Live fieldnotes — Dundee
This week we’ve travelled up north to Dundee to visit our next 8 micro-organisations. We‘re sharing snippets each day from our research. Now that we’ve wrapped up our week in Dundee, you can also read a summary of what we’ve learned in our two weeks of fieldwork.
Day 4
We spent the afternoon in Kirkton Community Centre talking to Eddie, Caitlin, Hazel and the rest of the team that run Kirkton Larder. The original idea of setting this up stemmed from Eddie’s desire to help child poverty in the area by offering kids free food during the holidays. While he was trying to source the food and think of ideas about how to best do it, he was put in touch with Sam, from Food for Thought (who we met on day 2 of our fieldwork), who was running a successful larder in Charleston. Eddie spent some time shadowing her to learn how to run a larder and then, with Sam’s help, took the idea to Kirkton. Within two weeks of opening, Eddie was receiving 300–400 people every week.
“You wouldn’t believe how this massive room was filled. We had all these tables set up and people were still queuing out the door.”
Since then, Eddie and Sam have been the driving forces behind the Dundee larder movement, encouraging and supporting other larders to start up in different local areas. This has taken the pressure off Kirkton meaning they now support a smaller number of 60–70 people each week. Recently, the local larders have also set up a new group — Dundee Food Poverty Alliance — which is chaired by Eddie. They plan to have quarterly meetings where they can discuss any issues or new ideas with the aim of working together as more of a collective force.
Kirkton Larder was originally set up with the idea of targeting people who are living on the bottom line of poverty, but instead, they found that 70% of their users actually have jobs.
“What we’ve found is that poverty isn’t always about money. These people work, but actually the money that they save here on food can go towards paying for their kids to go to the cinema and go swimming and stuff. They can go and do the social norms that their friends do.”
Eddie’s future plan is to take the larder ‘on-the-road’ and run a mobile service that reaches rural areas around Dundee and Angus. His plan is to have a couple of paid workers and make it self-sustaining through securing advertising from supermarkets on the side of the vans to bring in revenue. However, a challenge may be “not having the right contacts in Asda and Tesco to do this”.
Kirkton Larder, like Food for Thought, is dependent on a supplier for the bulk of their food who collects surplus food from supermarkets and redistributes it across the area. Kirkton Larder regularly updates their equipment and policies to make sure that they are in line with the supplier’s health and safety regulations. If they didn’t do this, their supply could be cut off leaving them unable to provide the food that so many people rely on. This dependence on one main supplier leaves the larder vulnerable to any changes in this supply. We were able to go and meet the supplier (also a charity) to look around the warehouse and learn about how they run. With the increase in larders that have popped up over the last year or so, they have seen a huge increase in demand that they are struggling to meet logistically with the current resources available to them.
Caitlin, Eddie’s daughter, who has recently taken over the larder from Eddie, is trying to secure future funding to pay for her to work 10hrs a week for the larder. She has compiled a list of funding they are eligible for but talked about how difficult some of the application questions are. Hazel, one of the volunteers, ran some of the funding applications through a readability programme and it reported that the level of understanding needed to answer some questions was at a postgraduate standard. For Caitlin, this is a significant barrier to accessing funding and she often has to rely on others with more funding experience to help her out.
Aside from funding, Eddie also spoke of the internal politics and bureaucratic challenges he faces with trying to run the larder under the umbrella of the community centre. Although the centre has provided him with essential access to facilities and training that he needed to launch the larder (e.g. food and hygiene courses), Eddie feels a lack of autonomy over the everyday decisions that get made; everything that he wants to do or change has to be voted on and signed off by the centre’s local management group. This has meant that he once had to turn down funding as he hadn’t sought the correct permission from the committee to apply for the grant in the first place and so the action was blocked. He also finds the amount of time it takes for things to be signed off extremely frustrating, often waiting weeks to get access to funds to buy resources. Although the plus side of being under the centre’s umbrella means he is able to use the space for free, even this advantage leaves him in a vulnerable position where he could be kicked out at any time by another paying group who wants to use the space instead.
“It should not be so hard to do something good.”
CanDu is a cancer support network founded by 7 women, each with their own cancer story, who came together around a shared mission to improve the patient experience in cancer care.
“We came together at the right time. Although we’re all very different, the lived experience of cancer is more powerful than that — we were instantly family.”
We visited CanDu’s brand new premises in Dundee city centre and spent the day talking to trustee and manager Julie, learning about CanDu’s ethos, journey and challenges.
What started as support meetings for cancer patients and survivors in 2018 has quickly grown into a registered charity offering a listening service, mindfulness courses, art classes, community outreach and complementary therapies. Beyond support and services, CanDu plays a strong advocacy role, representing the individual voice and lived experience of cancer in strategic and advisory decision-making forums. For Julie, being invited to speak at the Annual General Meeting of the Scottish Government’ Cross Parliamentary Group on Cancer was a hugely significant milestone for the organisation:
“We just started speaking. And we spoke and we spoke and we spoke. I thought, this is it. We can do something here. We can support people locally, but we can still have an influence at a national level. And afterwards, we could hear our voice in the strategy. We were really pleased.”
A key challenge for CanDu is growing in a way that doesn’t impact their core values. While they are keen to expand to reach more people who would benefit from their services, they are adamant about ensuring that the quality of support, grounded in empathy, remains the same:
“You don’t want to get so big that all you’re doing is paperwork. Then I’m no longer someone who’s been affected by cancer supporting someone else affected by cancer.”
The way they work is responsive to whatever needs they come across in the community. For example, one the first things they did was to negotiate with two local bus companies to get 200 free bus passes per week to hand out to cancer patients who otherwise would have difficulty affording the trip to their doctor’s appointments. While this flexible approach has been successful, it can be difficult to sell to funders:
“We don’t really do ‘strategy’. We’re about respecting the lived experience and responding to local needs. That makes it hard for us — funders like business plans.”
CanDu currently has enough funding to cover its core running costs. However, they are trying to find more secure funding sources to pay Julie. At the moment she relies on working outside the organisation as a mindfulness practitioner, which means she can’t always be available for CanDu.
“The main thing is me being able to be here. One of us needs to be supported to be here to manage the project. We need stability to make sure we can always open the doors.”
Due to the nature of the group, most of the people involved have health problems so it is particularly important to set up a resilient and sustainable model.
Day 3
Today we met Darryl, a social sector practitioner with years of experience in the Dundee community space. Darryl is the co-founder and Secretary of Uppertunity, a social enterprise providing skills development and social inclusion activities for adults with additional needs. However, we visited Darryl to learn more about his current venture: exploring the possibility of a Dundee community currency.
Darryl became interested in community currencies as a mechanism for boosting local economies and driving social change. In May last year, after months of thinking, researching and talking to people in the know, he left his paid job to focus on the project.
Many of the groups we’ve met so far have been constituted as charities or Community Interest Companies. Being a social entrepreneur trying to get an idea off the ground brings with it unique challenges.
“The hardest thing has been learning and explaining it at the same time.”
Darryl spends two days a week reading books, listening to podcasts and meeting experts to build his knowledge and understanding of local economic systems. He left his job because he found project development work all-consuming and needed the mental space to dedicate to thinking about community currency. Instead, he looked for functional work, becoming a part-time cycle ride leader. However, work isn’t always available and so income is variable.
Darryl would love to find funding to lessen the financial strain and move him closer towards turning his idea into reality. However, there is limited funding available for experimentation, particularly by individuals:
“Funding is a nightmare. It’s not easy to get funding. It was a lot easier for Uppertunity. I’m not applying to many funds because I’m not constituted. It’s really investment in me as a person that I’m looking for at this moment.”
Darryl secured a £500 ‘Try It’ award from Unltd in the summer to use for initial consultations and was recently awarded a £2,500 ‘Do It’ award for the second phase of testing his idea. Beyond this, it’s been difficult to get grants. Darryl feels that the social sector prefers to fund tried and tested interventions with a focus on short-term outcomes. He recently applied for a grant for community capacity and resilience and was rejected. The funder gave examples of successful proposals, which included a cooking class and IT training. Darryl expressed frustration at the lack of appetite for innovation and system change:
“Ok, a cooking class, it’s a noble thing, it’s nice, but it doesn’t change anything…If re-designing local economic systems isn’t about capacity building or resilience or reform or tackling inequality, then what is?
Darryl is now pivoting, looking outside of the sector to make progress. Today he was working on a proposal for a Scottish Business Research and Innovation award to address delayed discharge from hospitals using technology (in his case, a cryptocurrency). He’s collaborating with tech experts and designers and is excited by the possibility of working in an Agile team with fresh perspectives:
“I want to work with people with different perspectives and see what ideas come out of that. The solutions the social sector comes up with are the same solutions they came up with 10, 20 years ago. Design thinking is more divergent — they don’t discard the bonkers straight away.”
We spent the day with Claire who is the creative director and founder of Just Bee Productions, a charity that supports those recovering from addiction and mental health problems through creative arts. They produce plays, hold evening social events (DRYve nights which provide a safe space for those recovering from addiction), and run art, music and singing groups. Their plays and musicals also aim to increase people’s understanding and awareness of social issues that impact people’s health and wellbeing. The group is currently working on a musical that addresses the issues and experiences of mental health.
Although led by Claire, the process of creating their upcoming musical is very much a collaborative effort. The script has been built off people’s real-life stories and experiences of mental health and throughout their afternoon rehearsal, everyone was pitching in, giving ideas and suggestions about how best to construct different scenes and work with various props.
Although the group has grown a lot in size and influence, one of Claire’s main challenges is securing funding:
“Just Bee is really successful, it’s very well respected around Dundee and we’ve got a lot of solid partners in the city, but we’re just not successful financially. I’m just not getting the funding. If we don’t have more success next year, then I don’t know what we’ll do.”
Another challenge that Claire faces is the emotional side of things that comes with working with vulnerable people.
“Self-care is really important and I need to make sure that I have my own time. I wake up at 5am every morning just to fit in ‘me time’.”
Claire also keeps an eye on her volunteers, talking to them regularly to make sure that “they’re not taking home anything extra when they leave”.
For many people, Just Bee has been a “literal life saviour” and one volunteer couldn’t emphasise more what an “amazing, amazing person Claire is”.
Day 2
Food for Thought is a community food larder that operates out of Charleston Community Centre every Tuesday. Sam set up the larder in 2017 after hearing of more and more people in her community struggling to make ends meet following the introduction of Universal Credit.
Since then, demand for the larder has soared. In August 2019, Sam and her team opened a second larder in a nearby neighbourhood; Lochee Community Larder is open 3 days a week. Starting with 25 members, the two larders now serve close to 400 people. Beyond this, Food for Thought has inspired a local movement — 9 other food larders have since opened in Dundee and all came to Sam for advice when starting out.
Food for Thought is self-funded. Anyone can register as a member, then pay £1.50 for a bag of dry store goods each week, with baked goods and fresh produce often available for free. All the money made goes into buying surplus food from redistribution organisations. During larder opening times free tea and biscuits are on offer. It’s a welcoming space for people who may otherwise be socially isolated to come and have a chat.
“It’s not just giving food away here — we have people who come who don’t even buy food. People come for conversation and company.”
The larder is currently dealing with a major challenge. The organisation that provides the bulk of their food cancelled their contract 2 weeks ago, citing a breach of health and safety regulations. This feels unfair because the larder has tried to be vigilant about meeting requirements, including getting an environmental health expert to visit and assess their compliance with the rules — “we’ve jumped through every hoop”. They are currently buying food full price from supermarkets to continue serving their members, but this is only a temporary fix.
“We’re fighting it. It’s having a huge financial impact. And if it goes on it’s going to be a problem. Our constitution says we use surplus food. Now we’ve having to buy it.”
This evening, Sam is meeting with the leaders of several food larders in Dundee to discuss the problem. She’s hoping to join forces to have a better chance of winning the dispute — “there’s a bigger voice in numbers”. The larder also has support from the community centre’s Community Support and Development Officer, who’s been closely involved in the larder’s journey from the beginning.
It was inspiring and humbling talking to Sam, who pours her energy into the larder alongside a busy home life. It can be overwhelming — both in terms of the many demands on her time and the emotional toll of trying to support everyone who comes in the door.
“The hardest thing is juggling everything. Trying to do this with 4 kids and life. And learning that you can’t help everybody. I’m still trying to learn that.”
Today we went to visit Cathy, Sandra and Mohrag from Dundee Mental Health Cairn Fowk. The aim of their charity is to provide support for the wellbeing of carers who are looking after someone with a mental illness. Run by a dedicated team of volunteers who are all carers themselves, Dundee Mental Health Cairn Fowk provide drop-in sessions and peer support groups where people can share experiences and seek help and advice. They also organise weekend respite breaks away and social outings where carers can “relax and forget about their problems”. Cathy (who worked in mental health for 20 years and was awarded an MBE for her services) has also designed a 5-week course called ‘Hope and Recovery’ which helps carers learn to manage the problems that they face and begin recovering from being affected by their loved one’s illness.
“One of the biggest challenges is that people don’t recognise themselves as carers, they say, ‘I’m not a carer, I’m his mum or partner etc’. We’re trying to increase awareness — if you’re supporting and affected by someone else’s illness then you are a carer and you need help and support for that. That’s where Cairn Fowk comes in, we provide emotional support.”
The charity works hard running raffles, tombolas, quiz nights and other events around Dundee to help fundraise money for respite breaks, social events, conferences and awareness campaigns. In 2015, (one year after becoming a registered charity) they applied for Lottery funding and successfully received a grant of £15k. However, as soon as they received it, they sent it back as they realised that they didn’t have the structures in place to manage the conditions and increased paperwork that accompanied the grant (e.g. spending reports). Since this experience, the majority of their income is made through fundraising, emphasising that this way they’re not accountable to anyone but themselves.
“No funders are going to give us money and say, ‘do what you want with it and do what you think is best’ — nobody’s going to do that — so we prefer to fundraise our own money. That way we don’t answer to anyone but our members.”
Aside from income, one of the other challenges that Sandra and Mohrag face in particular, is being “lay people who have no prior knowledge or experience of how to run an organisation.” They find themselves constantly having to learn as they go from editing the accounts in Excel to updating their website. They are both hoping to go on a computer course this year to help them with their learning.
“I’ve never worked in an office in my life — I have self-taught myself on computers. I’ve got no corporate skills and no awareness of these things. We’ve had to learn all this all as we’ve gone along, so it’s like the blind leading the blind.” (Mohrag, Treasurer)
None of the volunteers are paid and so everything they do is “through love”. They spoke about their achievements and how much awareness they have raised as a small charity, but also reflected on how there is a limit to the things they can do with the people and financial resources that they have. However, on the flip side of this, they talked about how being small and unaccountable to anyone else gives them a lot of flexibility with how they carry out their roles and autonomy over what they want to do. If they were in paid roles, they discussed how they would probably have to hit deadlines and reach specific goals, but as they are now if something takes a little longer than expected then that’s ok.
Looking to the future: “We just want to be here next year. As long as Cairn Fowk is still running then that’s the goal. There’ll be 3 new people in the future sitting here with a different set of skills, but as long as ‘unity, strength and hope’ is followed and continued, then we can help others with their own experiences and journeys down the road.”
Day 1
Today we met Andrew Batchelor who set up Dundee Culture, a website and social media page that aims to promote Dundee as a city full of culture and history, shining a positive light on everything that Dundee has to offer. He started the original Facebook page in 2013, when he was only 12 years old, in an effort to help Dundee’s bid to become the UK City of Culture. Although Dundee didn’t win the bid, Andrew continued his work and since then his site has grown. Last year he received 6.5million visits to his website from people all over the world.
Since setting up Dundee Culture, Andrew has noticed his influence grow after winning a series of awards and nominations. Realising the potential of his reach, he has worked hard on using this influence to help other young people in Dundee promote their cause or achieve their goals.
“I want other young people to be recognised as well as me. When I publish a story I’m lucky enough for it to have a big impact. The backbone of the city is the young people and we’ve got a lot of young people doing great things in the city, so I want to show everyone that.”
In 2017, Andrew received funding to build himself an office in his back garden as he was previously working out of his bedroom. The office is a great space that he can now work from and continue to expand Dundee Culture, but some of his digital equipment is holding him back.
One of the problems he has is with his old tech — he has been using the same computer since he was 11 years old. He finds it very slow and often has to switch to his phone to try and get things done — “I really need a modern laptop as all my work is online; that would help me a lot.” He also needs to invest in some recording equipment to start a podcast that he plans to launch this year. In the future, he hopes to start making some films about Dundee, but because Andrew suffers from hemiplegia, a form of cerebral palsy, he needs to find video equipment that is accessible for him to use.
“Equipment is the main thing that’s holding me back.”
Along with cerebral palsy, Andrew also has autism, epilepsy, dyslexia, dyscalculia and anxiety, which each bring separate challenges. His autism means that he can sometimes misinterpret messages that he receives from people online. Some of his sentences, spelling or wording on his posts can often get mixed up due to his dyslexia. His physical disabilities can make travelling to places to promote his work a challenge, and his anxiety makes presentations or public speaking a very daunting task. However, when asked how he manages these challenges, he spoke about his strong support network of family, friends and fans who help him along the way. He is also supported by a personal mentor who offers him guidance and advice on how to run Dundee Culture.
Andrew has a huge amount of love for Dundee and aims to continue growing Dundee Culture’s influence. He is also working on a new webpage called ‘Access Dundee’ which will give detailed information for disabled people on how to access buildings around Dundee.
We ventured to the west of the city to visit Ninewells Community Garden. Nestled in the grounds of the expansive Ninewells Hospital, the community garden was set up in 2011 with the aim of providing a welcoming and therapeutic space for visitors and volunteer gardeners alike.
The garden is run by 8 trustees, 2 paid part-time garden facilitators and 32 regular volunteers. We met Derek, the board’s chairman, and Helena, one of the garden facilitators.
Since featuring on BBC Scotland’s Beechgrove Garden TV show in 2013, Ninewells has been “moving amazingly quickly”, benefitting from grants for several large projects, including the construction of the ‘Leaf Room’ garden room, rabbit fencing and a polytunnel. In 2014, 3 funders contributed to creating a salaried position for a garden facilitator. However, this funding is never guaranteed long term, which can make it difficult to fill the role. The trustees are looking for more stable funding options.
“We’re aiming for sustainability, particularly for the salary. The shorter the grant, the more precarious it feels. It’s harder to maintain to staff. They feel insecure.”
Garden facilitators play an essential role in the day to day running of the garden. Alongside administration and report writing, the core part of the job is coordinating volunteers who come to the garden for a variety of reasons, with various levels of gardening experience. Helena takes an individual approach to managing her volunteer group, knowing that some prefer direction, others freedom, and balances this with getting through the jobs to be done in the garden.
“When they join, I give them a range of tasks and see where their interests lie. It’s important they know where the work they’re doing fits in to the big plan, so it feels meaningful. If you give someone a stake in something they value it.”
While remaining as inclusive as possible, it’s important for Ninewells to ensure that the garden is a safe and comfortable space for all volunteers. They have experienced issues with disruptive volunteers in the past. Now, they have a volunteer handbook and policy, and a sign-up process that includes an induction meeting, references and a feedback meeting one month in. This helps to ensure that all expectations are clear and any potential problems are raised early on.
Tucked behind the hospital, the garden has sometimes struggled with visibility — “one of the difficulties we have is getting the message out that it actually exists…that it’s there for everyone to use”. They are keen to improve the pathway from the hospital to encourage more visitors to make the trip down the hill. Helena is mindful that Facebook’s algorithm favours frequent posting and so regularly updates the garden’s page, as well as responding to every comment to ensure followers feel heard and stay engaged.
