YOU Can Cook is a Peebles based social enterprise legally constituted as a community interest company.

Unlike other similar organisations we have an “Asset Lock” clause in its constitution. All profits are ploughed back into the community each year.

The aim of the organisation is to encourage and empower local communities to make informed choices about their food and health. This meant being flexible, as an organisation to adapt our services to suit community needs and aspirations all over Scotland.

WE are grateful to “Voluntary Action Fund” for a grant that will allow us to setup a Volunteering Scheme within the organization by March 2016. We currently have no volunteers, apart from the Board and Steering Group working and supporting us.

This grant gives us the opportunity to setup processes and policies to train eligible volunteers to gain invaluable experience from us and in return contribute their own knowledge and expertise in developing and supporting the organisation.

Volunteer Centre Borders will provide all the professional support required to help us attract and retain volunteer’s especially young people and individuals from disadvantaged communities in the area. This project will identify individuals that will help and support us in achieving our goals and objectives in the various projects we deliver locally and nationally.

We will also be linking with Curriculum of Excellence, which will provide young participants the opportunity to gain new skills. Volunteer’s lives can be enriched with learning multiple skills that are transferable to any work place or at home.

Older people and adults will also gain life skills that will inspire and motivate them to make a positive contribution to the community they live in. Individuals will be given the opportunity to work with us and through mutual learning; help the organisation develop a new strategy to achieve its long term goals and objectives. Volunteers will have two options to choose from i.e. providing support to community cooks that deliver cookery programmes or supporting staff that deliver the growing project in Innerleithen.

Volunteers will gain valuable knowledge, experience and transferable skills throughout the duration of the project. We live in a rural area and real opportunities are very rare and far between for the targeted group. This project will be in their community and this will help boost their confidence and inspire all volunteers to contribute positively to the community.

They will be able to use their creativity and become responsible citizens and successful learners with young people gaining youth awards as a result of successful participation in the project. The project will also instill work ethics and will develop communication and other work related skills for any future employment. The young volunteers will be role models for their peers to embrace volunteering as a route to gaining additional skills for the work place.

Through experience we have learnt that any projects success is determined by allowing local communities to be involved in the shaping, developing and running of the project and this is something the community will benefit from because of their involvement from the very onset of the project.

Happy Volunteering!

Bosco Santimano Executive Director