but in some ways it may also have a hidden benefit in encouraging low key, low cost activities like board games and family walks.

But it’s also important to realise that the mental wellbeing of parents is very important, in making sure that they can look after their children properly, and the recession has caused concerns over parental stress.

The media often portray other countries, particularly in Asia, as being better for children as they have a stricter and more time consuming education system. Do you think that’s a fair concern?

I think play has nearly always been devalued in favour of homework; we all tell our children to do homework!

But crammed learning can distort brain development, as children learn by variety as well as repetition.

Children who are exposed to a variety of different environments learn faster; they don’t necessarily have to experience anything exotic, but things like taking trains, going for walks, day trips and even learning how to navigate a train station are valuable learning experiences.

Learning by repetition and rote can be counterproductive, as can cramming.

I’ve visited countries where crammed learning is the norm, and children can find it very difficult to develop social skills in very competitive environments.

Also, variety can help to develop basic coping skills and instincts. In a society where people work in very specialised jobs that are dependent on technology, who have never had that variety, individuals may find it very difficult to cope if, say, there’s a power cut. We’re becoming a very outcomesbased society, and that is worrying.

It’s also concerning that there can be little disregard for balancing learning with exercise; children need to run around and be noisy, and learning works best when it’s combined with opportunities for play. Ritalin is over prescribed because some adults don’t understand this.

We’ve also lost some instinctive things relating to the very early years – things like rocking a baby to sleep, and singing to them. If these things, along with the opportunities to run and play later on, don’t happen, then the child will eventually need some sort of intervention to try and make up for their absence later on.”

You’re based near Maybole in South Ayrshire – what are the challenges faced by a relatively small rural community?

“I think that, having lived in rural Northern Ireland and Scotland, there’s something of a myth that country children have huge play

One thing we’re keen to do is to work with community councils to get funding for play opportunities during the school holidays.

Marguerite Hunter Blair

opportunities compared to urban children.

For example, it can be dangerous to walk and cycle into the village because of the roads. Access to facilities can be problematic, although there is the advantage that it is usually easier to get to the countryside.

One thing we’re keen to do is to work with community councils to get funding for play opportunities during the school holidays. Most children do most of their playing in school playgrounds, and it would be brilliant if these were accessible during the holidays.

Another thing we’d like to see more of is play rangers; they don’t directly supervise children in the same way as a parent, but they are adults who can help to keep an eye on children.

This can help parents and children feel much safer.

However, play can become a facility that local authorities don’t want to fund, as they have to divert their funding into statutory service provision. But we are campaigning for play to become a statutory provision.

On the other hand, some authorities can be excellent. South Ayrshire provides golf lessons to children from the upper primary years onwards, to encourage them to use local facilities. In the city, Glasgow has some excellent parks.”

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SI magazine March 2014

BALANCING THE BOOKS

What are the charities and charitable foundations doing on Socially Responsible Investment In the coming weeks we will be hosting meetings with charities and the charitable foundations to explore and discuss what ‘climate conscious’ investing might look like for these groups.

We will be posing the question “if sustainability is part of the strategic thinking of your organisation, shouldn’t it also feature in the way either the pension fund or the endowment is invested?”. Indeed, “how” to implement sustainability in their investment decision-making rather than ‘why’.

Scott Murray is a Director of Virtuo Wealth Management and can be contacted via scott@ virtuowealth.com

From previous meetings in this sector we have noticed that there has been a “glass half full” approach and that many charities and foundations have already advanced a reasonable way forward in developing and implementing sustainability policies. Perhaps the “glass half empty” approach was that not enough of the sector had concrete policies as yet.

From previous meetings in this sector we have noticed that there has been a “glass half full” approach and that many charities and foundations have already advanced a reasonable way forward in developing and implementing sustainability policies.

It was also clear that climate change has become the most acute ESG issue to attract their attention. In some cases trustees feel ill-equipped to grapple with the implications effectively, but it is certainly a reputational, if not an investment, risk on their radar.

Having said this there was a very real appetite to develop practical tools that investment committees can get stuck into.

The next seminars will hear from pension funds and foundations that have already embarked on their sustainability journey and will focus on applying their lessons to those just about to start.

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March 2014 SI magazine

BALANCING THE BOOKS

Philanthropy in a new democracy?

As the independence referendum approaches, Scotland contemplates what is primarily a question of democracy.

Ought decisions affecting Scotland as a geographic region be taken solely by the elected representatives of those qualified to vote here? It may indeed be that the whole referendum campaign boils down to this question, issues of how Scotland is then run being left for a Scottish Government elected within that new democratic framework.

Adrian Bell, Partner, Morton Fraser

Against that background it is seems timely to pause and examine or, this not being a new debate, re-examine the place of private philanthropy within a democracy. Scotland has a long philanthropic tradition and continues to produce individuals who wish to give back to the country and community.

The question is not whether philanthropy is a good thing. It is very difficult to criticise the personal commitment of resource – money, time, energy or leadership – by someone having it to the delivery of a beneficial social outcome. The question is whether that cuts across the operation of democracy and, if it does, whether that is a problem?

Put at its simplest, one might argue that it is the job of our political system to identify the social priorities of the country and for a prospective government to seek election with a programme (including a funding, and hence taxation, plan) to address them and, if elected, raise the funding and deliver that programme.

The programme, and the public finance raised to fund it, are blessed by the electorate. If the philanthropist, rich in cash, time or inspirational leadership, devises and delivers his or her own, personal social programme is our democracy somehow diminished by that?

There may be a perfectly reasonable response that our democratic system works entirely on the basis that government does so much and, if an individual has participated in what it does by considering its programme, casting a vote (for better or worse) and paying his or her taxes,

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then how that individual deals with the balance of his or her resource is up to the individual.

Better, the argument goes, that the rich man funds an academy school than buys a yacht?

However the question becomes a particularly acute one where (a) that philanthropy is directed to something which runs contrary to the programme of the elected government; or (b) resource, particularly money as a result of relief from taxation for philanthropic activity, is directed to the personal preference of the philanthropist instead of to the programme of the elected government; or (c) the object of the philanthropy is advocacy or influence and hence particular issues are moved up the agenda of government.

Another response to the question might well be a more detailed analysis of the relative scale of activity – how big ought the circles in the diagram to be? If the scale of philanthropic activity and of relief from taxation are so small as to barely impact on the role of government, might this simply be an issue which impacts so little on the operation of our democracy that it does not matter?

A further response might be to say that charitable activity is a long tradition and relief from taxation in respect of it is enshrined in legislation and hence not merely accepted, but positively approved, by our democracy.

In conclusion while there is scope for the activities of the philanthropist to divert resource from government priorities to the individual’s own priorities, it is very difficult to classify philanthropy in general as anything other than a very good thing. It is perhaps, as with so many things, a matter of balance, and criticism is likely only around the extremes.

It would however be a pity if an extreme case were to give rise to negative consequences for otherwise laudable activity.

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Expert at providing quality education and residential services for children and young people.

“

I feel that you have done a great job for my son and I am so proud of him and that couldn’t have happened without the support of all the staff.

Maggie, parent

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Expert at providing the right support at the right time for young adults.

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Without Quarriers, I don’t know where I’d be now.

John, young person

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Expert at supporting Children and Families to live safe, happy and fulfilling lives.

“ www.quarriers.org.uk Quarriers is a registered Scottish Charity No SC001960

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Everybody is treated the same here no favourites. But you don’t get away with anything either. Staff don’t make assumptions about anything or anyone.

Kelly, mum

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Registered and Head Office: Quarriers, Quarriers Village, Bridge of Weir PA11 3SX Tel: 01505 616000/612224 Fax: 01505 613906