2018 has been an exciting year for SOHK Scotland- a LOT has happened!

Early in the year, we played a ‘parliamentary rules’ match against the Scottish Parliament team. All parties put our politics aside and took part! Then, we held a parliamentary reception. This was sponsored by Clare Adamson MSP and was attended by politicians such as Minister for Employability and Training Jamie Hepburn and Minister for Childcare and Early Years Maree Todd.

Over the course of the year, we ran 2 adults courses in Edinburgh and we branched into Fife where we ran an additional two adults courses. One of these culminated in a full contacted rugby game against the local police team. A brilliant success and news story… a few of the players had met members of the police team before… in different circumstances!

We hired Gavin Emerson and launched our schools' programme- this saw us go from working with 0 people under 18 to working with 134 pupils, every week! Additional staff for our work with young people includes Kate Thomson as Child Behaviour Specialist and Liana Mitchell and Ross Aitken as supporting coaches. We are now in 4 schools- in each school, we have a boys group and in 2 of the schools we have girls groups too. We’ve already received contact from 2 new schools who’d like to work with us in the new academic year.

We gained funding from Scottish Children's Lottery, Robertson Trust, Big Lottery and further individuals/ trusts.

We hosted our first Scottish black-tie dinner. This was hosted by Andy Nicol, featured talks from Edinburgh Rugby’s Mark Bennett and Juan Pablo Socino and was attended by some of our dedicated supporters like big Gav Hastings.

This December we celebrated the graduation of our Glenrothes course for unemployed men. There were 24 graduates, all of whom we were immensely proud. They experienced the muddiest end-of-course rugby match we’ve seen yet and emerged smiling! On the night our new friend Jonny Farley brought the boys handmade shirts which he had measured them up for the previous week- a real highlight for the boys who can feel super confident and sleek in upcoming interviews.

We’re proud of all that we’ve achieved and are excited to see what next year brings

 

Girls from our schools' programme:

Muddiest game yet!

Scotish Black-Tie Dinner:

QUOTES FROM SOHK Fife 2018 GRADUATES:

 

“Brings everyone together. Would recommend the course to everyone, makes us feel a sense of pride as well.”

 

“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. Truly inspirational.”

 

“I really enjoyed the course. The staff were great and the boys were great, I wish it didn’t end.”

 

“I had a great 6 weeks, loved it. Loved to meet great people, make new friends, had a laugh and jokes.”