Hello and welcome to Circle’s Autumn Newsletter.
As usual, the last few months have been busy and productive ones at Circle. Following the excitement of the summer, we have been working with families to settle children back to school, ensuring they have the support and materials that they need to fully engage with their education. You can read an update on what each project has been up to, including October Holiday activities, new service developments, and much much more here – Circle Project Updates – Circle
To further support children with their education in North Edinburgh, we have expanded our afterschool mentoring service. We will now be working across two sites and doubling the number of schoolchildren that can benefit from having a mentor to support their learning and have some fun.
From what we are seeing happening on the ground, it is clear that this will be one of the most challenging winters faced by families across Scotland. Many of the families that Circle works alongside are already negatively affected by poverty, structural inequalities, and a wider range of challenges. Families in this situation were already finding it difficult to cope and we know that the additional costs associated with the cost-of-living crisis will disproportionately affect those most in need. Our project, and fundraising teams are doing all they can to ensure that our families will have what they need to feed their children and heat their homes this winter. However, we do not underestimate the scale of the crisis and would call on governments to do all they can nationally to ensure that struggling families are not further marginalised by this latest crisis. We have recently launched our Winter Campaign, to encourage donations to help families with resources to help them cope with the crisis, such as energy cards, food vouchers and warm winter clothing. You can read more about what your money will go towards, and donate to our winter campaign here: https://circle.scot/support-us/winter-campaign/
Over the last year Circle have worked to re-frame the values that guide our work. Working with families and the staff team to define these values has been one of the most rewarding and satisfying pieces of work I have been involved in during my time at Circle. We were delighted to finally launch the new values in September this year and we will continually strive to live these values through our work. Thanks to all the parents, children and staff that helped to define our values. To read our full set of values, visit here
Finally, thanks to all our funders and donors, who have continued to support us through these difficult times for families. I wanted to particularly mention the students from George Heriots School, who participated in Kiltwalk to raise money for our projects, Jamie Bryant, who took part in the Great Scottish Half Marathon, as well as NCM Fund Services Limited, and Vialex, organisations who have supported us through hosting their own fundraising events, and volunteering with us.
I hope you enjoyed all of Circle’s recent exploits and activities and thanks again for being a Circle supporter. And if you would like to speak to me, find out more about any of the above or have any questions regarding our work then please don’t hesitate to get in touch – mark.kennedy@Circle.Scot