When I first discovered Venture Scotland (over 12 years ago now, how did that happen?), I remember almost instantly getting a special kind of feeling. I couldn’t put that feeling into words, but I almost instantly knew that I wanted more of it! Over the years, I’ve asked loads of people ‘what is Venture Scotland and why do you participate/volunteer/fundraise/work for this organisation?’. Each time I’ve watch as people struggle, just like I do, to put that feeling into words.
A few years ago, I attended one of our inspiring awards nights. One of our referrers came up to me at the end of the event and said, ‘Venture Scotland is a real home for hope’. It was one of those statements that somehow lodged in my head, one that I now reflect on, as being very insightful.
Over a year ago, we started consulting with all our stakeholders about our new three year strategy. Originally, we planned to just create a new three year plan, based on our current Vision, Mission and Values, however the conversations quickly went right back to this same question, ‘What is Venture Scotland?’. Stakeholder groups spoke about the way it makes you feel and what they got out of being involved in this amazing charity. It was quickly clear that we needed to go right back to basics.
We started
with reviewing our values. As like the last time we did this exercise 5 years
ago, we started with hundreds of options, narrowed it down to tens, honed it
further to about twelve (which included all our existing values), before the
long and passionate conversations about what each word really meant and how
that value contributed to the feeling which is at the heart of our
organisation.
We eventually settled on just five values, two of which we already had:
Trust – Respect – Compassion – Belonging – Empowering
Having listened in to so many conversations, I believe these really represent the heart of Venture Scotland.
We then embarked on the challenge of rewriting our Vision and Mission. Everyone agreed…. that it’s really hard writing a Vision and Mission!!! While almost everyone would write these in a different way from everyone else, the word ‘Hope’ came up again and again. While every single person connected with Venture Scotland gets something complete different out of their experience, there was a general agreement, that everyone felt that hope was universal. And so our Vision and Mission have tried to reflect this:
Vision (the world we aim to create)
A world in which people see their self-worth and have hope for the future.
Mission (what we are setting out to do)
To deliver long-term, outdoor-based programmes to create a safe and welcoming environment for participants, volunteers, and staff, in which everyone develops an understanding of themselves, and has a connection to others and the world we live in, enabling people to find their place in the world and hope in their lives.
So, has this changed Venture Scotland? I would argue ‘no’! I think the only change is that we have a better understanding of our organization and are able to better articulate what we do and how we do it. We’re better equipped to answer the question ‘What is Venture Scotland?’ and what is this strange feeling we have when we get involved with it….. it’s called ‘hope’ and I trust you all love this feeling, as much as I do and continue to support the work we do.
