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Kibble Group has started the process of creating a new specialist education centre for primary aged children between five and 12.

The organisation has purchased the former residential care home buildings of Parkhill House and Garpel House and will seek planning permission from Renfrewshire Council for the change in use.

Located on the outskirts of Lochwinnoch, the proposals seek to turn the existing buildings into a small primary campus with residential accommodation for young children who have been affected by adversity in their early years.

Kibble has extensively researched ground-breaking methods of care and education by visiting similar centres across the world over the past three years. The campus will be a safe and comfortable environment for primary aged children in preparation for eventual long-term foster care.

The therapeutic approach to education will allow young people to experience the benefits of outdoor learning alongside National Curriculum based classroom teaching. Natural surroundings create a safe environment for students with special needs, incorporating innovative animal-assisted and nature-based activities. The education centre will eventually accommodate up to 30 pupils.

Jim Gillespie, Chief Executive of Kibble Group, said: “Kibble believes that the right care and education has the potential to transform the lives of young people, no matter their background or circumstances. The proposal for a new specialist centre is entirely guided by that approach, providing a safe and nurturing environment for young people who have experienced severe adversity in their early years.

“The site of this former care home is the ideal, idyllic setting for this type of campus and we’re due to begin speaking with local community organisations about how we can work collaboratively.

“We have begun the process of applying for planning permission to renovate the two buildings, converting them into modern classrooms and residential accommodation. This will allow us to change the use from a retirement home to a state-of-the-art educational facility delivering tailored support for children.”

Based in Paisley and founded in 1859, Kibble Group is a charity and social enterprise which provides an extensive range of services for children who are at risk or have experienced trauma in their early years. It works with young people from the age of five, providing education and care from centres in Largs, Paisley and Garnock Valley.

Further information about the proposals can be viewed at www.kibble.org/early-years

Pupils have been immersed in the exciting world of dance as part of The Close project, run by Scottish Ballet.

The Close is an education project which gives young people, who may not have had the opportunity to engage with classical dance, an enriching cultural experience. For young people affected by adversity, and who have faced difficult experiences, it provides a means of expression, a chance to explore their creativity and develop valuable teamwork skills.

As part of the project, pupils and staff attended a VIP performance of  Scottish Ballet’s upcoming big production. After being mesmerised by the performance, pupils had the chance to take part in dance taster workshops at The Tramway, home of the Scottish Ballet. The pupils loved every minute of the experience and one boy aged 13, even performed a dance solo in front of his classmates.

To say the pupils gained a lot from the experience was an understatement. As pupil Robert said about the experience “it calms you down if you’re very stressed, it helps you calm down and think of the dance and if something has gone on you can just forget about it and you’re in the mode, you just totally forget about everything and you just focus on dance all the time”. Class teacher Chris McDonald spoke of the positive changes he saw in the pupils over the course of the project as they developed stronger friendships and learned about teamwork.
Lisa Sinclair, Special Projects Manager at  Scottish Ballet has been in touch to thank pupils and staff for their trust and dedication to the project stating “What a wonderful group of artists we had the pleasure of working with”.

We look forward to working with Scottish Ballet in the future to open up incredible life opportunities for the pupils. The partnership is invaluable for Kibble, and we would like to thank them for their ongoing support and commitment.

James Gillespie, Chief Executive at Kibble Group, highlights how the charity and social enterprise is leading the way in supporting young people with complex social, emotional and educational needs.

At Kibble, we support children from the age of five right through to young adults, many of whom have experienced significant trauma.

Our services are all integrated and cover a vast range of areas including: residential care, secure care, primary and secondary education, specialist intervention services, intensive fostering services, young workforce development, outreach services, and preventative and rehabilitative community services.

Supporting young people is like a jigsaw –all the different pieces need to join together to complete the picture. It’s a culmination of a lot of factors, from creating a comfortable, safe environment to providing continuity of staff support, ensuring there is structure in a young person’s life, and involving them in decisions that affect them.

At Kibble we adopt a ‘healthy body, healthy mind’ approach and focus on the overall wellbeing of the young people we support. This can cover everything from cooking healthy meals to encouraging young people to be active or take part in creative activities with others, and offering therapeutic interventions. We also apply a model of trauma-informed care which looks at different aspects of a person’s life, including physical, psychological and emotional safety and healing. It’s important that the young people who come to Kibble know they’ve got a place where they are safe and supported by people who love and care for them.

It is also really important that the young people we support feel empowered and confident about their future prospects after they move on from Kibble, and our social enterprise model is one way we can achieve this.

KibbleWorks, the collective name for Kibble Group’s social enterprises, was established in 2005. Our social enterprise model enables us to offer employment opportunities and training for the young people we support (aged 15+). It also helps to ease the transition from education into the world of work. We provide work-based learning combined with the chance to study for qualifications.

Ultimately, we want to improve a young person’s chance of getting that all-important job, which could help prevent them from facing a ‘cliff edge’, or falling further behind their non-care experienced peers.

Our young workforce development programmes are based on labour market intelligence, enusuring young people are undertaking work-based learning that’s relevant to the current jobs market.

There are many positive features of operating as a social enterprise. For Kibble, the biggest positive is the fact that any surpluses are reinvested for the social good, and the young people we support see the benefit.

While we focus on equiping young people with the skills to move forward and take the opportunities that life offers them, our door is always open if they need to get in contact, for whatever reason.

We regularly have return visits from former Kibble young people who come back to share their stories with those we are currently supporting. Their experiences and the messages they convey are powerful and young people can often relate to their stories. Their success highlights that despite what has happened in the past there are opportunities for the future.

In a way, Kibble exists not to exist. In an ideal world young people would no longer need our help.Sadly, the reality is that’s not likely to happen in the foreseeable future. The ideal scenario for us would be a greater focus on earlier interventions to ensure those at-risk don’t experience trauma in the first instance. Until a time when that reality exists, having a strong understanding of trauma and how to deliver trauma-informed care allows us to tackle the root cause of problems instead of simply treating the symptoms. We understand that organisations like ours have a big role to play in further reducing the demand for intensive interventions such as secure care placements.

From prevention work and trauma-informed support to participative methodologies, peer support and young workforce development – we work hard to support a future where all at-risk children and young people can go on to live happy and healthy lives. Kibble may have been established 177 years ago, but we’re always looking for innovative solutions that will really work for Scotland’s young people. They deserve nothing less than the best.

James Gillespie is Chief Executive at Kibble Group.

What Kibble say about membership:

“Being part of the Children in Scotland network offers an excellent opportunity to connect with like-minded organisations. It’s a great platform for sharing information and good practice, and learning about the latest developments. The work of Children in Scotland has had a positive impact on the lives of many young people and Kibble Group is delighted to offer its support.” – James Gillespie

This article first appeared in Issue 187 (Aug – Sept 2018) of Children in Scotland Magazine

Women and girls from Kibble were marching in Edinburgh this Sunday (10 June) to mark 100 years since women were first given the vote. They will be joining thousands of others from across the country with events in Belfast, Cardiff and London walking together to mark the historic occasion.

The events are being organised by PROCESSIONS, an organisation set up by the UK Government to commemorate important cultural events during the centenary of the First World War. Women participating in the march have been asked to create their own banners that will be used for the march itself. Staff and young people at Kibble have been working hard over the past few weeks to produce a banner that will be on display.

Jennifer Sloan from Kibble’s Art Department said:

“I want to thank everyone who has been participating in helping to make the banner. This project is an important reminder of the fight that women had just to get the right to vote and I know that some of the young people have been learning about the Suffragettes for the very first time.

“We are taking a group of the young people through to experience the march itself and I know that they are really excited about it. It is important to never forget how these women fought so hard to build a fairer and more equal society.”

In 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave the first British women the right to vote and stand for public office. The Act followed a sustained campaign by Suffragettes and Suffragists who fought for equality for women. Women attending marches across the UK will be asked to wear either green, white or violet, the traditional colours of the suffragette movement.

Maureen Watt, MSP heard from the future of the country’s mental health care programme for under 26-year-olds as she visited Kibble this week. The Minister for Mental Health spent the morning hearing from staff and residents at the Paisley campus.

One of the Scottish Government’s themes for the Year of the Young People is Health and Wellbeing with the aim that youngsters understand the importance of mental health and resilience.

Kibble has committed to a range of activity over the course of the year to support the Minister’s strategy, while giving a voice to young people and reducing stigmas around mental health.

Projects include partnerships with the NHS and LA to support early identification of mental health issues as well as work with Who Cares? Scotland to ensure all young people are aware of their rights.

The Minister learned more about each of the care provider’s initiatives during her tour of the premises, which included a visit to the Safe Centre where young people, some with mental health issues, receive individual treatment plans enhanced by new and innovative interventions.

The care provider, which is supported by its Specialist Intervention Services (SIS) team to provide psychological and therapeutic input, works with children and families from the age of five across a range of residential and day placement services.

Jim Gillespie, Chief Executive at Kibble, said: “It was an honour to welcome the Minister to our site and shine a light on the work that is done day to day in support of mental health.

“We are working with numerous partners in aid of the wellbeing of under 26-year olds, from early intervention at a young age and throughout the years into adulthood.

“Our Safe Centre is an instrumental part of giving young people the care in which they need, with the support from the Minister a tremendous helpful in continuing to develop the services we offer.

“During the Year of the Young People it is vital that we are taking the steps to ensure that each and every child has readily available help, feels comfortable enough to ask for support and has a platform to speak and be heard.”

Mental Health Minister Maureen Watt said: “The Year of Young People 2018 is about giving young people a stronger voice. We have been told very clearly that they want greater attention given to mental health and wellbeing, and I am delighted to see how staff at Kibble are also adopting this kind of approach.

“More and more people are recognising the importance of caring for our mental health as we would our physical health, and we want everyone to have access to the support they need. Focusing on prevention and early intervention is a key part of that, and I look forward to hearing how Kibble’s work will help people to manage their own mental wellbeing.”

A VIDEO warning about the dangers of cyber stalking has been given a Divisional Commander’s Award by Renfrewshire Police. The film was produced by young people from Kibble Group and was given the recognition at an awards ceremony on their Paisley campus by Chief Superintendent Gordon Crossan.

Young people and staff at Kibble spent months working on the project named ‘Have you heard about Chloe?’ to highlight the risks and vulnerabilities young people face when using social media. The final cut is now being used as a resource by Police Scotland across Renfrewshire schools.

Executive Director at Kibble Group Eileen Cummings said:

“It is a great honour to welcome Chief Superintendent Crossan and Police Scotland to our campus for this prize giving. This is yet another example of our strong partnership working with other organisations.

“I know the young people worked incredibly hard to produce a high quality film on such a serious subject. The young people I have spoken to have taken a lot of pride in knowing that their work is being shared with other schools and that they have played their own part in warning others about the dangers of cyber stalking.”

Chief Superintendent Gordon Crossan said:

“The awards ceremony represents an excellent opportunity to acknowledge some of the outstanding work and contributions made by local Police Officers, partners and local people within the communities of Renfrewshire and Inverclyde.

“Individuals and groups are being recognised for their part in improving the safety and wellbeing of the people, families and communities living, working and commuting through both Renfrewshire and Inverclyde.”

In a recent interview with the Daily Record, Foster Carers Austin and Ann-Marie Coyle explain why they got into fostering and how each child is welcomed into their family as though they were their own children.

After spending part of his childhood in care, Austin was determined to do as much as he could t help youngsters. Austin and his wife Anne-Marie have fostered eight young people, as well as providing respite and emergency foster care for others. The couple near Cambuslang, near Glasgow, turned to fostering after raising their own children, Joanne, 33 and Kevin, 28.

Anne-Marie feels it has also benefited Joanne and Kevin, she said “They an see life doesn’t always work for everybody. They’re better people for it”.

Austin and Anne-Marie are foster carers for Kibble, who provide intensive fostering placements for young people aged five to 25 across Scotland with complex social, emotional and behavioural needs.

It was his own experience that led Austin to want to help others. He had to go into residential care between the ages of six and 11 for health reasons. Read full article…

OVER 30 young people and staff from Kibble have joined 7,000 others to take part in this year’s Kiltwalk. The motivated ramblers donned kilts and fancy dress as they walked the 23 miles between Glasgow and Balloch early on Sunday morning.

The team’s efforts have been well rewarded after helping to raise thousands of pounds for Who Cares? Scotland, a charity that supports care experienced young people. Despite a few sore limbs and a couple of blisters, everyone successfully made it across the finish line at Moss O Balloch Park after 7 hours of walking.

The Kiltwalk is an annual charity walk where participants are encouraged to wear a kilt. Last year, Kiltwalk Glasgow raised over £1.3m for various good causes across Scotland.

Jim Gillespie, Chief Executive of Kibble Group, said:

“The young people have spent the previous couple of weeks fundraising to help others who have experience of care. It is inspirational to see how selfless the Kibble team has been in supporting and participating in this tough challenge.

“A few of them have been feeling the after effects of the walk, but I know they enjoyed the whole day.”

Gavin Sinclair, Fundraising and Partnership Manager at Who Cares? Scotland, said:

“We were delighted by the support shown by the young people and staff from Kibble who joined our Who Cares? Scotland Kiltwalk team in Glasgow.  We have a vision of a lifetime of Equality, Respect and Love for Care Experienced people, which is something that surely resonates with Kibble.

“The money raised helps support our regular group work, weekend residentials throughout the year and our annual summer camp, which means so much to our care experienced family members.  On behalf of everyone at Who cares? Scotland – thank you Kibble.”

YOUNG people from Renfrewshire and Glasgow have taken to the track to show that having special needs is no barrier to go-karting. Over 50 kids and volunteers from the SAMs Club took part in a Grand Prix at The Experience in Hillington Park, with specially trained staff and adapted karts allowing as many people as possible to participate.

SAMs Club was formed in 2012 to help provide support, care and respite to families in Glasgow and the surrounding local areas. The group now has 90 members, some with additional needs, and volunteers help organise regular activities where everyone can participate.

Based in Hillington Park, The Experience is Scotland’s only electric go-karting venue and offers a unique Accessible Karting Programme. Specially designed tandems, side-by-side karts, hand controls and a fully accessible arena allows people who would otherwise be excluded from go-karting the chance to experience the thrill of motor sport.

Cara O’Donnell, Co-Founder of SAMs Club, said:

“Our volunteers work hard all year round to fundraise and organise activities, so it was great to have such a big turnout for today. Sometimes it can be difficult to arrange something where all of the group can take part, but we have been able to take advantage of the facilities on offer.

“This is the first time that many of the young people will have tried go-karting, and judging by the smiles on their faces, I’m sure they’ll be back.”

The Experience is owned and operated by the social enterprise Kibble Group. Chief Executive of Kibble Group, Jim Gillespie, said:

“I am delighted that we have been able to welcome SAMs Club to The Experience and I hope that they enjoyed their visit. Our Accessible Karting programme has been hugely successful with over 2000 sessions of discounted karting delivered in the past 3 years.

“If any person or group thinks that they would be eligible for our Accessible Karting programme, I would urge them to get in touch so that they too can enjoy the excitement of go-karting.”