Ferrywell Youth Project, a charity that offers a range of volunteer-led activities for young people in Edinburgh, has received a £500 donation from Amazon Development Centre Scotland.
The Project, which works primarily with young people in the areas of Pilton, Muirhouse and Drylaw, began in 2001 and has grown to include a weekly youth club known as DIME; after school and lunch-time clubs in local primary and secondary schools; one to one mentoring work and counselling; as well as taking people on residential breaks throughout the year.
The charity plans to use the donation to help continue funding volunteering activities for the local community.
To mark the donation, members of the team from Amazon Development Centre Scotland in Edinburgh visited one of the charity’s youth work sessions to see the work the charity has been doing with local young people.
Amazon Development Centre Scotland is responsible for innovations used around the world by the company, including machine learning to power Amazon’s smart features like personalised recommendations and intelligent advertising.
Graeme Smith, Managing Director at Amazon Development Centre Scotland, said, “The Ferrywell Youth Project is a fantastic initiative, significantly and positively impacting the lives of the most vulnerable young people in our community. We’re passionate about investing in the younger generation, and are pleased to be able to work with the Ferrywell Youth Project to support this cause.”
John Gillan, Project Leader of the Ferrywell Youth Project, said, “Our work is focused in the areas of Edinburgh which have traditionally seen poor educational achievement and high levels of unemployment. We feel that it’s very important to actively engage with and support young people in these areas to encourage them to make positive, healthy and responsible choices. We welcome this generous donation from the Amazon team in Edinburgh which will help us to grow our team and to do more outreach work in local schools and the community.”
This activity forms part of the Amazon in the Community programme whereby the company supports communities in and around where it operates in the UK.
Photo – Top Yuyan Zhang (from Amazon, left) with staff leader Jude Currie and service user Demi-Leigh Heath.
Below – Yuyan Zhang (centre, from Amazon) with staff Jane Hurst (second from left) and service users including Rhiannon Cummings (first from left) David Lumsden (fourth from left) and Conner Motion (fifth from left).
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
