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About

Our Mission

We are passionate about supporting children, young people, families and seniors who are experiencing emotional, mental, physical or financial difficulty  affecting their wellbeing and quality of life and relationships.

 

We offer fully funded training courses in a unique way that is relevant to enable young people aged 12-25 years to learn more about the connection between their mind-emotions-body and behaviour. The training empowers them to recognise, understand and manage their own mental wellbeing to help them to grow into more skilful, kind and

compassionate human beings.

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We also aim to support children living in hardship or poverty each year at Christmas and provide training, support and wellbeing projects for Carers and Seniors.  We offer the community a full timetable of in person or virtual classes and events designed to enhance each person's mental, emotional, physical health and wholeness.

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Our Vision

We are devoted to helping our communities to work together to help each other thrive and flourish.

Our different charitable projects all focus on supporting people to learn new ways of being to live happier, healthier and more meaningful lives.

Our goals include creating more mindful and compassionate communities and to celebrate the spirit of giving to inspire others to be kinder to themselves and the world around them.

We believe mindful, kind, compassionate

communities can change the world.

  Our Team

Our Mission
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Chair

Martin Kettle

Martin is currently a Senior Lecturer in Social Work, moving into university
teaching after many years in social work practice, leadership and policy in a range of roles in local authority, government and the third sector.

In those roles he has worked with a number of community groups and recognises how important their contribution is.


He has a long-standing interest in issues of self-care and self-compassion and is a firm believer in the power of mindfulness to contribute to well-being across
age groups.


He is a mindfulness teacher, accredited with the British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches (BAMBA) and he is currently completing an MSc in Mindfulness at the University of Aberdeen.

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Treasurer

Fiona Craig

Fiona is a busy Admin Manager at Hobs Reprographics. She has worked as a volunteer for Cultivating Mindfulness for almost two years assisting with admin projects, The Wellbeing Centre and Glasgow's Spirit of Christmas children's gift campaign.  With 23 years experience in finance and admin processes and procedures she brings a wealth of experience to her new volunteer role as Treasurer. Fiona enjoys the outdoors and spends a lot of time walking in nature with her two dogs. 

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Secretary

Linda Millar

Linda has had a number of careers, and has been working within learning and development for the last 9 years in large companies within energy, financial services and the legal sectors. She describes herself as a ‘people person’ and very focused on coaching and supporting people to progress in their careers.


Linda became involved with GSOC in 2020 – firstly as a donor, and then as a volunteer, helping to support some of the activities required to deliver the campaign in the later stages.
 

She has also volunteered with her local foodbank and a homeless charity. Linda has 2 grown up children, and enjoys travelling and gardening.

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Chief Executive &

Mindfulness Tutor

Julie Griffin

Julie founded Glasgow's Spirit of Christmas 10 years ago and Cultivating Mindfulness in 2018. She is a mindfulness teacher accredited with the British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches (BAMBA). Julie is the Student Wellbeing Mindfulness Tutor for the City of Glasgow College, a mindfulness teacher at the University of Glasgow and co-developed the University of Glasgow, Mindfulness: A Focus on Adolescents course. She also teaches mindfulness and compassion in public, private and third sector organisations.

 

Julie is passionate about  making mindfulness training more accessible to young people to improve mental wellbeing and prevent issues arising later in life.  She is also a qualified Health Qigong Instructor and Heart Coherence Coach.

 

In Dec 2019, Prime Minister, Boris Johnson awarded Julie a Point of Light Award to recognise her work for founding Glasgow's Spirit of Christmas, children's gift campaign. A mindful, kind and compassionate community that has raised over £3.8 million of Gifts Made with Love for over 102,000 children affected by financial hardship & poverty.

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Centre Coordinator

Elaine McKinlay

Elaine is the owner and founder of one of Scotland top lifestyle organising companies, Clear Mountain that helps individuals and families simplify their homes, lives. She has worked in coaching and education in various countries throughout Europe. She has extensive experience in working with children and young adults helping them grow and develop their organising skills. She is the mother of two grown up sons and is committed to helping young people fulfil their potential.

 

She is a tutor at The University of Strathclyde and Glasgow Clyde College delivering a course on Moving from Chaos to Calm. Elaine  has volunteered over the past few years with our Glasgow's Spirit of Christmas campaign helping with the organising of charitable donations. She believes her organisational skills will positively contribute to her role as Centre Coordinator.

Join Our Team

We currently looking for a Marketing and/or a Social Media Content Creator to join our volunteer team. Please complete the Volunteer Form if you have a few hours a week to help contribute towards our charity's mission, vision and goals

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