NC Working with Communities students based at Forth Valley College’s Falkirk Campus have been raising money and collecting donations to help a Recovery Café in Stenhousemuir.
As part of their ‘Self in Communities’ portfolio work the group Deane Gibb (40) from Stirling, Andrew McFarlane (48) from Camelon, Zoe Jackson (27) from Denny and Jazmine Tait (16) from Bo’ness, managed to encourage Morrison’s supermarket in Stirling to help them create 14 food hampers so people in recovery can have the makings of a three course meal on Christmas Day.
The group also managed to raise around £300 for the worthy cause which is part of the wider Forth Valley Recovery and Recovery Scotland Charity.
Deane, said: “The best bit for me was putting it all together and raising a lot of money for Forth Valley Recovery. I never thought I would see myself phoning supermarkets to put a donation proposal to them, but this course has encouraged me so much to do things like this. A big thanks to Morrison’s in Stirling for their excellent donation!”
Zoe, said: “I think the best bit for me was when we visited the Recovery Café to distribute the hampers and seeing the reaction form everyone, as I don’t think they were expecting it.”
Jazmine, said: “I made sure we added a Christmas card into the hamper as I think that would be a nice touch to show that people from Forth Valley College are thinking about them.”
Andrew, added: “My confidence has really grown while working on this project and I am now happy to approach companies and organisations to ask them to donate to good causes such as this.”
Lecturer Anne Reid, said: “I am very proud of this group and all the other two separate groups in the NC Working with Communities class, for all the brilliant work they have put in with this section of their course. Each group member had a different role to play and they each brought something different to the task they were trying to achieve.
“This group especially have put themselves outside their comfort zone, especially as many of them have had past experience of needing help from the Forth Valley Recovery charity or know of someone who has needed their help.
“This is a great bunch of students and I am sure many of them will be going on to study for the HNC Working with Communities next year.”
As far as the two other groups in the class go, one raised more than £200 (and are still collecting) for FADMH, by completing a sponsored walk from the College to the Kelpies and back. Ellie Burns, Mandy McBrearty, Caitlin Craig and Ellie Stoddart, said the highlight for them was completing the task and also how generously people had been in donating. They hope to present the money to the FADMH charity in the New Year, once all the money has been collected.
The third team included: Aaron MacGilvary, Alyisha Bell, Callum Graham, Chris Colquhoun and Robert Downs. They concentrated on researching ‘Shadow Work’ a technique that can help individuals have a better understanding of their own self.
This resulted in raising awareness of Mental Health and has promoted discussion around different strategies and techniques that are available during presentations to other students.
The Team hope to take this forward in the New Year and have said the highlight of their project was stretching their own interpersonal skills, whilst engaging in meaningful conversations around Mental Health and making everyone aware of the help that is available within the College and in the wider community.