'The Rock Trust', Allison Calder

President Peter gave a warm welcome to Allison Calder who is Head of Services with the Rock Trust based in Albany Street, Edinburgh. She is a qualified social worker and manager who has worked in the voluntary sector for over 20 years. She has worked in a variety of settings including education and health and for the past 13 years she has worked with the Rock Trust in Edinburgh.

With the aid of slides Allison explained that the Rock Trust currently employs 35 staff and its key mission is to prevent youth homelessness and to support young people to build better futures ("because every young person has potential"). She explained that her organisation's scope of work is 16 to 25 year olds who are deemed homeless, this being defined as those, both male and female, who are sofa surfing with friends, sleeping rough in unsafe accommodation and those in very basic B&Bs and hostels. Allison put the issue in context by explaining that in year 2014/15 some 7,487 young persons in Scotland and 1,273 young persons in Edinburgh were deemed homeless. The common causes of homelessness include family breakdown, poverty, poor mental health, trauma and drug and alcohol dependency and that it can give rise to poor health, addiction, susceptibility to crime and social isolation.

Allison explained that the Rock Trust provides advice and one-to-one support at its Underground drop-in-centre and arranges group programmes, involving sport, gardening and cooking etc, and, importantly, provides opportunities for training and mediation to build positive relationships. The Trust also provides a respite place to stay in supported housing providing shared or single safe accommodation. The fact that the Trust provided support to over 400 young people last year, providing direct accommodation to 77 persons and housing support to a further 72 persons is a clear indicator of its success. Some 73% of those supported entered training or employment, many reporting positive long term outcomes.

In ending her talk Allison explained how the Rock trust is funded through contracts with Local Authorities, various grants and sponsorships and through community fundraising projects like the well publicised Edinburgh 'Sleep Out Challenge' and the Edinburgh Marathon.

Following a number of interesting questions Ron Maclachlan thanked Allison for her excellent talk.