HIGHLAND FACILITATOR TEAM

The Highland Facilitator Team was established a little over 3 years and in the intervening time has transformed itself from a simple friends and family group into an emerging Charity, with quantifiable evidence of success in engaging, enabling and empowering young people, those with disabilities and individuals of all ages and experiences, in order that they in turn can determine a positive difference on behalf of their community, environment and local wildlife.

However, I doubt that many if any of you have heard of us as we keep a low profile , simply getting on with things. I therefore understand that you may feel that these are wild claims from an organisation which has no resources, no employees and no centre of operations. Yet we stand by any and all statements made, up to and including the fact that from nothing and with nothing, we have developed economically sustainable projects with the capacity to cascade educational, vocational and employment opportunities to countless individuals across the Highlands.

Through the use of bartering and solid grass roots endeavour we have secured partnerships with organisations, groups, registered charities and community groups whereby our insight, out of the box approach to finding inspirational approaches and solutions to local problems and issues has ensured our place at the centre of multiple developments. One of which is said to not only have the potential to be the biggest Community Capacity Project in Scotland but may well be of Global Importance.

We feel that we have served a three year apprenticeship, and fully understand the requirements of our region in terms of our environmental and community interest in it.

Our successes are many, as can be testified by the array of accolades, certificates and awards we have accumulated in such a relatively short period of time; they represent recognition and acknowledgement of a team who understood the worth of every penny spent, and who refuse to compromise our aims and objectives just because the going is sometimes hard.

Whether you have heard of us or not one thing we are sure of is the fact that there are not many teams such as ours operating in the Highlands, who have been called a “credit to young people on a global scale”. Dr Jane Goodall (2010) or “representative of whole community endeavour” Sir John Lister Kaye (2012)

Now some of you will be sitting there thinking that’s all well and good but what is it, exactly, that you do? And it is a fair question although a little more complicated than it seems as we are many things to many people, depending on their individual need, the projects we have identified and the work required to undertake them.

However we have a number of clearly defined areas of operation

Grass Roots Environmental Endeavour....underpinning a sense of community responsibility through work considered to be of public benefit such as tidying community gardens, providing water points during charity events, undertaking beach cleanings, hosting public Awareness Days, carrying out workshops in Schools, Colleges, Special Interest Groups etc.

Working with individuals with Autism and Learning Difficulties to encourage the development of citizenship and increase feelings of self worth; this is a major part of our work as we are also developing a 4 – 6 yr post school programme which allows them time to develop the skills required to lead productive, fulfilling lives. We do this by combining environmental, sporting and science based activities which we hope in turn will lead to the development of Social Enterprises and subsequent employment opportunities.

By identifying, developing, implementing and undertaking large environmental projects of true meaning and worth we are providing individuals across the Highlands an array of opportunities to engage in Citizen Science activities which contribute to real scientific surveys and research.Three main projects based in this area are a) Bio diversity Project at Highland Wildlife Parkb) Tree Regeneration at Allt a' Mharcaidh (pronounced 'Alt a Varcay')c) Developing Project with Cairngorm National Park regarding their forthcoming Nature Plan.

We are also involved in a number of local projects such as that in Nairn, whereby we are creating a Garden Book for individuals with Learning Difficulties which acknowledges their difficulties but which does not treat them like children.

This project (based in one of Nairn’s allotment areas) will run in conjunction with our development of a Social Enterprise whereby some of societies more vulnerable individuals will be encouraged to associate plant growth and the production of natural products such as soap and toothpaste.

We are a multi generational team who believe that all have equal worth.

We are a registered charity with a specific interest in those with Autism and Learning difficulties

These are but some of the many projects we have available for individuals to get involved in

If you would like to volunteer, learn more about us and/or our projects please visit our web site

www.highlandft.org.ukOr contact us athighlandft@yahoo.co.uk