Venture Trust is proud to publish its 2020-21 Impact Report.
It was a challenging year for everyone. But most of all for the people the organisation works to support. For our participants, lives that already had more than their share of stress and turbulence were further disrupted, often leaving them feeling stranded and alone.
This impact report tells the story of how our participants, our front-line staff and our whole organisation coped with a year of lockdown. It shows how resilience in crisis asks a lot of us, and how by working together as a community we can meet the challenges that face our society.
It also shows we continued to provide meaningful support to make an incredible impact across our key themes of community justice, employability and mental health and wellbeing.
The Impact Report also allows us to take stock of what we’ve achieved and what we could do better. This year, it’s more important than ever to reflect on the challenges we faced, how we responded to them and what we’ve learned.
Here are some of the highlights:
- We turned ourselves “Outside In” and went from outdoor delivery to delivering a fully digital “Be Connected” support programme in less than a month.
- We supported 621 people across our Be Connected digital services and our core personal development programmes.
- We adapted services for partial return to face-to-face delivery in preparation for recovery
- We provided over £3000 of data grants to over 200 people struggling to connect to services
- We launched Scotland’s first dedicated outdoor therapy service, at a time when Scotland’s mental health services are over-stretched
Of the people we worked with:
- 82% of participants improved employability
- 77% of participants improved resilience and confidence
- 79% of participants reduced their risk of offending
Venture Trust Head of Programme Performance and Impact Andrew Russell said:
“The past year has been challenging for us; for our participants it has brought disruption, stress and uncertainty. Our Impact Report shows how we adapted our services to meet the new needs of lockdown, what difference this made to our participants and the lessons we learned along the way”
As we recover from the effects of the pandemic hopefully this story will show how, by listening to and working with the people we aim to support, Scotland can build back better for everyone.
You can find the full impact report here: Venture Trust Impact Report 2020-21.
We also have our highlights in and easy to read one-pager here: Venture Trust Impact Report 220-21 Highlights
