Poverty, Community, Action

An interview with Gayle Brannigan, CEO of the St Mirren Foundation

Part 1: getting the Foundation up and running…

Gayle got into the Third (charity) Sector after an impressive career at a very senior level in the private sector. As a result, she brings a pragmatic, business-orientated approach to the very real challenges that face all football clubs’ Community Foundations/Trusts, tempered with real understanding of the issues that they all face and the ways in which they can, both individually and collectively, take action to address them. Here’s what she told us about their work…

“The Foundation is actually one of the youngest in Scottish football.  It was originally set up and registered as a SCIO in 2013 but didn’t deliver any community work and effectively lay dormant for approx. five years. In 2018 I was approached by SMFC CEO Tony Fitzpatrick and SMFC owner Gordon Scott and asked if I would be interested in re-launching the Foundation, of course, being a local girl and having started my career at Love St, I said yes and here we are, nearly 8 years later.”

“Since 2018 we have created a new board and set about taking a wide range of actions to address specific social issues.  Our boards collective skillset meant we could hit the ground running, building on the fact that St Mirren is very much a family/community club and the fact that Paisley and Renfrewshire have many disadvantaged communities with families living in poverty. Ferguslie Park, where the stadium is, and where we are based, is graded SIMD1 and so classed as one of the most deprived in Scotland. That gives you an idea of the challenges local people face and why we deliver the work we do.”

“One of the first projects we got involved with, in partnership with a great local charity Star Project, was the creation of a base for ‘Paisley Men’s Shed.’ Here, the support of our partners was crucial. Cruden Building did the groundwork for us and purchased the welfare containers and WH Malcolm helped by transporting the containers from Aberdeen to St Mirren Park.  It’s support like these, and other, firms provide that helps us do what we do and we’re forever grateful to them.

“From that small beginning, we now have over 25 community programmes, covering a wide range of themes, being delivered to our youngest Buds at 3 years up to our most mature Buddie at 103 years. This is reflected in our staffing, which was originally just me and now consists of five full-time staff, 25 coaches and facilitators and a large team of brilliant volunteers.

“And, to give you an idea of just how much demand there is across these 25 programmes, we estimate that the St Mirren Foundation supports about 20,000 people per annum across our area, all with varying needs and challenges. It’s a lot of work…”

To be continued…