It has been a year since I walked through the door at The Ridge and my new career began. I had previously been working in professional regulation (of both actuaries and solicitors) and had been a charity trustee for several years but had increasingly been feeling, perhaps as a result of solo home working during lockdown, that I wanted to make more of an actual difference to people. Throughout my career I have been very strong on the importance of inclusion, on increasing awareness of mental health and there has been a theme around education and training so when the details about the Depute MD role at The Ridge landed in my mailbox, I was very curious and was thrilled to be offered the role after my second interview.
Since then I have been working across the organisation, with the garden, support, training, stonemasonry, joinery and finance teams as well as the Boards and of course volunteers, stakeholders and funders. I stepped up into the role of Managing Director back in November, having to all intents and purposes shadowed Kate, the former MD and our inspirational Founder, since starting, and having had the opportunity to lead on a number of cross organisational projects.
As I turn my attention to our strategic plan, and work with the leadership team and Board on identifying our priorities for the next three years, I am delighted to introduce our values:
Everything we do at The Ridge is:
Inclusive and approachable
Everyone is welcome. We are here for you, without judgement.
Community oriented
We serve and support the community of Dunbar and East Linton ward, adapting our provision to meet evolving local needs.
Knowledgeable
Our team can be relied upon to give you the best information, training, guidance and support, and/or to refer you to the correct specialist provision.
Meaningful
We make a difference.
Team driven
We work together to support you and achieve our goals.
I’m incredibly lucky to lead such a dedicated, capable and talented team, each delivering the various aspects of The Ridge’s work with passion, good humour and professionalism. I am excited to continue working with our valued partners and to do what we do best, helping, supporting and training people and adapting what we do to make sure we deliver what is needed here in Dunbar, East Linton and our surrounding area. At the heart of all that we do is our unique ability to tailor our provision to individual needs, while delivering a diverse range of volunteering, wellbeing, training and employment opportunities all focused on improving our local area and supporting local people.
Over coming weeks we will move in to our new office at Black Bull Close, this has been an extraordinary project led by our talented Head of Joinery and Head of Stonemasonry, who have, along with their teams, including trainees and apprentices, restored an 18th Century ruin and added on a modern extension to it to create our new base. They have created a wonderful Support Centre, Training Kitchen, Office and Event Space and have used heritage skills such as lime and hemp plastering, combining this with modern technology such as solar panels, under floor heating and an air source heat pump to create a truly wonderful space. The garden areas are being coaxed back from being a construction site and our masons have recently finished the dry stone walling for the various raised beds, with planting already taking place to bring back the kitchen garden. Our plans for the first quarter of this year include using the training kitchen, strengthening our support offering by using the space specifically designed for our team and of course delivering the skills training for which we are so well known.
There are exciting times ahead, watch this space for more updates – and if you would like to get involved, please get in touch.Get Involved – The Ridge SCIO
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