Working Rite and Spartans Community Foundation: New Partnership Strengthens Support for Young People in North Edinburgh

Debbi McCulloch, CEO of Spartans Community Foundation & Graham Robertson, CEO of Working Rite

A new partnership has been formed to strengthen the support for young people leaving school in North Edinburgh. The collaboration between Working Rite and Spartans Community Foundation will provide opportunities to young people in Pilton and the surrounding areas and see them given the structure and support to start their working lives.

Spartans Community Foundation and Working Rite bring decades of experience of supporting young people to this partnership. Spartans Community Foundation was established in 2006 and since then it has been harnessing the power of people and sport to build and deliver innovative education, health and wellbeing and youth work programmes that deliver meaningful and positive impact for their community. Working Rite was founded in 2008 and has been working with young people to create positive choices for what comes next after school. They do so by building connections with employers, schools and local communities to create long-term change through working.

The partnership will focus on supporting young people who are ready to take their next steps after school. It will see the young people guided through Spartans Community Foundation’s education programmes with the opportunity to pursue a positive destination via Working Rite’s Chances programme. Chances helps young people learn working skills and life skills through work placements, volunteering and vocational training. The combination and strength of this collaborative delivery has the potential to make long-lasting positive change for young people in North Edinburgh.

Graham Robertson, Working Rite CEO said: " Working Rite’s vital work to provide change that works for young people is built on partnering with local community led organisations. This partnership with Spartans Community Foundation will see us bring the best of both organisations together and help bridge the gap between education and the world of work. Being led by and supporting the needs of young people across North Edinburgh is at the heart of this partnership. I can’t wait to see the positive impact created.”

Debbi McCulloch, Spartans Community Foundation CEO said: “Spartans Community Foundation are thrilled to launch this new partnership with Working Rite as we believe it will reinforce our commitment to the young people of North Edinburgh. We are constantly listening to our community in order to deliver provision that will bring about real and meaningful impact.  We are extremely fortunate to have the support of dynamic funders who trust us to realise a significant return on their investment, and are proud to be helping young people discover their strengths and re-imagine their futures.”

The project is supported and made possible by the KPE4 Charitable Trust whose mission it is “to invest in the lives of young people, empowering them to meet their potential".

#hereforgood #changethatworks

To find out more about Working Rite and Spartans Community Foundation you can visit their websites here:

www.workingrite.co.uk

https://www.spartanscf.com/

Award Win for our partnership with Aberdeen Group Charitable Foundation

Working Rite are excited to announce we have won an award at the Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) awards ceremony in Edinburgh last night for our Corporate Partnership with the Aberdeen Group Charitable Foundation. Our award win came in the very competitive Skills and Inclusion category and recognises the importance of the impact on our young people who access our Choices school age programme across Scotland. The award also recognises the depth of our wider partnership with the Aberdeen Group who have support transformational change on key strategic projects across Working Rite.

Our CEO Graham Robertson said:

“We are extremely proud to win this award in partnership with the Aberdeen Group Charitable Foundation. Our Choices programme helps young people all over Scotland for whom the traditional school model isn’t working and provides an alternative pathway for them to progress into working environments.

We are hugely grateful for the ongoing and unwavering support from the sustainability team and wider colleagues from the Aberdeen Group. Without this kind of partnership, it would be impossible for charities like ours to carry out the amazing work we do.

I’m equally proud of all our team at Working Rite who go above and beyond every day to create change that works for our young people.”

Working Rite Launch New Strategy

Working Rite are excited to share our new strategy which will see us grow the depth of our impact for young people aged 15-25 across Scotland. With over 17 years’ experience of creating change that works, this new strategy allows us to demonstrate the evolution of why we exist, our story and model, and our current strategic objectives which are:

·       Reach young people across Scotland where we are needed most. 

·       Grow the depth of our intervention and impact. 

·       Create sustained change that works for our young people. 

Our CEO Graham Robertson said:  

“We are delighted to launch Working Rite’s new strategy. Supporting young people remains our number one focus. To help with that we have launched our new brand, messaging, story and model.  

Who we are, and the great work we do, remains the same.  

Growing the depth of our impact across Scotland is at the heart of all we do. The launch of our new strategy allows us to share our plans to continue to create change that works for all our young people.” 

You can read all about it in our Working Rite Strategic Overview pack below. (published October 2025)

https://www.workingrite.co.uk/s/Working-Rite-Strategic-Overview.pdf

Working Rite Welcomes New Chair and Trustees to our Board

Working Rite are delighted to welcome Keith Cowan as the new Chair of our Board of Trustees. Keith brings a wealth of experience from over 20 years of senior roles in financial services across M&G, Royal London and AEGON. He is excited to get started in his new role.

“I am proud and delighted to be stepping into the role of Chair at Working Rite. They do incredible work across Scotland, giving young people the chance to thrive, grow, and fulfil their potential. Their belief in opportunity for every young person is something I care deeply about. I am looking forward to working with the brilliant team and helping the organisation go from strength to strength.”

Keith replaces our outgoing Chair Karina Good who is stepping down as her tenure comes to an end after 7 years on our board. Karina has supported Working Rite through significant change and growth during her time as Chair.

“Being Chair of this charity has been a deeply fulfilling chapter in my life. It’s hard to put into words just how much the experience has meant to me, the people, the purpose, and the belief that real change is possible when we invest in young people with care and consistency. I’m so proud of what we’ve built together, a stronger charity, a clearer voice, and above all, more opportunities for young people to find the choices, chances and connections they deserve. I’ve been constantly inspired by the team, the trustees, and the incredible young people at the heart of it all.

As I step down and hand over the role of Chair, I do so with huge gratitude and total confidence in what comes next. Keith Cowan is not only a brilliant leader, he’s deeply values-driven and passionate about our mission. I couldn’t imagine a better person to take the charity forward. I’ll be cheering from the sidelines every step of the way.”

Further transitions on our board see our Vice Chair Maggie McGeary and two of our trustees Euan Chisholm and Sara Cook stepping down after serving their tenures. Bill Buchan (former Head of Delivery at Phoenix Group) will step into the Vice Chair role, with Laura Devine (Project Manager at Baillie Gifford) and Julia McIntyre (Brand and Campaign Manager at CalMac Ferries) also joining to add a diversity of skills to our new look board.

Graham Robertson, CEO of Working Rite said,

“Firstly, I want to say a massive thank you to Karina as our outgoing Chair, she has been a huge support to me in my first 18months in role. Also, thank you to all our outgoing trustees Maggie, Euan and Sara for their dedication to the Working Rite cause over the years in their voluntary roles.

We are delighted to add such diverse and experienced talent to our new look board, and I can’t wait to get to know Keith, Bill, Julia and Laura more in the coming months. We are at an exciting point of our growth journey with Working Rite and are keen to take the organisation to new heights and continue to create change the works for our young people under the guidance of our new board.”

New website, new look, new words: Same focus on helping young people create long-term change through working.

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Supporting young people is our number one focus. And we want to make sure it’s as easy as possible for young people, for parents, for carers, for employers and for mentors to find us and find out more about us.

To help with that we’ve updated our website, the names of our programmes and how we describe Working Rite.

Who we are, and the great work we do, remains the same. We’ve just made it clearer and simpler for the different people we help to find out more about us.

As part of the update, we are running refresher sessions with all of our audiences, to let people know more about the work we are doing.

If you’d like to join one or find out more, select one of the sessions below that you best.

We'd love to see you there.

Thursday, 24th July – 9am –

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1431317532269?aff=oddtdtcreator

 Wednesday, 30th July – 12:30pm

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1431474892939?aff=oddtdtcreator

 Tuesday, 12th August – 4:30pm

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1431504310929?aff=oddtdtcreator