Karen Docwra works in the Fundraising and Communications Team at Waverley Care – a Mansfield Place-based organisation which helps people (and their partners/family) across Scotland living with the blood-borne viruses Hepatitis C and HIV. Spurtle visited to find out more.
It is now two years since Waverley Care transferred to a warren of offices in Broughton from the Solas centre in Abbeymount, but in that time they have successfully established a profile and firm roots in this part of the city. Most recently, they attracted attention through the indefatiguable bicycling, running, tablet-vending and comedy-gig-organisational talents of staff member Lynne Williamson which we covered in April (Breaking news 20.4.11).
The charity goes back a lot longer, though. It was established in 1989, when it built and began running a purpose-built, 8-bed hospice called Milestone House in Oxgangs. Although infection rates have levelled off in recent years (largely thanks to a marked reduction in intravenous drug use) and palliative care has given way to respite care (thanks to massive advances in treatment), Waverley's 50 or so staff still help about 500 'service users' per annum.
Their activities now span: advocacy and information; arts projects; befriending/buddying; complementary therapies; counselling; health promotion, outreach and support; skills and employment; spiritual and pastoral care.
[img_assist|nid=1772|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=200]The 2009 decision to relocate in Broughton – Edinburgh's LGBT heart – was coincidental, says Docwra, but has proved really useful. An informed and well-disposed local population is an obvious boon, as are professional contacts at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations over the road in the Mansfield Traquair Centre. Waverley Care has also forged links with Drummond Community High School, where it participates in the Business Advisory Group as a way to help and spread understanding about work in the third sector, and to produce 'Confident Leavers' ready to take on the wider world after secondary education.
Staff also operate out of bases in Inverness, Glasgow and Lanarkshire; the latter two locations in part reflecting dispersal centres for international asylum seekers in Scotland.
Working with African communities in Scotland is an important component of the charity's work. To some extent, this builds on well-established governmental links to Malawi. To some extent it is a response to the still high levels of new HIV infection in Sub-Saharan Africa. Waverley Care’s service users from that part of the world often face a particularly difficult mix of problems:
- the trauma of political persecution
- racial prejudice from host communities
- the uncertainty of coping with medical problems in a strange land
- discrimination from other Africans who continue to confuse HIV infection with moral fault.
Hence, in addition to supporting the work of other agencies on the ground and so preventing infection in the home country, a degree of the organisation's work in this field also entails education and information, not least with African faith leaders in Scotland.
Waverley Care is, says Docwra, something of a 'Cinderella charity'. In addition to local-authority funding, it needs to raise approximately £380K per year to maintain current service levels. The Big Lottery, the BBC's Children in Need, and the Sainsbury family's Monument Trust are regular, generous supporters, but – but like many of the people it supports – the charity's fundraising efforts at grass-roots level often face ignorance, indifference and discrimination among the general public.
[img_assist|nid=1773|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=195|height=200]Crucial then, are the strong and supportive links it has forged with the Pleasance Theatre. Here during the Fringe, they are encouraged to 'bucket shake' among the generous and open-minded cliente, an activity which alone raises over £27K each summer. An annual celebrity comedy gala at the Festival Theatre, and stand-up gigs at the New Town Bar, add further to the accelerated and much-needed inflow of funds.
However, at a time of national economic cutbacks, more and more charities are chasing limited sources of funds with ever increasing determination and professionalism. It is this widespread squeeze which explains the startling recent prominence of charity staff's fundraising activities in the Press and social media. Lives and livelihoods are on the line.
Docwra, however, remains optimistic. After 20 years working for the organisation, she still enjoys shaping new responses to a dynamic set of problems, and the Fundraising Team is currently honing social-media and donations-by-mobile initiatives for later in the year.
Waverley Care is a genuinely worthwhile cause which Spurtle has no doubt locals will continue to dig deep for over the coming months.
For more information, Tel: 0131 556 9710; or visit www.waverleycare.org.
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