All Together Edinburgh’ is a social enterprise with charitable status founded by Debbie Douglas an expert in the field with many years knowledge and understanding of the needs of the third sector. The charity was set up in 2010 in Leith after it was recognised that there was a gap in provision for training opportunities for people with learning disabilities to develop skills that would help them work within the retail/charity sector or customer facing environment. What was also vital was a need for a supporting hand in to a training programme that focussed on socialisation and reducing isolation.

All Together Edinburgh wanted to create more training and employment opportunities by delivering a training programme that would not only improve employability skills, confidence, and self-esteem, but also deliver an accredited, person-centred course that resulted in a recognised national qualification. 

All Together Edinburgh agreed that the training would be best delivered in a charity shop and the Shop opened in June 2011. The Charity Shop is an ideal practical setting to learn a variety of skills relevant to the retail field. It also gives the trainee an opportunity to interact with the public and to increase awareness of people with learning disabilities. Dedicated time is spent on reducing isolation and loneliness of people with learning disabilities, as they often feel invisible and not listened to This is a unique enterprise and is the first of its kind in Scotland!

What was the ask of the Leith Community Foundation?

All Together Edinburgh asked the Leith Community Fund for £5000 to help them fully cost the full accredited programme, for up to 20 Trainees/Volunteers.

All Together Edinburgh’s trainees are never asked  to pay towards their training. All Together Edinbuth supply all materials, uniform, transport, accessment costs, refreshments, online training and project management costs.  They believe it is important to ensure there are no barriers to participation.

The £5000 would help cover costs for one year of an ongoing project based in All Together Edinburgh’s training centre and charity shop in Leith Walk, Edinburgh.

All Together Edinburgh knew that the trustees of the Leith Community Fund understand the needs of their community, and the need for a robust training programme for a group of people, often marginalised in society, and from their point of view, often forgotten about. This was about supporting local people around developing skills that build employability and reduce isolation and loneliness. It also provides an opportunity for friendships to grow and flourish out with All Together Edinburgh!
Through All Together Edinburgh’s Borders College accredited programme they aim to support up to 20 Trainees/Volunteers to successfully complete an accredited training programme which will help those individuals to move on to further education, or volunteering, or employment.  This programme offers a robust employment and volunteer accredited programme to adults with additional support needs. All Together Edinburgh’s trainees have difficulty in finding a supportive nurturing environment that understands their needs – this programme instills and promote san inclusive working culture and ability awareness. The trainees learn new retail skills (ragging, stock rotation, cleaning and displaying of items, till work, engagement in promotions, checking stock, making up Boost Boxes for people in need). The people in the project learn new skills, have increased confidence, feel less isolated, feel valued and respected, have increased socialisation skills and in our protected environment they blossom and thrive.

The shop and training centre offers a practical learning environment that facilitates learning, opportunities to improve confidence, work and people skills that are required in the mainstream employment market.

The Leith Community Funding meant that this work could continue for at least another year and hopefully, the tram works will clear, and a more positive trading environment will return to Leith Walk.

ATE is delighted to report that developing the training programme over the year was a tremendous success! The funding helped ATE to battle through the challenges of the pandemic, the tramworks and a difficult trading environment. Eight trainees successfully completed the ATE programme and achieved their desired qualification through Borders College. They finished the year in August 2023 with more confidence, a recognised qualification and help to move on.to employment, further education or voluntary work. Their families (approx. twenty individuals) where able to enjoy some respite from their caring role whilst their loved one was in the Shop/Training Centre. 

150 isolated, frail, and vulnerable people enjoyed the Boost Boxes made up by trainees. Most individuals received two Boost Boxes (or one larger box). This helped so many isolated individuals in the local community by boosting their mental health and well-being.

ATE is also pleased with the success of its online training and digital skills training as trainees have learnt so much from it. This is an incredibly positive outcome for the project and the aim is to develop this further, to become an integral part of the training programme. 

What do All Together Edinburgh say about how the Leith Community Fund award has helped?

“We would like to say a big thank you for much needed funding awarded through the Leith Community Fund. This helped us to fund the provision of our fully accredited training programme in our Leith based charity shop/training project. The funds helped towards the costs of training materials, uniforms, project costs, online training, assessing costs and refreshments.

We are pleased that our 2022/23 accredited training programme was able to run from the beginning of September 2022 and eight trainees successfully completed their training. They were fully supported by three staff, eight volunteers and 4 of our graduates from our previous 2021/22 training programme. The 4 graduates stayed on for a further 6 months to buddy the new recruits to help them settle in and give them the benefit of their skills, experience and confidence gained during their training programme at All Together. One of our graduates helped to set up an advisory board with one of the trustees so that staff, trainees, and volunteer’s voices can be heard, and recommendations made. This boosted the confidence of all involved in the training programme.

Our new trainees and graduates proudly wore their ‘All Together’ uniform show the local community that they are an important part of the All Together team in the charity shop.  They learnt a variety of tasks – online learning (Zoom/Teams, Moodle, eBay Better World Books and pricing goods), processing stock, serving customers, and using the cash register/card machine, merchandising/display, and pricing goods. All 8 trainees completed their assessments throughout the year.

They learnt about risks and safety measures in the workplace and built their confidence with the help from staff, volunteers, and buddies. The fund paid for safety materials and healthy fruit and drinks for sustenance, so that they could keep their strength up and have a well-earned break.

The whole team at All Together were proud to support the local community with All Togethers’ Boost Box Initiative. The trainees and volunteers helped staff with the VIP online and in-person appointments so that they can interact with isolated individuals in the local Leith community. They provided customer service to help people to choose goods (£15 worth of goods free). Which helped boost mental health. They also boxed up goods and help with deliveries, again free to the local community groups.

A Case Study- ‘Jamie’

Jamie enrolled in the All Together Edinburgh training programme in September 2022. He was just 16 years old and still at school. We collaborated with the school staff so that John would be able to gain a variety of skills/qualifications so they would work in tandem and there would be no duplication. He finished school later in that year and started to concentrate on finding suitable opportunities to build his skills and confidence so he would be able to move into the world of work and/or full-time education. 

He attended our programme every week to build his confidence, gain new skills in Retail and gain a recognised qualification to help him achieve his goals.
 
Jamie worked really hard throughout the year, was very reliable and worked on a variety of tasks in the charity shop. He always made sure he wore his All Together Edinburgh uniform and worked well with the staff, trainees, and volunteers.  He gained confidence steadily during the year and was so happy to hear that he had passed the Ready for Retail Award (Health and Safety, Customer Care, Basic Work Skills, Using the Cash Register and Stock and Display).
He is excited about the All Together Edinburgh graduation, which is taking place on 22nd August 2023, where he will be presented with his certificate. This will be attended by 50 people including John's family who are immensely proud of him.
Jamie managed to secure a place at Edinburgh College during his placement with All Together and is now going to enrol in a drama course with the same college. He has recently applied to Waitrose for a part-time position, and this shows how much confidence he has gained. We wish him the best and will stay connected to see how he is getting on in his quest for employment in the world of retail and full-time education.
 
Looking ahead

• We aim to utilise our training further by introducing more opportunities to engage in film-making to encourage trainees and “buddies” to learn via the training videos they make themselves
• Through our in-house Taster Sessions, we are delighted to report that our next tranche of trainees has been recruited and this year we will have twelve trainees!
• We are looking forward to our Graduation Service on 22 August where we will hear direct from trainees and their families about their ATE journey and show case their marvellous achievements!