House of Seisay is a charitable enterprise founded in 2022. They provide a community-led initiative that aims to support care experienced young people by providing opportunities within the Haus of Seisay Hairdressing Academy.
This initiative allows care experienced young people, who are very often dealing with a variety of complex needs when making the transition to leave the care setting, with a range of practical and therapeutic activities and life skills that will facilitate a positive outcome to enable them to move on with their lives.
Whilst the primary focus is within a salon environment, Haus of Seisay uses a holistic approach to meet the young person’s needs. This includes health and well-being activities, training, peer mentoring, volunteering opportunities and work experience. These activities are provided by trained and experienced individuals with peer support and will alleviate the social isolation and loneliness many care experienced people feel through not having the support of a family environment.
Funding allows care experienced young people to obtain the confidence and skills required to be supported within a nurturing environment, whilst reducing social isolation they may be experiencing. This is achieved through building and maintaining positive relationships, which will help them be better connected to their communities.
Although a new organisation, Haus of Seisay are embedded within their local community and considers itself to be a cohesive provision, engaging with a range of relevant partners and agencies across all sectors.
Under the Trees is an outdoor learning charity based in Falkirk. They work with all age groups, backgrounds, and abilities within the community, providing them with the opportunities to come outdoors, engage with our natural world and connect with each other.
They provide a wide range of activities including:
- Forest School
- Environmental Education
- Training
- Volunteering
- Mental Health and Wellbeing Groups
- Low-pressure Cycling and Cooking
- Family and Public Events
- Holiday Clubs
With this grant, Under The Trees are going to purchase wildlife cameras to allow local schools and groups to learn and discover more about wildlife on their doorstep.
To learn more about Under The Trees, visit their website here: https://www.underthetrees.co.uk/
We are pleased to have won the Top Campaign of 2022, chilled/ready meal category, in The Grocer.
The Star of our advert, Mr Wilson is happily cleaning his car when a mud-covered football flies over the fence he shares with his neighbour, dirtying the car he has spent so long polishing. The ‘Ping’ of the microwave then takes us to a calm Mr Wilson who is enjoying his favourite McIntosh dish in no time.
This TV Advert was made with the consumers in mind. We found that consumers were more likely to grab a ready meal when they are short on time. ‘When Life Takes the Ping’ shows that McIntosh is always there when things don’t go to plan.
You can read the full article here https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/marketing/top-campaigns-2022-the-most-influential-adverts-in-food-and-drink/674656.article
You might have seen our ‘When Life Takes the Ping’ campaign running on TV over the last few months but If you haven’t, you can watch it here.
Courage Together exists to provide BAME community funding to families who have no support. They help families cover the basic necessities such as food as well as practical support by providing small emergency grants. They also run a free weekly class aimed at special needs children from the BAME community where they engage them in different activities. Funding is particularly useful for helping to purchase supplies and toys for the children to use during the class.
They consist of a group of wonderful volunteers and the charity runs solely on donations.
“We rely entirely on donations and with the economic situation, families, (especially those from the BAME community who we support ) are feeling the impact and so are not able to donate thereby limiting the activities we can do.
We are run entirely by volunteers and this much needed and generous grant will allow us to buy sensory toys and equipment for our special needs children and materials for arts and crafts which will keep the children stimulated. We will also be able to provide some fruit for the kids when they come.
Without this generous grant we could not provide the level of interaction and education for these most vulnerable children as we’d like. We are very grateful to you for your support and belief in our work.” (Sue Cook, Courage Together)
To learn more about the charity or donate, visit their website here: https://www.couragetogether.org
The Darkwood Crew are a constituted group of local volunteers on a mission to help Ferguslie (Paisley) flourish. Their 5 key areas of focus are food insecurity, fuel poverty, isolation & loneliness, mental health positivity and the environment. Successful initiatives include the regeneration and maintenance of the local village green, a daily 26-mile surplus food run, a weekly community meal & community market, social isolation bingo bus and an electrical appliance recycling initiative.
“Darkwood Crew’s work is underpinned by a belief that a greener more sustainable planet starts with greener more sustainable communities. Throughout the pandemic local people have been empowered to identify sustainable solutions to often historical challenges including food insecurity, fuel poverty, isolation & loneliness and mental health positivity. Our recent grant award will further our #ReduceReuseRecycleFerguslie initiative helping climate change relevant to local need whilst meeting those needs in a dignified and sustainable way.” (Terry McTernan, Darkwood Crew)
Rookie Rockstars was founded in 2015 with the mission to increase children’s self confidence and self-esteem, while simultaneously tackling a pertinent issue, anti-bullying through the medium of music. The organisation exists to provide affordable music tuition to individuals in the community, to educate against bullying and to increase the accessibility and availability of mental health care in their local community.
“The McInvest funding grant helped to support the cost of counselling, enabling us to offer an additional 15 hours of free mental health counselling to the young people of Central Scotland.” (Jackie Cullen, Rookie Rockstars)
We are extremely excited to be a sponsor of the Giraffe About Town Trail, a unique art trail taking place across the streets of Edinburgh in summer 2022. The trail invites local businesses and organisations to sponsor a giraffe sculpture which will then be decorated by Wild in Art, the creative producers behind the hugely successful 2019 Oor Wullie’s Bucket Trail.
There will be a total of 40 uniquely decorated giraffe sculptures dotted around the city for local people and visitors to explore and admire. After a tough couple of years, it will be great to see businesses and local artists collaborating and injecting some life and colour into the streets of Edinburgh. – we can’t wait to meet our bonnie McIntosh giraffe.
The trail sets out to raise funds for Edinburgh Zoo and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland both of which carry out critical research and care for endangered species within Scotland and further afield. The sculptures themselves are designed in honour of the five Nubian giraffes which arrived at Edinburgh Zoo earlier this year.
We are pleased to be able to support the works of these organisations and would highly encourage people to go and meet the remarkable giraffes at the zoo and discover their colourful correspondents on the trail!
See the Giraffe About Town official website to find out more: http://giraffeabouttown.org.uk
Introducing our Latest TV Advert…
Ever had a moment in the day when life feels like it’s really taking the ‘p’? If you have, your not alone.
We are delighted to bring you our brand new TV advert ‘When Life Takes the Ping!’ featuring Mr Wilson, a retiree who takes great pride in his car. His happy afternoon car washing is ruined by a mud-splattered football flying in from the neighbour’s garden. In the end, the microwave ‘ping’ of his McIntosh meal soothes his nerves and he gets his revenge on that pesky football!
The moral of the story? When life takes the PING! sometimes all you need is your favourite McIntosh meal!
Mr Wilson and his car are first in our coming series of hilarious and relatable PING! moments. Stay tuned for more adverts coming soon.
Elgin Youth Development Group was established in 1998 to provide young people a safe space to meet and socialise without the pressures of drugs and alcohol. The Group aims to positively influence young people to become active and valued members of their community through a full range of free universal youth work services ranging from after-school and holiday clubs to cooking and fitness classes. The Group also offers one-to-one sessions which focus on mental wellbeing.
The Group operates in the Moray and is inclusive of all young people in the area including those most vulnerable and those living in challenging circumstances. By remaining open to all, the Group is able to reach more young people in need. Thanks to the Elgin Youth Development Group, young people have improved mental health, confidence and resilience by participating in their activities, targeted work and one-to-one sessions.
With the help of the McInvest Community Grant Award, the Elgin Youth Development Group can ensure that young people in Moray have equal access to opportunities for development, learning and activities throughout the October holidays. The Award will be used specifically fund activities will help to develop resilience, confidence and re-connect after a year of social isolation. We look forward to seeing the exciting activities they have planned!
Diamonds in the Community are a community-led charity working in Airdrie and the surrounding areas. The charity focuses on the benefits that sport and physical activity can provide to the health and wellbeing of the community. They aim to make all sports accessible to everyone in the community irrespective of gender, ability, finance, skills or health. Sporting Memories Group is one of the charity’s most popular projects designed to support the elderly, people suffering from dementia and those who live alone.
The sessions are brought to life by volunteers who organise trips, discuss past football teams and matches and work with images and memorabilia to stimulate memories. Sporting Memories Group is free to attend and runs for the traditional duration of a 90-minute football match. In true football spirit, all attendees receive a complimentary pie and Bovril, just as you would at the real match!
We are delighted to provide the Sporting Memories Group with our May McInvest Award. With the help of McInvest, Sporting Memories Group plan to increase the regularity of the sessions and also incorporate other sports in order to further enhance inclusivity. Additionally, the Grant Award will help to provide materials and refreshments throughout the sessions for the members to enjoy.
Diamonds in the Community are not only enhancing the lives of those in need of support but also of their volunteers. We are inspired by their work and look forward to seeing the great things that they will do in the upcoming months!