The Scran Van Tour

The Pitch

Problem statement

Research shows that areas of high deprivation have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and its effect on casual employment, compounding existing issues relating to food insecurity and poverty more generally. Moreover, grassroots community organisations in North Edinburgh have been mostly closed or offering digital-only services for the past year, leaving young people facing significant challenges with limited opportunities for development. Scran Academy works with communities in Edinburgh within top 5-10% of SIMD nationally, by supporting young people from these communities who face multiple and complex barriers to success.

Solution

The Scran Van Tour is a series of 7 food-based community events, feeding up to 350 community members who suffer from food insecurity and poverty. These events, delivered in partnership with grassroots community groups, use our food truck – the Scran Van – as the central focus and production unit. Each event will be codesigned by young people and organisations following a tested “plan-do-review” model. As a result, local people will access free, healthy and safe food. Our community partners will increase their engagement with vulnerable families. 10 young people will engage in an event planning and delivery programme that builds confidence, provides work experience and acts as a positive al

Why are we best placed to deliver?

Scran Academy exists to help young people overcome poverty-related barriers through accessing the experiences, support and skills required to change their lives. We offer transformational youth work programmes that empower young people to lead our real-life catering social enterprises. We work to alleviate poverty through youth-led and partnership driven events, providing opportunities for young people to give back to their communities. Our unique model proves that ALL young people CAN achieve if given the right opportunities.

Focus Areas

Delivery plan

Budget breakdown

Beneficiaries

350 people

Expected impact

Co-designing events with a reflective method will support our young people to embed their learning, grow in confidence, celebrate their successes and gain real lasting benefits. Including complex and transferrable work experience, enabling them to transition to positive destinations more easily. Our young people will be linked into local support services, strengthening their connections to community members helping to broaden their support networks. These events will provide free food to vulnerable communities in Edinburgh. Providing a celebratory free meal as communities recover from the pandemic will benefit both physical and mental health of participants.

Track record

Since 2017, Scran Academy has run a powerful and successful alternative, community education programme, for young people who struggle to flourish in mainstream education alone. In that time, 85% of young people have achieved nationally recognised qualifications where they would have otherwise achieved none. 78% successfully transitioned from the programme into further education or employment. The Scran Van has now delivered over 40 free-to-access events across Edinburgh in partnership with a wide range of community groups and charities. Through this resource, we have provided hundreds of portions of food to people from disadvantaged communities and supported organisations to engage with vulnerable families. During the first lockdown, Scran Academy coordinated a multi-agency response to the issue of food insecurity as support agencies paused. Over a six month period we produced and delivered nearly 150,000 meals across Edinburgh to over 3,500 people.

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