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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.
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
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Chief Executive &
Founder
Julie Griffin
Julie founded Glasgow's Spirit of Christmas in 2014 and Cultivating Mindfulness in 2018. She is a mindfulness teacher accredited with the British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches (BAMBA). Julie's other roles have included working as a Student Wellbeing Mindfulness Tutor for the City of Glasgow College for 7 years, a mindfulness teacher at the University of Glasgow and co-developing the University of Glasgow, Mindfulness: A Focus on Adolescents course. She also teaches Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for people affected by cancer and offers mindfulness and compassion courses for staff and workplaces 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.
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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 £1.1 million gifts for over 158,000 children worth £5.9 million, affected by financial hardship & poverty.
Treasurer
Kirsteen Sweeney
Kirsteen leads a Financial Planning & Analysis team in a large global insurance company, previously leading an underwriting team in the same company. She is focused on coaching and supporting staff to grow in their careers.
With over 30 years in underwriting and financial management, Kirsteen brings strong governance skills, ensuring robust financial health to the Cultivating Mindfulness Treasurer role.
Kirsteen first became involved with Glasgow’s Spirit of Christmas in 2014, firstly as an individual donor, then as a volunteer and also managing her office’s annual gift donation drive to support Glasgow's Spirit of Christmas, children's gift campaign.
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Outside of work, Kirsteen enjoys spending time with friends and family, when she is not travelling.
Secretary
Fiona Craig
Fiona is a busy Admin Manager at Hobs Reprographics. She has worked as a volunteer for Cultivating Mindfulness for over three 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 volunteer role as Secretary.
Fiona enjoys the outdoors and spends a lot of time walking in nature with her two dogs.
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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