Our inventive and tireless Tayside centre has won a major work and enterprise honour.

Rathbone Dundee’s bold bid to enable young people to find employment topped the polls at the city’s Partnership and Community Awards supported by local daily newspaper, The Evening Telegraph.

Graham Thompson, Hazel Nixon-Winter, Natalie Marr, Norma Taylor and Sandra Ogg

Now in their fifth year, the Awards recognise groups who have made a difference to peoples’ lives, shown leadership, generated new ideas and opportunities and made Dundee a more inclusive place to live in. There are seven categories and Rathbone was saluted for stimulating economic growth in the community – by providing a service that brings jobs and hope to young people.

Situated at Staffa Place in the heart of the city, Rathbone Dundee runs the Get Ready for Work programme which arms trainees with all the life, vocational and personal skills and experience they need to find full employment. The centre has superb links with local businesses and is able to offer placements in the caring professions, warehousing, hairdressing, tyre and exhaust fitting, panel beating and spray painting, retail and administration.

Rathbone Dundee is no stranger to success. Last spring, former learner Kyle Watson was honoured by Aileen Campbell MSP at the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood. A placement at a local pet shop put Kyle back on track after he’d endured a fruitless search for employment. Now working full-time amongst the snakes, spiders and other exotic animals at the Angus Pet Emporium, Kyle is typical of the many teenagers our base in Tayside has transformed.

Photograph courtesy and copyright of The Evening Telegraph Dundee Scotland.