The final event in our 10 Year Anniversary series took place on 13 December at the Scottish Parliament, celebrating the last decade of People Know How and launching our new strategy.
On the evening of 13 December, we gathered in the Scottish Parliament with the People Know How community, friends, family and supporters to celebrate ten years of People Know How, kindly sponsored by Daniel Johnson MSP.
A national stage
The night began with speeches from our Chair Keith Dyer, Daniel Johnson MSP, Chief Executive Glenn Liddall and Communications & Digital Manager Claudia Baldacchino, including reflections, reminiscences, and recognition of the amazing hard work put in by the People Know How team.
Over the last decade, People Know How has grown from its humble beginnings to become a charity with a team of 28 staff, two well-established core services, a canal boat, a national campaign, PhD research projects, and partnerships across the four sectors (third, academic, business and public) throughout the UK. It was fantastic to celebrate these achievements at the Scottish Parliament, symbolising the path our work has taken as we now aim to influence change across Scotland. Using our learning from delivering services in local communities across Edinburgh and the Lothians, People Know How aims to influence policy nationwide through collaborations, campaigns and research. We are also working with the Scottish Government Digital Citizen Unit, SCVO, and Good Things Foundation to deliver the Connecting Scotland Helpline.
Launching our strategy
This celebratory event also launched our new strategy. Reflecting on our history, we have reviewed and revised our mission, vision, values and strategic aims to ensure they are clear and demonstrate our people-centred approach.
Our last strategy was published as we emerged from the height of the pandemic, a time in which we transformed almost overnight to continue supporting thousands of children, young people, adults and families. As such, the strategy focused on social innovation, the tool through which we develop and run our services which had allowed us to grow and adapt so efficiently. We use the term social innovation to describe making best use of people’s experiences, thinking, and ideas in testing solutions to everyday issues that affect people and their communities.
In reviewing our strategy this year, our Board of Trustees and Leadership Team gathered to reflect on our growth, looking to pinpoint the essence of People Know How. This strategic plan is the result of these conversations, situating social innovation as an essential and unique tool in our work and ensuring we continue to place a key emphasis on the people, because we really do believe that people know how. That work, as all of our work, continues to engage with and listen to the voices of the people and communities we support, our stakeholders, partners, and supporters.
With the cost-of-living crisis following a pandemic, the need for our services remains high. Through social innovation, we continually develop and deliver our services to address this need, supporting children, young people and families in the transition to secondary school, and adults and families to improve wellbeing by increasing digital and social inclusion. But we don’t stop there. Through cross-sector collaboration, research and campaigning we aim to influence government policy and act as a catalyst for systems change and improved practice across Scotland.
Our strategic aims reflect this way of driving change. Two of our aims will look familiar, as we continue to work towards improving digital inclusion and school transitions in Scotland through our core services. Complementing these is a brand-new aim:
The new aim brings together all our work, and the spaces we create that place people at the centre where their voices can be heard. From physical spaces like the All Aboard canal boat and our own offices; to more transient spaces like those we create in schools and community groups as we deliver our services; and digital spaces like that of our helpline or hybrid events.
We’re delighted to present this document on our 10th anniversary, and look forward to seeing what the next 10 years hold as we step into 2024.