Chairs Report

Another year has passed, and we are now moving forward into a year of a huge increase in the cost of living thus creating new pressures on our organisation both in service delivery and in the added personal pressure that is placed upon our staff.  The cost-of-living increase along with the climate change issues will affect everyone in our organisation as well as our partners and clients around Fife.

I feel and worry deeply for our staff who coped through the two years of the Covid pandemic magnificently and can only hope that by continuing to work more closely and with a united team spirit they can move forward with the work that we do to alleviate poverty and social issues throughout the Fife region. I am very proud of the work that BRAG is doing to try and alleviate the growing issues of poverty and unemployment throughout Fife and am confident that the benefits in terms of improving the lives of many people will be felt for many years to come. It is normal for a chairman to focus on certain positive aspects of an organisation in the annual report, but I can assure you when I say that I regularly praise and talk about how I am impressed with the staff and board members of BRAG Enterprises and that I am extremely confident that we can continue to grow and expand the range of services that we provide.

It is an undisputable fact that this period of very high living costs is putting severe strain on the living standards of vulnerable people who are now under threat, this is the time that organisations such as BRAG have to step up and provide support and help to those most in need in our region. The Levenmouth  projects and the Pantry at Crosshill are two outstanding examples of what we are about in helping local people and I look forward to seeing them grow as we move forward; these success stories are all down to the hard work and dedication of our existing staff members and I take my hat off to them, they are outstanding human beings and are to be commended for the skill and tenacity with which they have managed to keep these projects running successfully. Tough challenges lie ahead of our group over the next twelve months, but I am confident that our staff and management will continue the good work in support of Fife communities and the many varied clients who participate in our wide range of schemes and projects.

 

David Piper – Chair of Board of Trustees

 

Managing Director’s Report

Not only did we have to recover from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and its aftereffects we then had Brexit and a war in Europe to deal with. The combination of all of these have impacted upon every single aspect of our lives. The most notable has been the cost-of-living crisis which has hit everyone. Unfortunately, this impact as not been equally shared across the nation. People living in poverty have seen catastrophic changes in their income at a time of huge inflationary increases in essential items like food and heating. Like them, our organisation has had to evolve quickly through 2022-23 to ensure we were able to continue to meet and serve the needs of the people we aimed to support.

We’ve ensured that we have continued to learn, adapt and evaluate our overall approach and the support we provided by carrying out regular service user and staff surveys have helped us to stay on the right track. In the past we had an approach of engaging and inspiring the individuals that were sent our way. Post pandemic we are now having change that approach. Unfortunately, many of the people that need our help are not now reaching out to us via traditional routes and we are now having to adapt our service design to ensure we now reach out to them.

The cost-of-living crisis is having an impact for sure, the last two quarters of 2021-22 were the toughest we have had to endure, and I would like to pay credit to the staff and our volunteers for their tenacity and hard work during that time.

Brian Robertson-Fern

Managing Director

Brag_Annual Report_A4_2022_2023_V5 

BRAG Signed Accounts 2023

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