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We're bringing you closer to the people, places, and stories of Nairnshire and beyond. Each episode dives deeper into the lives and work of local business owners, artists, artisans, scientists, naturalists, and other inspiring folk who help shape our small but beautiful corner of the Highlands. Join us as we explore community, culture, creativity, and the wild landscapes that make this part of the world so special.
00:00:04:18 - 00:00:32:14
Barbora
Welcome to the Nairnshire Community Newspaper Podcast: Stories from Land to Sea. In this episode, we're joined by Diana Whitmore, CEO of Growing2gether, a program working with young people across the Highlands and beyond, helping them rediscover belief in themselves and their future. This is a conversation about mentoring, mental health, education and what happens when we stop trying to fix people and start trusting them instead.
00:00:32:16 - 00:00:57:08
Barbora
Diana shares decades of experience from the third sector. Her belief in the positive psychology, and a simple but powerful idea that every young person is valuable simply because they exist. This is a thoughtful, hopeful conversation about potential community and why belief really does change life. Let's get into it.
00:01:18:27 - 00:01:39:03
Barbora
I was really fascinated by growing together and what you're trying to achieve.
00:01:39:05 - 00:02:08:25
Diana
Well, how much time do we have? But I'll try to be succinct. I mean, growing together is an early intervention program that targets two sets of vulnerable children. Young people who are disengaged from their education, who have some kind of need for mental health support. And we also target the small children that our young people are mentoring.
00:02:08:28 - 00:02:42:04
Diana
And we target those small children who have additional support needs. So we're early intervention for two sets of vulnerable children basically. That's kind of part of the magic of the program really. And we take small groups of young people into nurseries and primary one classes. We've actually been in two primary schools in there and so far. And each young person is, works with two of our staff who supervise them at all times.
00:02:42:07 - 00:03:13:29
Diana
But each young person's assigned a particular small child to become a mentor and a role model to to give that child extra support. And I can happily tell you that our young people do an extraordinary job mentoring. They're amazing. And, you know, some of our young people who have not had positive role models at home, but the young people just rise to the opportunity to care for someone else and to take care of that little person.
00:03:14:02 - 00:03:42:24
Diana
Week after week, once a week for 16 weeks. Now, alongside that, we give our young people the opportunity to earn a Scottish vocational qualification. So the mentoring and nursery side of the program is where young people get to have an experience of how much they have to contribute, how much they have to offer to the world, and how they can make a difference in another person's life.
00:03:42:27 - 00:04:11:06
Diana
So this is addressing their emotional development, their self-esteem, their belief in themselves. And then the Scottish Vocational Qualification is something that everyone can succeed at, which gives them a boost that says yes, I can. So one of our major goals is to reengage young people with their education. And that happens with our program. We're in evidence based program.
00:04:11:07 - 00:04:44:10
Diana
So we track where pre and post test our young people for changes. And we've built a very strong evidence base that says, well we've worked with over 3000 children and young people so far. We're still really small but we've worked with quite a few by now, and our evidence base is really strong. That says this program makes a difference, and it's actually counter to think, put two sets of vulnerable children together and get a positive outcome.
00:04:44:12 - 00:05:27:17
Diana
But it does. And it's just very beautiful for us to watch the young people realize who they could become and start to believe in themselves again and start to have aspiration again. It's absolutely wonderful.
00:05:27:19 - 00:06:00:28
Diana
Okay, well, that's really easy to answer. What drove me to that was what was given to me. I had a lifelong mentor of 35 years, my mentor, a woman called Laura Huxley. And Laura was the wife and the widow of the British writer Aldous Huxley. To many people today, I haven't heard of all this, but he wrote two very famous novels, one a utopian novel and one a dystopian novel, and said humanity could go either way here.
00:06:01:00 - 00:06:32:11
Diana
And Laura believed in young people, and she started this program in the United States. And I, out of my relationship and friendship with her, I brought the program to the UK. It didn't thrive in America. Partially because Laura Huxley was a visionary, not a practical person. And it needed someone like me that's more practical to take it and really grow it.
00:06:32:16 - 00:07:03:12
Diana
So I started an earlier charity doing the same thing in in England, and then we came to the UK with the program in 2018, and we've been in about 36 different schools, many of them in the Scottish Highlands. About, 13 of them in the Scottish Highlands. And we're now in Aberdeen. And finally, we've broken into.
00:07:03:14 - 00:07:27:12
Unknown
That was the last one and took us a long time to get her foot in the door there. But we're here. We're in three schools in Morley right now and hope to expand into more schools in this area.
00:07:27:15 - 00:07:40:10
Unknown
In this.
00:07:40:13 - 00:08:10:02
Unknown
Well, I think personally, from my own lived experience of what I would have needed as a young person and didn't have. But I have a background in counseling, in psychotherapy and in coaching, and I've been training counselors and psychotherapist for many years in a particular form of psychology. Barbara, that's, similar to positive psychology. We use that word because people can understand what that means.
00:08:10:02 - 00:08:43:26
Unknown
But positive psychology, takes a transformational approach with young people. It's that if you believe in the best, you get the best at back. So are young people who often don't have a great deal of self-confidence or self-esteem. We approach them from a place that says, we know you're going to succeed at this. We trust you. You have a responsible job to do and the mentoring, but we know that you will do a great job.
00:08:43:28 - 00:09:22:19
Unknown
So from day one, our young people are affirmed rather than criticized or told they need to behave differently or be differently. Now, sometimes there are behavioral issues, and we have 16 weeks to work with the young people. In the first few weeks I spent building relationship building a unconditional positive regard for the young people. That, and this may sound a little strange, but that every young person is valuable and worthwhile simply because they exist.
00:09:22:22 - 00:09:27:27
Unknown
And I train my staff in this positive approach.
00:09:28:00 - 00:09:50:17
Unknown
we know that if you love and accept and see the best in young people, they will meet your expectations. There's been so much research done about this. If I'm a teacher and I think, well, you're not going to succeed because you're so difficult, then the young people tend to comply with our expectations.
00:09:50:19 - 00:09:56:21
Unknown
It's very well researched. And.
00:09:56:24 - 00:10:28:09
Unknown
Well, that's why I say if we expect the best, we get the best back. Because sometimes when we start, the young people look around and go, where are the naughty kids here? And because they, they recognize that they, have, issues with school, let's put it that way, understandably, because they're marginalized. And when we tell them you're here, we chose you because we know you're going to do a great job.
00:10:28:11 - 00:10:52:23
Unknown
And already from that moment, you can see sometimes their eyes light up. But I don't want to pretend that this is this wonderful Pollyanna. Oh, it's so great because it's a journey that we go on with young people. And of course, they test us. We need to demonstrate to them that we're unconditional and that we want to build relationship with them.
00:10:52:26 - 00:11:22:18
Unknown
So there can be some time periods in the beginning where they're testing us or they don't quite believe us. So they think where do gooders, which is the worst thing you can be to a young person. But we build trust. Maybe after the first four weeks we start seeing changes already because for the young person who's participating, it's there are sometimes quite surprised by how much they have to give and how much they have to offer.
00:11:22:20 - 00:12:10:06
Unknown
And again, that's very relational. This whole program is just a highly relational program. And consequently our staff, if they need those skills, those relational skills which they get pounded into them by, by the organization, but they do a wonderful job. You met one of our facilitators. I'm always in, of how our team will go that extra mile, for example, in the young people that choose to do the Scottish, vocational qualification, we have 100% pass rate because the facilitators just hang in there with young people until they succeed, which is absolutely wonderful.
00:12:10:09 - 00:13:03:16
Unknown
So you can tell I love the program. I'm passionate about it.
00:13:03:19 - 00:13:38:01
Unknown
Wow, that's a deep question. Well, I've been in the third sector working in the charitable sector for over 40 years. I started my first charity when I was 26 years old, so I've had a lot of experience of working with people. But my first charity was counseling and psychotherapy. And then one day I wanted I felt that the world of counseling is quite a pristine world.
00:13:38:01 - 00:14:24:15
Unknown
You know, you have to be able to afford to pay for counseling. You have to, you know, be available. And I wondered if this positive psychology stuff would work with people who would never come to the pristine world of counseling, like socially, in a social environment. Would the principles of positive psychology stand up? So it was a bit of an experiment, and I started going together of course, after knowing Laura for many, many years and to try it out and see and I ran the first program and I was just gobsmacked by the outcomes, because the outcomes that we get are multi-layered.
00:14:24:17 - 00:15:04:21
Unknown
They're psycho psychological in terms of enhance, self-belief, self-esteem, emotional intelligence. And the young people we targeted have additional needs and do need, mental health support just around the area. And and you have self-confidence, self-belief, aspiration, feeling, changing their mindset from one that is pretty negative to yes, I can achieve and giving them this positive experience of mentoring.
00:15:04:21 - 00:15:33:14
Unknown
But we go on from there. Which if we have time, we can talk about it. But this is our flagship program and Highland Council tracks, all people when they leave school, tracks them for what they call a positive destination. So are they in employment, education or training? And we have a in the 90%, 97% of our kids go on to education, employment or training.
00:15:33:14 - 00:16:05:09
Unknown
So I tried it as an experiment. I have no training in youth work. I just applied everything I know or we know about, how human beings thrive better if you approach them from a positive direction rather than a critical trying to fix them direction. So, for example, we use coaching as our major methodology with young people. Young people don't like to be told what to do.
00:16:05:11 - 00:16:54:25
Unknown
We know that. So we train our facilitators in the skill of coaching. So they ask questions that draw out from inside the young people their own answers, which is incredibly empowering for young people. Nobody's done that before, trusted them to have all the answers to their life inside. So that's wonderful.
00:16:54:27 - 00:17:17:10
Unknown
Big to them.
00:17:17:12 - 00:17:51:16
Unknown
Well, and that's a bit of a complicated question because, one of the values of positive psychology is that even in our struggles, there's potential, there's a gift, there's something creative, some possibility for our own personal development actually contained within our challenges and our issues and our difficulties. So we approach young people from that direction. It's not, oh, you're angry.
00:17:51:16 - 00:18:21:06
Unknown
You shouldn't be angry. Change that behavior. We approach that from the direction that says, well, in your anger is your future potential for self-assertion. And let's let's talk about how you can be self assertive in a constructive way that works for you, rather than just being angry all the time. So whatever's going on can be transformed in this positive way of working with young people.
00:18:21:06 - 00:18:29:23
Unknown
I hope that makes sense. Does that make sense?
00:18:29:26 - 00:18:36:23
Unknown
Yeah.
00:18:36:25 - 00:18:47:28
Unknown
Oh yeah.
00:18:48:01 - 00:19:06:23
Unknown
Yes.
00:19:06:25 - 00:19:39:27
Unknown
Well, it took a while. It took a while. We piloted for a year in four schools in Inverness, and then we could, do outcome evaluation that showed that the program in Scotland was, effective. And Highland Council's chief educational psychologist, who I have to appreciate and give thanks to Bernadette Cairns. She she saw she saw who we are and what we were trying to do with young people.
00:19:39:27 - 00:20:18:26
Unknown
And she supported us. So for our first few years, we were mainly in Highland, 13 schools in all and all the areas of deprivation in the Highlands. We, we target areas of deprivation, because that's where the young people are that needed the most. And we just grew from there. I have an excellent, wonderful senior fundraiser who has helped us, but I guess what I want to say is that funding, when funding is available, we have an amazing follow on program.
00:20:18:29 - 00:20:45:22
Unknown
We haven't had funding to do it and more yet, but we've been doing it in Inverness and soon to be in Aberdeen. But and that's youth social action. So after young people do our nursery program, they can go on and do our youth social action community program. And just briefly, this program is a program that young people, it's completely youth led.
00:20:45:22 - 00:21:16:12
Unknown
And young people assess the needs of their local community where they live, and they choose, a community project that they design and deliver in their communities. So here we're rebuilding their connection to their local community and engaging the local community. And that's really important to us. We'd be doing that everywhere if we have the funding. Because community engagement is so vital in today's world.
00:21:16:12 - 00:21:48:01
Unknown
And as you say, it's not easy to be a young person in today's world, even you, although you're young, probably at a better time and love it,
00:21:48:04 - 00:21:48:25
Unknown
Yeah.
00:21:48:28 - 00:21:59:15
Unknown
So I
00:21:59:17 - 00:22:29:29
Unknown
Yes. Yes.
00:22:30:01 - 00:23:02:17
Unknown
Well, the biggest challenge always is funding. You know, we have a highly trained staff. They can't just come off the street and become the staff member. They need to be trained and assessed. And then the evidence base is vitally important. Researchers is costly. So, I mean, I don't think there's a charity in the third sector that wouldn't say funding is their biggest challenge at the moment, especially since Brexit and especially since Covid.
00:23:02:17 - 00:23:08:26
Unknown
So but if I put that aside,
00:23:08:28 - 00:23:52:01
Unknown
I think the biggest challenge has to do with the need for the system to transform, dare I say it publicly, but, we need to have this type of work available. Emotional intelligence work, emotional development work, relational capacity training, how to be in a healthy relationship. These things are needed by our young people. I mean, we target those most in need, but I think all young people would benefit from that type of, extra or that type of inclusion in the educational system and that maybe even in teacher training there.
00:23:52:01 - 00:24:12:12
Unknown
I say that teacher training would benefit from positive psychology training as a part of their education. And I have great empathy for teachers who have 26, 30 kids in the classroom and, you know, they've got a really tough job to do. So I can only respect for them.
00:24:12:14 - 00:24:40:13
Unknown
our programs don't stop. Even with youth social action. We have a young leaders training. We have a young leadership board, for the charity who advise our trustees, which is wonderful. And now our young people are saying this positive psychology stuff you did with us. We want it. So they've asked us to train them.
00:24:40:19 - 00:25:25:14
Unknown
Young Leaders group in positive Psychology Now, which is just so utterly wonderful that they've noticed that we approach them differently and they want to have some of that, which is great. So it's our dream to have young people with us as long as we can, because the longer they're with us, the more, the more the transformations integrate and land and truly continue on in that young person's life, which is so important.
00:25:25:17 - 00:25:40:12
Unknown
Yes, the.
00:25:40:14 - 00:26:10:17
Unknown
Okay. Share with you a typical day of growing together. So once we started the program, we spend the first two sessions before we go into the school preparing the young people for mentoring, for going into a primary, nursery in primary school. And also, it's for us to get to know them and make sure that it's appropriate that all of them are on the program.
00:26:10:19 - 00:26:42:13
Unknown
And then the first time they go into the nursery, the head teacher of the nursery, primary will come in and give a presentation to the young people about the school and how the school is to operate. And we're trying very much to create a safe container for the young people before they start mentoring. And in those first two sessions before nursery, we do something called, operating principles with the young people.
00:26:42:13 - 00:27:09:26
Unknown
So they create, how do we want to be as a group together? How do we want to treat each other as a group together? And so the facilitators facilitate a quite a lengthy process of the the young people co-creating their ground rules and their operating principles. And again, this creates a sense of safety and a container for the young people.
00:27:09:29 - 00:27:38:22
Unknown
And then they're filling in all the preprogramed questionnaires for our research, before they start the nursery program. And then, a typical day is the young people who arrive at the nursery primary and we have a chicken. That's a simple process of how are we all doing? Are we all okay? Are we all in a suitable state of mind to go in, in nursery, into the nursery?
00:27:38:22 - 00:28:08:19
Unknown
So we make sure they're okay. And if they're not, one of our facilitators will stay behind with the young person till they are ready to go into the nursery, and they mentor their small child for an hour and a half each week, and then they come back into, the group in the classroom in the primary school. And we have learning time, as we call it, that's and that's where they're earning their skill qualification.
00:28:08:21 - 00:28:34:11
Unknown
And in the beginning, in the nursery time, the facilitators are always there supervising. The young people are never alone with, a child, but in the beginning they're kind of stiff and they don't know what to do. And they feel very, very shy. And so we role model how to be with a little person, get down to their level, make a fool out of yourself because that's what you have to do with small children.
00:28:34:11 - 00:28:59:10
Unknown
So it takes a couple of weeks for the young people to say, okay, you can make a fool of yourself, you can play with your small child, and once they get that room, they're right in there doing wonderful activities with the children. As I say, we're just in awe of what a good job of mentoring our young people do.
00:28:59:10 - 00:29:27:24
Unknown
And, you know, they've worked with some very needy, children in terms of selective middle kids who don't speak in nursery to autistic children. To disabled children. And they do a great job. And the nurseries are delighted to have an extra pair of hands in their crazy busyness of their school life. So the program is a win win.
00:29:27:24 - 00:30:27:13
Unknown
We've never been, you know, asked to leave a nursery because, the nursery staff see that we watch the children and it doesn't cost them any time, and they can give our young people jobs to do, like we're reading today. So could you read to your small child or we're doing numbers. Could you do numbers? So there are real support in real classroom?
00:30:27:16 - 00:30:52:28
Unknown
Right. Well, that's also a good, substantial part of the program, because we're a relational program in the group dynamic. We work on the relationships as well. So we build a trust in what we call a trusting learning community with the young people. And if two young people are having interpersonal issues, will work with that in the group.
00:30:53:01 - 00:31:22:02
Unknown
If a young person has a bad day at school and yells at a teacher and gets in trouble, they'll share that. So the group actually becomes a support and a psychological support to each other. And here they're learning how to give positive feedback to each other. They're learning how to what interpersonal skills mean and how to see the best in their in each other.
00:31:22:02 - 00:31:52:03
Unknown
So we we build on that towards the end of the program. They, they give each other feedback about the strengths and the qualities and positive qualities they see in each other, which, is really important. Peer peer support, peer approval, peer acceptance. And we just our facilitators really model this relational, way of being, which is respectful and non-judgmental.
00:31:52:06 - 00:32:23:02
Unknown
And I'll even say the word loving because whether we like it or not, that's what we all need. And that's what young people need, especially those that are disengaged.
00:32:23:04 - 00:32:52:06
Unknown
Yeah. The bottom line is that all young people want to feel like their life makes a difference. And all young people want to feel loved, and all young people want to feel respected, and all young people want to feel that they have something to contribute to the world. And our aim is to give young people an experience of how much they have to contribute to the world.
00:32:52:11 - 00:33:37:18
Unknown
And that's really intentional because they're amazing. Young people are unbelievably amazing. We see this especially in our youth social action groups of this community, projects that the young people choose. They take on the big issues in their community, like bullying or violence or teenage pregnancy. They've done amazing community projects.
00:33:37:21 - 00:34:18:04
Unknown
For me personally, the fulfillment that I'm experiencing now is slightly different. We took our positive psychology facilitator training and we turned it into a bespoke training for anyone that works with young people in any capacity. So social workers, guidance staff, teachers could have the opportunity to train in the way that we work. Aberdeen City Council funded us to pilot this new training, which is almost the same as our existing training when we're training our staff.
00:34:18:07 - 00:34:51:01
Unknown
And it was mind blowingly successful. So we're doing two more pilots right now of training people who are not a part of growing together teachers, social workers. We've got some, youth workers, Aberdeen City Council, we're training almost their entire youth. We're and it's really fulfilling for me to see this way of being with children and young people spreading out, going outside of growing together.
00:34:51:03 - 00:35:29:24
Unknown
And it's only now that we could do that because we've established such a track record. But if I answer in terms of growing together, I think probably this work has fulfilled my vision and faith in humanity because that's not we can't pretend the world is in great shape right now. And yet this work has enabled me to see what's possible and how people can change their mindsets and how people can engage with life in a positive way.
00:35:29:28 - 00:35:57:17
Unknown
And, it's not just if you have enough money to live on, you know, of course that helps. But there's so much more to living life fully present to what's happening and experiencing the richness that's there for us. And we all can do that. We all can do that. And so my mission is focused on young people. Now for the last 20, some years.
00:35:57:17 - 00:36:20:19
Unknown
But, my vision has always been to bring more positivity to the world in any way I can.
00:36:20:21 - 00:36:43:19
Unknown
Absolutely. You got it for sure.
00:36:43:22 - 00:37:09:01
Unknown
My favorite thing is for headteachers to visit the program and to see these young people that they might have labeled as a problem, to see these young people mentoring in such an and beautiful way that the head teachers are always like they're gobsmacked. They have never seen that young person in that light. So it changes the head, the teacher's mindset.
00:37:09:03 - 00:37:24:27
Unknown
And you know, people who have visited the program, funders who visited the program are very touched by, what happens, the magic that happens between the child and the young person is so healing for the young people.
00:37:25:02 - 00:37:29:12
Unknown
Sometimes,
00:37:29:15 - 00:37:57:04
Unknown
You know, a school may feel, oh, do I want eight young people coming into mine? Oh, my God, is that going to be very disruptive? And it just takes a couple of weeks for them to see that it's not. But, you know, I totally understand that that concern. Sometimes the teachers in the schools, if a young person, something missing, math or English aren't so happy that they're doing the program instead of math or English.
00:37:57:04 - 00:38:26:19
Unknown
But what's true there is that that young person, if they reengage with their education, is going to come to math and English, which they don't use. They attend anyway. So, you know, we've never had cynicism. We've never had, when you see the program in action, you really see that it's real. You know, you see us doing what we say we're going to do, and you see the young people changing and beginning to thrive.
00:38:26:19 - 00:38:52:05
Unknown
And I love it when people visit in the beginning of our program and the young people, when they grunt to the end of our program, when the young people are so engaged and so verbal and so opinionated, it's just wonderful. So we've had good experiences with people visiting and, you know, we've never had a bad or negative incident in a nursery.
00:38:52:05 - 00:39:31:08
Unknown
And all these years and both my work in London, we never had a serious incident. And it's just I guess when you build something on trust and your expectations are trust, you trust back.
00:39:31:10 - 00:40:12:10
Unknown
Oh my goodness, you're asking quite deep questions. What touched me the most is recognizing that no matter how wounded or challenged or, difficult life is, there's always a way forward. And I knew that from counseling and therapy, but I didn't know that from people who really have struggled and had negative lived experiences. I think in our field we call it adverse childhood experiences.
00:40:12:13 - 00:40:27:01
Unknown
And coming from a very challenging, background, this into living, delivering and being with, growing together has shown me that.
00:40:27:04 - 00:41:38:02
Unknown
Mindsets can change, that depression can lift, that anger can turn to healthy self-esteem, self-assertion, the no matter how troubled a young person is. And I have to say, in inner city London, when we did this work and they were really tough kids. I mean, Scottish kids, in my experience, are more depressed or angry. Interestingly, not all, of course, I'm generalizing, but it's just been about was so incredible to see what's possible for everyone, for everyone.
00:41:38:04 - 00:42:03:10
Unknown
Who?
00:42:03:12 - 00:42:42:24
Unknown
I'm not a good person to answer that, because I'm notorious for overworking and being quite encouraging and for the work that we do. But self-care is. And if you teach something, you learn it yourself. So when we're teaching, indirectly self-care and self empathy, we're learning it ourselves. And yeah, the facilitators are role modeling a positive way of being for a young person.
00:42:42:26 - 00:43:20:07
Unknown
And in psychology, if you have a consistently good role model, you eventually internalize that and make it your own. So we can see the young people internalizing the way of being that the facilitators role model, and then it becomes self empathy. Then we see young people having self empathy. What I mean by self empathy is, you know, that positive self-talk you can give yourself some times where you're scared and you say, we can do this, it's okay.
00:43:20:13 - 00:43:55:25
Unknown
Can we all right. That kind of self positive talk, for young people to learn that. And I do think we are learning what we teach. I know that's probably why I've been teaching positive psychology for all these years, because I've been learning it because I wasn't so positive to start with myself that, yeah, I mean, in the third sector, it's endemic, that there's an overwork issue because people are so passionate about what they're doing and who they're doing it for.
00:43:55:25 - 00:44:40:26
Unknown
That it's almost, inevitable if you have great passion and meaning and purpose in the work that you're doing, that it's challenging. Self-care is challenging, and it's always been a big challenge for me. I can't say I've cracked that word. There we go. I'm sorry I can't be more wise about that. But there we go.
00:44:40:28 - 00:44:49:13
Unknown
Well, we're small, you know, we're not a national charity. We are growing,
00:44:49:16 - 00:45:26:22
Unknown
I don't know that we've had that great an impact. I know that we're very well respected by Highland Council, and our young people belong to youth rights participation groups and, council, Highland Council initiatives for young people. And they sit on other youth organization, groups. But we're just, we're small and give us a few more years, I think, before we're going to have a big impact that we are with called continuous learning and development.
00:45:26:25 - 00:46:16:24
Unknown
We're part of the we've been assessed by them and we're on their, registered providers list. We're on more as registered providers list. But, you know, I can't pretend that these days, funding is a major issue for all charities that probably all charities in Norway and elsewhere are being held back by the lack of funding. So you have a much bigger impact.
00:46:16:26 - 00:46:24:21
Unknown
Wow.
00:46:24:24 - 00:46:52:25
Unknown
Well, as those generations of young people become adults, I really trust that what they've learned, they continue to live because they love it and they love themselves more, and they love life more when they recover their self-belief and their aspiration. So, I mean, I think it would be absolutely. It would take 20 years to do that. It's, Scotland.
00:46:52:28 - 00:47:19:11
Unknown
But I think that, yes, I think the world would be different. I think that will be different because, our teachers, we surveyed our teachers recently and I can send you that survey. It was just amazing. And it appears that the young people that we work with, they are contributing to changes in the school culture, not hugely, because we only work with eight young people, a cohort.
00:47:19:13 - 00:47:56:01
Unknown
But we're beginning to see a ripple effect of young people. Once they reengage with school, they continue being what they've learned, in their school life. So, yes, I think there could be I think, you know, I've been doing this positive stuff since I was 26 years old, and the world still needs this kind of, mindset. Our ethos and values and vision.
00:47:56:03 - 00:48:10:23
Unknown
Yeah.
00:48:10:25 - 00:48:26:25
Unknown
Okay. What excites me is the most is the quality of the staff that work with growing together.
00:48:26:28 - 00:49:12:25
Unknown
I think our positive way of working has attracted positive minded people, people who inherently want, you know, their lives increasingly to be that way, too. But we have such a wonderful team, and I have a wonderful co-CEO, Gavin Morgan, who's will step into my shoes, eventually. And I just feel so grateful to have him and to have such a wonderful team of people because, you know, it's towards the end of my career and I will be ending my career with such faith in humanity, based on my experience of my staff and the people that are engaged.
00:49:12:25 - 00:49:43:11
Unknown
My trusty board, as well as just full of people who are really passionate about young people. So.
00:49:43:13 - 00:50:11:13
Unknown
Well, we hope to expand into a couple more schools, funding permitting, and we have a sustainability emphasis when we go into a school. So if the school puts forward 1 or 2 people or the school puts forward one staff member and the council puts forward a youth worker or, someone else, we train them to deliver the program.
00:50:11:15 - 00:50:42:05
Unknown
So and, and more has been especially taking up this opportunity. So Elgin High School has their own facilitators and that we've trained and Elgin Academy has their and once we train the school, we don't just abandon them, they deliver the program, but we do a quality assurance for them, and we do research outcome research for them, and we troubleshoot for them.
00:50:42:05 - 00:51:15:08
Unknown
So we stay in relationship with the schools when they come become what we call independent. And this is a really healthy way to grow, because once that's happened, the cost per student is very, very low for the school to help us do the quality assurance and the research. So it's very sustainable for schools and our Highland schools with we have we've been in these schools since 2018 and haven't left, and most of them should have dropped out, of course.
00:51:15:08 - 00:51:42:14
Unknown
But so the sustainability is our mission. It's the schools. See the value of the program. Sometimes we have to deliver a couple of programs before the penny drops that, yes, we want to train our staff and then staff, of course, move around. So there's always that challenge. But, we want the program to be sustainable so it can continue on for the schools as cheaply as possible.
00:51:42:14 - 00:52:14:25
Unknown
Basically.
00:52:14:28 - 00:52:18:27
Unknown
Besides funding.
00:52:18:29 - 00:53:10:16
Unknown
Road. Well, our, the local authority is we really want to build relationships with because they can open doors for us, they can introduce us and, Highland Council just said, well, here's the school of deprivation, let me introduce you to that school. And so that helps a lot with this branching out into more areas. If we build relationship with the local authority, we have partnerships with other with the local authorities, but we also have partnerships with the University of Highlands and Islands who, validate, and speak to, we have partners with several other youth worker initiations that we, we support each other and, and refer people to each other,
00:53:10:18 - 00:53:43:02
Unknown
when we need to recruit new facilitators. We're very, strong. And Tess's third sector interface both highly. And then we're a, very strong in tier size that we really enjoy belonging to. So it's about networking. It's about partnerships. We need each other. The communities need each other, and charities need each other. And I'm very keen on networking and partnerships whenever possible.
00:53:43:04 - 00:54:26:09
Unknown
We're hoping to pilot a, nursery program for care experienced young people. And we've we've kind of building a partnership with the promise, which is to give a better life to, care experienced young people. So we want to, have some diversity there, too, in terms of the populations we work with. Yeah.
00:54:26:11 - 00:55:23:14
Unknown
Well, let it be. My one message would be, well, to your valuable and worthwhile simply because you exist. And the second one would be believe in yourself and believe in your potential, which is enormous and vast.
00:55:23:17 - 00:55:50:13
Unknown
Look for young people's potential. Don't just relate to how they are, but look at their strengths, their character traits, the gifts that they have. See them even before the young person sees them themselves, if that makes sense.
00:55:50:15 - 00:55:56:28
Unknown
Okay.
00:55:57:00 - 00:56:17:15
Unknown
Thank you.
00:56:17:18 - 00:56:26:06
Unknown
Sure. Thank you.
00:56:26:08 - 00:56:43:10
Unknown
Thank you. And it's been a, a pleasure and a privilege to be able to speak with you today. And I'm grateful for the news that this carries that growing together. So. Thank you. I have it, too.
00:56:43:13 - 00:56:53:17
Unknown
you. You.
00:56:53:19 - 00:56:55:13
Unknown
You.