Peerie Gathering 2025

November 13th 2025

Last week saw us host the inaugural Peerie Gathering, at the fantastic Shetland Museum & Archives.

The programme of the day involved expert speakers and practical sessions, exploring topics that matter to us all - from good governance and upcoming changes from OSCR, to outcome mapping and communicating our value.

It became more than just a learning event. Many people also shared how much they valued the chance to connect with others. For us, it was wonderful to see so many new conversations and connections taking place.

Participants described the day as informative, engaging, and relevant, and praise for both the quality of our speakers and the diversity of topics covered.

What’s even more encouraging is that several attendees plan to put their learnings into action, particularly around outcomes, storytelling, and governance, including trustee roles, constitutions, and induction processes.

Feedback was both constructive and inspiring. One comment really captured the overall feeling of the day:

“Really good to have a gathering like this in Shetland. Informative, interactive, and engaging. Thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Someone shared that the event “presented the Trust as more accessible and helpful.” For us at SCT, that is a key outcome we want to achieve through our new strategy - making stronger connections and supporting our community in more meaningful ways.

We very much look forward to seeing delegates implement their knowledge over the coming months.

Testimonials

The funding COPE Ltd receives from the Shetland Charitable Trust supports us in many ways. It allows us to develop and maintain a strong foundation to our core business and assists us to provide on-going employment skill development opportunities to people with disabilities living within Shetland. COPE Ltd highly values the support provided to our organisation by The Shetland Charitable Trust.

“The substantial grant made to us by Shetland Charitable Trust every year allows us to provide first-class facilities and dedicated staff to underpin sporting success among people of all ages and abilities in the islands.”

Having this core funding from the Charitable Trust means that we can use that money where we need it at any given time. It's multi-year funding which really takes the pressure off. To have the funding to keep going is really important as it is improving the lives of disabled folk in Shetland.

The funding that we get from the Charitable Trust pays for part of staff support and matching with other funders. Without local funders we wouldn't have national funders, and without either of those funders, we wouldn't be able to do this, so funding from the Shetland Charitable Trust is incredibly important.

The funding Shetland Arts gets from Shetland Charitable Trust is about making sure the organisation can thrive, access other funds, and deliver on behalf of the community of Shetland. Our funding from the Shetland Charitable Trust really helps us with our conversations with national funders because it shows that we're working on behalf of what the local objectives and priorities are.

The Access to Leisure scheme was introduced to allow folk to be able to get access to classes and activities for a lower cost. I feel that the SRT play a critical role in every community across Shetland and that's all down to the funding of the Shetland Charitable Trust that we're able to maintain that.

Unpaid carers do an amazing job looking after people 24/7 in their own homes, keeping them living at home safely, and they really need help to do that. Thanks to the funding from Shetland Charitable Trust, we've been able to employ a deputy manager, recruit more care attendants, and provide overnights. We're also really grateful for the funding because it means that everybody can get the service for free.