The Foundation is moving through an exciting period – our new strategy is being launched later this year with a new name and brand as well as a range of grant programmes and partnerships being developed further. These are all contributing to our continued efforts to making a positive difference to the lives of individuals and communities in Scotland.
Within the Foundation, we’ve also seen new activities over the last 12-18 months to support our growing staff team and our work commitments, including the creation of our People Engaging and Changing Health group. This sub-group helps to inform, support and promote staff well-being as well as our Healthy Working Lives aspirations, and the group has organised a monthly programme to support the staff team in realising this ambition.
One issue the group raised is how difficult it is for us to all get together as a team, with everyone having such busy schedules and a third of us not being office-based. Whenever we do get to have a team catch-up, they always come with a fresh boost of morale and a revitalised sense of team-spirit. So, when we heard about Eden Project Communities #TheBigLunch, an initiative designed to bring people together to celebrate community, commonality and connections, everyone at the Foundation couldn’t wait to participate.
Holding a Big Lunch gave us an opportunity to bring the whole staff team together in a fun and light-hearted way, sharing a picnic followed by our very own ‘school sports day’. Unfortunately, the constant rain on the day prevented us from having our Big Lunch outside, but thankfully Gorgie Parish Church was on hand to kindly lend us the use of their large hall, where we could continue the festivities while remaining comfortable and dry!
With so much happening across our working lives, having the opportunity to spend some time as a whole team, to eat together and participate in some fun (and somewhat competitive) games was a valuable experience. It helped us all reconnect, get to know each other a little better, and was a chance for new members of the team to introduce themselves to those they hadn’t yet met.
We’re all going to keep thinking up new things we can do together, but we would like to say a big thank you to Eden Communities for inspiring our latest staff day, and we will definitely be participating in the Big Lunch in 2018!
