Dumfries-based homeless support charity, SHAX, has appointed Colin Callander-Bone as its new social enterprise manager following the retirement of Joyce Harkness.
Established in 2012 and based at The Crichton, the social enterprise outfit supports individuals and families who have or are facing crisis due to poverty and/or homelessness across Dumfries and Galloway. It also provides emergency starter packs containing home essentials for homeless people or those in temporary accommodation.
SHAX is largely self-funded through the sale of donated quality pre-loved furniture, household items and clothing at its base.
Joyce spent 10 years at the helm of the charity – as part of a 25 years career working in third sector roles – and, with her team at SHAX, supported more than 3,500 local people in crisis to move on from homelessness and provided experience and qualifications to 240 volunteers and work placements.
Of these, 50 moved on to employment and 10 transitioned into other positive destinations.
They also diverted more than 750 tonnes of waste from landfill through various reuse, recycle and repurpose initiatives.
To achieve this, Joyce successfully brought in almost £885,000 in grant funding and £226,662 in employability funding, also increasing donations and retail sales which equates to £1.075 million – all of which helps ensure a sustainable future for SHAX.
Thanks to Joyce’s hard work, from being volunteer-only SHAX is now an award-winning charity employing 12 members of staff – nine have successfully progressed from volunteering or work placement roles. Her her commitment to the Community Jobs Scotland and Kickstart initiatives has also provided more than 30 placements for unemployed young people of which 19 of them gained employment and three took up volunteering roles thanks to the work skills learnt.
Among Joyce’s many achievements at SHAX is being the first organisation in the region to achieve the Volunteer Friendly Award, which was awarded in 2019. More recently, SHAX achieved the prestigious Investing in Volunteers accreditation.
Previously, Joyce was the first project co-ordinator for Annandale Transport Initiative (now ACTS). She was development officer for The Accessible Transport Forum from 2001 to 2003, and managed Annandale and Eskdale Council of Voluntary Service from 2003 to 2007.
She also set up the HandyVan project, with the assistance of Help the Aged, which is still in operation today as an independent charity.
Ian Callander, chairman of SHAX said: “Joyce has decided to retire, and while we can’t imagine life without her, we are exceptionally grateful for her dedication to the third sector over the years, and particularly thankful for her unwavering drive and commitment.
“What Joyce has accomplished in her career is remarkable and we, the staff and trustees, would like to thank her for her hard work and determination to make SHAX the success that it is today.
“I am also delighted to welcome Colin Callander-Bone to the team as our new manager and we look forward to working with him in his new role.”
Colin joins SHAX from Tesco Extra Dumfries, where he was the home shopping manager for 12 years, after working in a variety of retailers throughout the
UK.
He started work at 16 as a part-time shelf filler at Gateways on the Isle of Wight and worked his way up to becoming a lead manager in Safeways in 2001 in their flagship store that had just been built in Kensington High Street in London.
Around 2004 he moved to Sainsburys in Hertfordshire, fulfilling roles such as checkout manager and fresh food manager, before moving to the region and taking on the roll of customer service manager at the Cuckoo Bridge store.
He moved to home shopping manager and helped grow the department to double its operating vans as well as grow sales by 400 per cent, finding time to complete a degree in retail management.
After volunteering at a local charity, he decide that he wanted to do more to help the local community and believes his new leading role at SHAX is the ideal chance to fulfil that ambition.
He said: “Joyce and the team have done an excellent job at SHAX over the past 10 years. I would personally like to thank Joyce and my new colleagues for their commitment to SHAX and I congratulate them on their successes. Joyce is continuing to support me with projects during this initial transitional period, and for that I am also grateful.
“We all know that times are tough and that SHAX services are needed more than ever, so my job is now to ensure that SHAX continues to be here to support those who rely on our services, to provide opportunities for employment and volunteering and to fulfil our ambitions to minimise landfill and to protect our planet.
“We can’t do this without the amazing support of those who make donations, those who work and shop here, those who partner with us and those who fund us, so a big part of my role will be to maintain existing relationships and to form new ones to help drive future growth.
“While we have a fantastic location here at The Crichton, we are mindful that our retail experience and working conditions in our current showroom could be better, and so I also look forward to working with the trustees to improve the day-to-day experience of our staff, volunteers and customers in any way I can.”