Making a difference ..together
A Wishaw-based project offering help and hope to people who are struggling has been awarded charitable status.
Go Together has been running at St Andrew’s Church in the town for about 18 months.
The organisation has just been confirmed as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO).
A key focus of their work is helping local people who are recovering from addiction issues.
Garry King and son, also Garry, are key founding members of the group and both are delighted.
Garry senior said: “We want to let the community know we are here and they can get involved.
“We have groups that do different activities. That includes a weekly walk around Chatelherault, fishing and hill climbing.
“We’ve been working away under the radar doing what we can to help people and signpost them to different support networks.
“We have an abundance of people who want to help out. Mostly they are people in recovery (from addiction) and some have good skills. You get a sort of feeling of euphoria when you see them coming with the desire to change.”
Go Together has grown almost organically with no hard or fast constraints.
“They’ve previously helped people out with the cost of electricity and gas, and with groceries, furniture, household items, clothing and toys,” Garry added.
“Over the last few weeks we’ve been dropping off clothes and food parcels to people that need them.”
Wishaw company Beauty Kitchen recently helped out the project by donating products from its range, which were handed out to elderly members of the community.
Both father and son are no strangers to charitable work as they have volunteered for a number of years with children’s charity Blameless, which is based at Hamilton Accies football stadium.
The younger of the two men also runs drama school Go Kids, based in Russell Street, Wishaw.
He said: “Through the work we do at Go Kids we realised that adults need that sort of stuff too. I don’t mean singing, dancing or acting classes, I mean something to bring people together.
“If you take away organised sports, which aren’t happening right now, once you’re over the age of 18 there’s nothing really sociable to do except to go out drinking.
“I got involved to help get something off the ground that was cross-generational. A lot of the stuff that happens now is very separate, there’s stuff for pensioners – keep fit, men’s events, women’s groups, and teenagers – surely we should have something that allows men, women and children to get together.
“People use the word community a lot but don’t understand what it means. A lot of the council events don’t actually achieve what the community needs. A lot of do-gooders don’t do as well as they could because they don’t actually look to see what needs done.”
Volunteers have been grass cutting and tidying gardens, and painting. The group has transformed the grounds of the church in Belhaven Terrace where they are based, giving them a much-needed refurbishment.
Garry added: “It’s about identifying the need in the situation and finding the way to fix it rather than assuming we know.
“We had pensioners living in isolation with their gardens growing like crazy and my dad had a group of guys who had nothing to do, trying to keep themselves out of trouble. When you step back and look at it from a distance then it’s pretty obvious.”
Anyone in Wishaw, Motherwell or the surrounding areas who requires help or who can provide assistance in any way can contact Go Together via Facebook.