The Dunfermline Advocacy Initiative (DAI) was set up in 1992 when residents with learning disabilities at a long-stay hospital in West Fife were being moved into the community. There was concern that they might not be given the chance to voice their feelings or build connections in the communities that would become their new home.
So, an advocacy service was set up, recruiting ordinary people in the community to act as advocates. It now supports approximately 75 people with learning disabilities across West Fife.
Paul (not his real name) was referred to DAI by his community nurse about four years ago, where he was matched with a citizen advocate. “He came with me when I went to my doctor and explained what my doctor wanted to say, which made it easier for me to understand. He gave me his mobile number and said if I was fed up, bored or angry, I could just phone him. I was happy I could do that. He was an advocate to start with but over time became my friend.”
Rachel Annand joined the organisation in 1999 as a development worker and is now co-ordinator (equivalent to the role of chief executive). The biggest – and most talked about – issue for the charity during the Pilotlight process was funding and its sustainability. DAI has a number of funding streams, including statutory funding and grants, but in the current economic crisis they were eager to broaden them.
“We had looked at other ways of raising money before, such as corporate sponsorship, but we hadn’t done anything about it. As one Pilotlighter said, ‘You’ve got the bus, you just need the petrol’,” says Rachel.
“The Pilotlight process gave us the confidence to try new things. For example, we got involved with a local branch of Starbucks and they made us their Christmas charity. Donations raised £450 but it also raised awareness of us in the local community. It was about testing different ways of doing things.”
As well as helping put together a strategic plan, the Pilotlighters were also the catalyst for two major changes at DAI before it graduated from the process in January 2012: recruiting a strategic implementation officer on a one-year contract to help Rachel take the strategic plan forward; and setting up a small fundraising group to raise £60,000 using new techniques, such as online fundraising.
“It has left us in a much better place and has cemented all our working relationships so that we are working well together and you can see a better pace of work, which is great,” says Rachel.
“I would definitely recommend it. You get out of it what you put in and we put a lot in, as did the Pilotlight team. It gave us the courage to say we would like to go for five-year funding rather than three years, and we were successful with a bid to the Big Lottery Fund as a result. I’m thrilled we have been through the process and I think we will see a really big difference as a result of working with Pilotlight.”
Rachel’s Pilotlighter mentors came from HBOS and Scottish Water and there were two individual members.