
Our Social Impact Report is here!
Last Wednesday, on the 4 year anniversary of the founding of The Circle, and one year on from the last, we released our Social Impact report for 2019/20.
Continue readingLast Wednesday, on the 4 year anniversary of the founding of The Circle, and one year on from the last, we released our Social Impact report for 2019/20.
Continue readingHere at The Circle we’ve been busy delivering projects, working with the community and looking to the future. We’ve also got a brand new monthly newsletter up and running where we share all our good news from the month prior and all the opportunities and events for the months ahead.
Continue readingIn its recent history, Dundee has seen a transformation of its waterfront, the opening of V&A Dundee, a renovation of its railway station, the attracting of major hotel chains and the award of UNESCO City of Design. The city is making big strides in building on its cultural reputation and bring visitors from across the world. The impact of that work is to be applauded.
While it gives many in the city a boost and we consider how to make the most of the opportunities this shift brings, we cannot ignore the other story playing out in a tale of two cities.
Continue readingAre you a new founder of a business that cares about more than just the bottom line?
Are you seeking a career change to 3rd sector?
Are you jumping in at the deep end as a new CEO and need the support to make an impact?
Are you a current trustee or looking to join a board of trustees?
Continue readingA few weeks ago we had volunteers from GSK visit our building and help us out by painting one of our training room spaces.
GSK are an organisation that develop and manufacture innovative pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines and consumer health products. They aim to bring differentiated, high-quality and needed healthcare products to as many people as possible, with their 3 global businesses, scientific and technical know-how and talented people.
Continue readingThe Circle launches training programme in partnership with Caledonia Housing Association
The Circle has worked with charity Caledonia Housing Association to run a training programme for their home help service staff. The aim of this initiative is to empower the staff to become more enterprising in order to help make the changes that they would like to see made to the current home help services.
The Circle has worked closely with Caledonia Housing Association’s Home Help Coordinator, Maureen Menzies, and Head of Support Services, Gill Donoghue, to develop the course. The training sessions will cover a range of topics including growth mindset, business models and pricing. The outcome of the training will be that the staff who attend will develop a more enterprising mindset and work together to create a pitch on the changes think should be made to the current home help service. They will then deliver their pitch to the CEO and the Board of Caledonia Housing Association.
Continue readingI am one of two new members of The Circle having joined in May 2019. My role is Café Supervisor. I will be working closely with the other new member Steven who is Café Manager.
I had previously worked in The Circle’s building at Staffa place for one of the many tenants based here, The Food Train which is a food delivery service for the elderly. During my time here with The Food Train, although I didn’t work directly with The Circle team, I learned more about what The Circle was about and how much they help better the community and continue to do so.
Continue readingI am originally from Dundee but have been working down south for the past 15 years. I’ve been back here now for the past 4 years. The last position I was working in was at The Deaf Hub as a Catering Manager, training and supporting people with employment challenges, and working along-side the deaf community.
I have been working in the third sector and with social enterprises for about 5 years now. I decided to get into charity work after I stopped working in busy restaurants, due to a family tragedy. I started volunteering with young people in the scouts, and then with people with disabilities with Mencap, which I really enjoyed, despite being out of my comfort zone.
Continue readingThe Circle will be launching our 2 year Social Impact Report on Thursday 6th December from 4pm until 6pm.
The report will showcase the impact The Circle has had on our tenants, the local community and social entrepreneurs. This event will be the public and free to attend at our premises on Staffa Place.
The report will be available to view and download on The Circle website from 4pm on Thursday 6th December.
Kirsty Thomson Founder and CEO is delighted with the impact with the impact that The Circle has made just two years after launching.
“I am looking forward to celebrating the hard work that myself and The Circle team have put in since our launch. We have been operating for just over two years and are very proud tosee the difference that The Circle is making to individuals and organisations across the city.
This event will also give us the chance to thank everyone who has supported us in this time including ourtenants, board members, volunteers and the local community.”
In October the University of Dundee‘s Social Digital Society ran the Social Digital Sprint Day. The Social Digital Sprint day is a day of design, fun and problem solving. It involves participants being split up into teams and working on producing a creative solution to the brief set within the space of a few hours. This day encourages people from different backgrounds in different years to all come together over a common goal to produce a coherent piece of work.
The Circle was asked to present a brief for the teams to come up with ideas for in order to win the competition. This was the brief that the teams were presented with:
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