Community payback efforts support Isobel Rhind Centre

This summer the community payback team transformed the Isobel Rhind Centre’s growing space making the area much more accessible and user friendly.  

Over the years the Centre which is located in Invergordon has welcomed community payback teams to undertake projects on its grounds, allowing the teams to give back to the community in a meaningful way with their unpaid work hours.

Diane Macrae, Community Payback Officer, explained: “Our team were approached for help by the Isobel Rhind Centre in their garden due to the vast area involved.

“The Isobel Rhind Centre is a day centre for adults with learning disabilities supporting their development and participation in the community, nurturing a sense of purpose in their lives.  This person-centred approach carries over to also embrace perhaps one of the most stigmatised groups in society, namely those with a criminal record. A sentence in the community can, however, change the path of a person’s life, as well as contributing to and improving their community.”

Diane added: “Gary Matheson Community Payback Supervisor and his team spent a total of 680 hours on this project; clearing, uplifting, delivering and shifting huge amounts of materials as well as repairing fences and building benches.”

Before works

After works

Photo: Isobel Rhind polytunnel growing space. Before and after photos:

One of the community payback clients involved said: “It was great to be involved with this establishment, especially knowing the good they will get out of the work carried out.  It was also great to see the difference before and after.”

Jonah (Learning Disability Resource Team Leader)

Jonah (Learning Disability Resource Team Leader) added: “Working with community payback has enabled us to develop areas in our grounds that we would otherwise have been unable to utilise to their full potential.

“Community payback supported us with improving and maintaining our cycle track, growing area, and cutting back overgrown trees and bushes. One of their biggest projects was helping us to improve our growing area and increasing accessibility for all, regardless of their mobility.

“Those involved have undertaken an extensive amount of physical work and we are very grateful for all of this support, as we would have been unable to achieve these outcomes without their help. 

“When on site, they have always been polite, helpful and supervised at all times. We hope to continue our positive working relationship with community payback in the future, and thanks to all involved.”

The chances of someone reoffending are reduced significantly when they can maintain contact with their family, accommodation and work. Community justice is about finding ways for offenders to serve a sentence from home, while getting support to rehabilitate and the opportunity to give back to the community. This does call for a degree of tolerance from our communities, along with the willingness to actively offer meaningful jobs, as well as individual placements especially in remote parts of the Highlands.

The Highland Community Justice Partnership wants to thank all those groups who are working with community payback teams and offering projects and placements, including churches, charity shops, community hubs, trusts, councils and groups all around Highland.

Any groups that have some jobs that need done or would consider taking on a placement are asked to email: criminaljustice@highland.gov.uk or to phone their local office for an initial chat at:

• Caithness & Sutherland 01955 603161
• Ross-shire 01349 884118
• Inverness 01463 242511
• Lochaber 01397 704668
• Skye & Lochalsh 01478 612943