Club Meeting

President John read a very warm letter of thanks from the father of our Euroscola candidate on how valuable the experience had been. He thanked those who had been at the Past Presidents’ dinner which had been a "jolly" event and reminded members of the upcoming Fellowship Dinner on 17^th March at the Annapurna Gurkha restaurant. Places are still available.

Continuing the food theme, PP Brain Munro made a plea to members to send contributions for the fundraising recipe book he is compiling. On a different tack, SVP Mark asked volunteers for help shifting several tons of compost which has just been delivered to Balwearie HS DAS for a new garden that’s being created there.

This week’s speaker was Marc Forrester of Kirkcaldy YMCA who gave a fascinating insight into the Plusone mentoring project which he manages. It brings together volunteers from the community and trains them to mentor young people who are currently facing challenges and are on the cusp of the criminal justice system. Young people between the ages of 8 and 14 can be referred and if they are accepted the project will then get their commitment to take part.

Kirkcaldy was one of three areas in Scotland who piloted the scheme in 2009. Since then, and with funding from the Big Lottery, it has developed to cover a broader area of the Fife and has proved itself very effective, with significant improvement of behaviours and attitude in 86% of the young people involved after 6 months and a 91% reduction in recurring offences. In 2013-14, Plusone trained 22 new volunteer mentors and 18 continued from the previous year, enabling 63 young people to receive a level of mentoring in that period. Marc finished with a quote from actor Kevin Spacey which he feels captures some of the motivation for volunteering as a mentor - "I feel it’s a responsibility of anyone who breaks through a certain ceiling...to send the elevator back down and give others a helpful lift".

PP Les Soper gave a warm vote of thanks on behalf of the club. The response from members and number of questions was testament to how interesting everyone had found Marc’s talk. The meeting closed at 2.00pm