Working with Venture Trust was a fantastic experience – the team is supporting a very worthy cause and their commitment and engagement throughout helped make the project a success. It is really rewarding to know our work will help in the development of a programme that can support young people struggling with mental health issues, and we are excited to continue supporting the team on future projects.
- Jonathan Dufton, Director, Plural Strategy
Pro bono supporter: Plural Strategy
Charity partner: Venture Trust
Project type: Strategy and new service review
Why the project was needed
Venture Trust helps young people in Scotland to overcome complicated or chaotic life circumstances by offering an intensive training programme, based both in the wilderness and in their local community. The participants gain confidence, motivation and life skills to make a positive change, and move into education or work.
The team at Venture Trust had an idea for how they could better support their young people by opening a new greenspace counselling service. Greenspace counselling is delivered outdoors, in a space that many feel more comfortable than the classic 'medical' counselling environment, and uses the natural environment as part of the counselling process.
They had developed a good outline of the service they wanted to offer and how it would benefit young people, but they needed to better understand whether there was a market for the service and the next steps they should take.
What the project involved
Plural Strategy is a strategy consultancy and one of the newest supporters in the Impetus pro bono network.
Plural Strategy helped Venture Trust to better understand the need for greenspace counselling services, including what other provision there was for this in Scotland. Once the need was established, together they drew together the evidence base for effectiveness of the proposed new counselling service.
Finally, Plural researched the funding market for counselling services in Scotland and what Venture Trust should do to secure that funding
Plural were excellent to work with, the team were really engaged and very quickly understood our organisation’s ethos and need. Plural put together a clear project plan and the work flowed well with appropriately timed check-in points. I was very impressed how quickly they understood and mapped out the marketplace.
- Mike Strang, Director of Operations, Venture Trust
Impact of the project
Working with Plural has fast forwarded our ability to roll out our new service backed by a solid evidence base. The work has also vastly improved our position when seeking funding and articulating the work. Huge thanks to the team at Plural.”
Thanks to the work of the Plural team, Venture Trust are now confident in what they need to do to develop their service offer and bring it to market. They know that this new offering will be a crucial service for young people in the coming months, with a likely increase in mental health issues as a result of challenges brought about by the Covid-19 lockdown.
