The Promise, a once in a generation chance to not only make a care system that put young people and their futures at the heart of it.
The Promise, a once in a generation chance to not only make a care system that put young people and their futures at the heart of it. It also allowed for the chance to disrupt the status quos that had established around the people who are or have been in care. An off the cuff discussion between our founder Adam Bennett and future board member Laura Beveridge put the wheels into motion of ProjectChange. ‘We could be so much more than just a system or the labels behind it’.
There didn’t seem like a better time to get together a group of people who could steer this idea that was created over a cup of coffee.
Not long after that first coffee, the global pandemic of 2020 hit and it disrupted everyone’s lives in way we could have ever imagined. There didn’t seem like a better time to get together a group of people who could steer this idea that was created over a cup of coffee. A small group that could navigate quickly all the complexities of starting an idea, at that point ProjectChange wasn’t going to be a charity it was just going to be a new way of doing things.
A few conversation between Includem and ProjectChange resonate about communities and building them up
Part of building up a momentum behind ProjectChange was to go out and speak to as many people as possible in those early months, during the peak of the pandemic this wasn’t the easiest. But a few conversation between Includem and ProjectChange resonate about communities and building them up from inside the community not trying to jump into them. Continuing discussions resulted in Includem supporting ProjectChange for one year as a chance to get it off it’s feet and build a care community.
It was finally time to go public and start the real work of building the community, we had prepared for months.
The first few months of ProjectChange were about listening, talking, exploring the community with the ideas of building it, making it stronger. Once there was a strong base of support it was time to as a community start working much more on doing rather than speaking. We started work on the first big project our empowerment toolkit in late October. Work on this will continue through the rest of 2021 with resources being published around Christmas 2021
A few conversation between Includem and ProjectChange resonate about communities and building them up
Once it became clear that this idea would need a framework around it, there was a decision quite quickly after the first board meeting to start the process of establishing a charity as the legal vehicle to explore. The process of becoming a charity is not an easy one, understandably so, at the end of November we learned that we had finished the process and finally we were a fully blown Scottish Charity. Ready to help our community.
Work beings on a comprehensive toolkit that will help anyone safely use their voice and expertises
A year long project starting with the creation of a group with at least 50% lived experience to develop a series of resources to ultimately ensure lived experience will be valued, recognised and embedded in an equitable and holistic way throughout systems, organisations and communities.
To celebrate what has been a difficult year for everyone, ProjectChange hosted a birthday party to thank everyone who’s met us and meet new people
February 2021 was a whole year of ProjectChange existing so it was important to go out to all the people who had chatted to us and thank them for all their help, support, ideas and motivation. Meeting over 150 people, hearing them, talking to them and jointly working on how to build the community.
On the day celebrating our care experienced friends we joined in by launching the website
Care Day 2021 we launch our website to give the community a comprehensive overview of what we’ve been doing, where we will be going, and how they can get in touch.
The website will be a vital tool in developing our engagements moving forward and keeping as many people as possible. in the loop.
