I am pleased to be a patron of JCI Edinburgh. It says on their website:

“JCI Edinburgh has been recognised internationally as the Best Junior Chamber in the world in 2003, 2004, and 2005.  There are 6,000 chambers worldwide and Edinburgh continues to push the boundaries to provide outstanding development opportunities for young people in Edinburgh to develop their leadership and entrepreneurial skills, while benefitting the community.  This was only achieved through help of our patrons who we value and greatly appreciate.”

I won’t claim I achieved it all, or very much of it at all, but I was a patron throughout that time, and am constantly astonished by what these folks achieve.  ‘Young’ by the way, means 18-40.  In 2005 I supported The Outstanding Young Person of the Year Awards, chairing the awards committee.  Two of the world winner places, (out of eight) went to Scotland that year.  One particularly impressive fact is that this organisation is run entirely by volunteers alongside their day jobs.

My main contribution has been in helping with PR and giving some individual coaching.  Always a pleasure guys!

I started working for The Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (psybt) in 1999 and spent six years running the Edinburgh Region (which includes East and Midlothian as well as the City).  Psybt was just coming up to ten years old when I joined.  The purpose of psybt is to help young people to start up and stay in business, and it has a phenomenal success record. I felt it was a great privelege to share the confidence of so many young people (the target group is 18-25 year olds), of whom I helped over five hundred set up in business.  The transition from having a dream to making it work is a huge challenge.  Not everyone turns into the next great entrepreneur, but it’s a fantastic learning opportunity, and one in which I felt my business experience was put to the best use!  I am still a volunteer mentor for the Trust working with Lightweight Medical in particular.  I’m sure I learned as much from my clients as they ever learned from me!

Assistant psybt Regional Manager, Rosie Dowie & yours truly adorn the steps of our Melville Street Offices in 2003.