Tag: Dundee

The Circle team at the Courier Business Awards

Along Came The Circle

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CEO of The Circle and ACK, Kirsty Thomson, is to merge the two community interest companies this month as she marks seven years since founding her first organisation.

Kirsty founded Along Came Kirsty in 2012 following a successful career working for charities and universities in Dundee and Newcastle. Along Came Kirsty offered support to small, medium and national charities, social enterprises and small businesses. Along Came Kirsty became ACK in 2017.

In 7 years ACK raised over £3million and worked with over 250 organisations providing advice, consultancy, fundraising and networking opportunities. They supported organisations both in the UK and internationally, including clients in Sweden and Canada. ACK has directly employed a total of nine people as well as supporting funding applications that have created jobs for over 70 people throughout the UK.

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The Circle Cafe

The National Lottery to fund training café at The Circle

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The Circle is opening a training café at its Staffa Place premises. The café will train young people to work in the café and offer employment. We have joined forces with Barnardo’s Works, Dundee City Council and Leisure and Culture Dundee to apply to the Community Lottery Fund for funding to start-up this innovative project. Designed to support the needs of looked after young people and care leavers, the café will employ a Café Manager, Supervisor and several Café and Events Assistants. The Manager and Supervisor positions have been funded by The National Lottery Community Fund Young Start.

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The Circle is running its first Open Day!

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The Circle will be running a free Open Day on Friday 5th April from 9.30am to 8pm. We are inviting the public to meet its staff, volunteers and the different organisations that are based here. People will get the chance to find out about the variety of services that The Circle and our tenants offer and how they can get involved themselves.

The Circle houses a wide range of organisations from sole traders to national charities. Our tenants include Better:Gen, Dundee Independent Advocacy Support, Uppertunity CIC, Cornerstone and Togs SCIO. Attendees of the Open Day will get to learn about what these tenant organisations do and hear about how The Circle came to be. The public will also get to learn about the variety of regular activities available at The Circle which cater to a number of people. This includes mother and baby fitness classes, art, cooking and gardening classes for people with additional needs and an intergenerational choir.

Founder and CEO of The Circle, Kirsty Thomson, is excited for more of the local community to find out about The Circle.

“The open day will really be a chance for people to get a behind the scenes look at what’s going on at The Circle. We want to show the public not only what we and our tenants can do for them, but how they can get involved and become part of this community.

This event will also give the public the chance to tell us what they would like to get from The Circle and our tenants.”

More information about the Open Day can be found on Eventbrite: https://thecircledundee-openday.eventbrite.co.uk
social digital society

Social Digital Sprint Day

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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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Volunteer Week – Interview with our Volunteer Receptionist, Yulia

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During #volunteerweek we caught up with our newest volunteer, Yulia, who is in her second week of volunteering at The Circle as a Volunteer Receptionist.

How did you find out about The Circle?

Alison from Dundee International Women’s Centre helped me send a CV and covering letter to different organisations in Dundee.

Why do you want to volunteer?

First of all, I want to gain experience in an office environment and with accountancy in particular. I previously worked in the Payroll department of a bank in Russia. I want to learn new things and develop my skills.

I can practice speaking English at The Circle – it’s impossible at home because my husband and I speak Russian. It’s more natural to speak your mother language.

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Meet our Creative Apprentice, Jasmin!

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We are delighted to be working with Applied Arts Scotland, Creative Dundee and Open Change to offer a Creative Apprentice post. Jasmin Simpson joined us this month in her first placement of her apprenticeship which will lead to a Modern Apprentice qualification in Creative Digital Media. Jasmin will also work with Creative Dundee and Open Change in this twelve-month long post. We are glad we could partner with other forward-thinking organisations to offer an important employment opportunity so early in our own journey and put employability in the heart of what we do at The Circle.

Jasmin has got off to a busy start at The Circle with facilitating events, scheduling social media and responding to enquiries. We grabbed her in a spare moment to get to know her better.

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What is a growth mindset? We hosted an event by Jamie McBrearty to find out

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Before meeting Jamie I had heard of ‘growth mindset’. I knew it was something they were doing at schools in Dundee and it involved using the word, ‘yet’. When Jamie came to visit The Circle at the end of 2016 our CEO, Kirsty, invited him to come and do a workshop for the community to find out more. We invited our tenants, email list, local businesses and city charities and social enterprises to come along. Around 30 of us gathered yesterday so Jamie could share what it was all about and what work is being done in Dundee to implement some of the useful ideas.

Jamie is a Growth Mindset Manger employed by Leisure and Culture Dundee, working primarily in the Strathmartine Ward of Dundee but with responsibility for engaging with city-wide community groups. The Growth Mindset project started in education but is now being applied in many fields across the local authority. The national lead for Growth Mindset is Winning Scotland Foundation.

Jamie gave us an overview of the research of Carol Dweck, an expert in the field. Our mindset is a set of beliefs we have affecting how we think, feel and behave. There are two types of mindset but most people show an element of both to some degree.

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Visit The Circle in Staffa Place, Dundee

I’ve read your website. Can I come and see The Circle for myself?

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We have been bowled over by the interest from within Dundee and further afield in what we are doing at The Circle. Understandably there is a lot of public interest in this building as we are taking on what was formerly known as the Claverhouse Building, which has been a city training centre for decades with generations coming through the doors on Staffa Place for employment and skills training.

There is also a lot of curiosity about the future for the building. Creating a community hub for social enterprises, charities and businesses to find affordable space and thrive by collaborating with like-minded organisations is a novel concept, especially so due to its mixed spaces of meeting rooms, co-working and offices.

There will be plenty of opportunity to come and take part in events at The Circle whether it’s for community events, training or meetings as already we are taking bookings for 2017. However, if you just want to come and have a nosey, you can absolutely do that too! We have put 3pm on Monday afternoons aside for visitors. Our Facilities & Services Development Manager, Nicola, will be happy to show you around and share our vision for the space.

You can book via Eventbrite so we know who is coming.

We look forward to seeing you!

What makes a good workspace?

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At The Circle we are embarking on a journey that will transform a former government skills centre in Dundee to a vibrant hub of activity for charities, social enterprises, organisations and the community. We want to provide affordable workspace to people doing great work that helps the community as well as the economy.

 

With so much potential we want to make sure we get the space just right. We have refurbishment and development work to do and are working with expert local suppliers to get great service and quality of support. What is most important is that the space works for those who need it the most… So what do you think? What is most important in your workspace?

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I need a venue for a meeting in Dundee. Why would I use The Circle?

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From our combined experiences of working with businesses, social enterprises, charities and other organisations, we know that meeting space can be difficult to come by. We have all used meeting rooms that have been too expensive, lack parking, have poor facilities, are in inconvenient locations and are cramped spaces without natural light. We are sure that these conditions stop us being as productive as we can be!

The Circle is a social enterprise that has been set up to provide affordable working spaces and event facilities in Dundee. Most organisations have a limited budget for meetings and training and often, even more crucially, do not have time to waste. At The Circle we think we can address these issues with our meeting spaces.

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