Richard Cooke Email & Phone Number

Edinburgh, Scotland, Gb

Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom

Venture Trust is a national charity supporting young people and adults involved in Scotland's criminal justice system, who are long term unemployed and struggle with mental health and wellbeing issues.We work with people to gain the life skills, stability and confidential to reach their potential. Through person-centred support in communities we challenge individuals to reflect on beliefs, attitudes and behaviours so they can make and learn new, more positive ways of approaching situations.

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Services for Outdoor Learning and Youth Development organisations.▫️The Outdoor Education Group, Australia. Leading UK recruitment for field based roles.▫️The Outward Bound Trust▫️YMCA Penicuik▫️Venture Trust▫️Beyond Adventure▫️(Aspiring) Paddlesports Tutor, Scottish Canoe Association.

▫️Delivering Choice Theory, Reality Therapy and Lead Management training accredited by William Glasser Institute UK. ▫️Business and organisational development - Get in touch for information.

Scotland

▫️Strategic operational planning and leadership of Personal Development, Enterprise & Employability delivery, qualifications, progressions & outcomes.▫️Senior Leadership Team▫️FTE 27, 15 active volunteers. ▫️Co-development of Scotland Operations 'Young Person Journey'.▫️Managing key partners and oversight of partner networks ▫️Contract delivery responsibility ▫️Health and Safety of direct delivery teams & partner delivery.Achievements▫️Forming National Delivery Team in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. Implemented the transformation of delivery from immediate Covid19 response to a virtual Scotland wide flexible offer.▫️Establishing Scotland wide participation across all delivery themes.▫️Returning teams to deliver face to face in line with national guidance and opportunity.

Scotland

▫️Senior Leadership Team▫️Strategic operational leadership for CSE hub.▫️FTE 24 plus 20 active volunteers ▫️£1.5m budget ▫️Volunteer, referrer and partner network lead.▫️Responsible for National contracts.▫️National Operational lead: Education (Achieve), Adventurous Activity delivery from Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow Centres.Achievements▫️Supported 1478 Young people in 2019-20 across regional provision.▫️Implemented an outreach to progression model with themed development and delivery teams.▫️Facilitated and co-delivered Scotland's first 'outdoor' Reality Therapy Basic Intensive workshop. Normally delivered in a classroom setting. The course was delivered from a residential venue on Loch Tay involving outdoor delivery. Working with internal departments and Partners, I facilitated the NYVOS funding worth £7.5k on behalf of Princes Trust Scotland, working in partnership with Venture Scotland, Outward Bound and Wild Things.▫️Co-developed and delivered session at 2018 UK Outdoor Learning Sector Conference entitled - Being a lead Manager - Engaging your staff team with Choice Theory.

Scotland

▫️Strategic business planning and leadership of Adventurous Activity Team.▫️Remotely managing daily delivery from Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow Centres. ▫️Supporting young people through Trust programmes ensuring positive outcomes. ▫️Implementing safe & quality delivery in line with operating procedures, toolkits, and policies.▫️Named person AALS licences. ▫️Managing AA budgets and maximising funding income potential. ▫️On call Nominated Point of Contact for residential activity.▫️Leading AA team through organisational restructure and redeployment to new hub leads.▫️Managed Minibus driver procedure for Scotland.▫️Member of UK AA Steering group aligning AA delivery to UK strategy and developing offer.▫️Represented Princes Trust on Industry working Groups - Scottish Adventurous Activity, Youthlink Scotland outdoor providers groupAchievements▫️Working with fundraising secured £27.5k kit replacement in 2018 offering AA a 5 year future.▫️Broadened delivery across all Education Training and Development (ETD) programmes.▫️Increased YP contact hours in all hubs across Scotland - through increased residential, accreditation and AA delivery▫️Creating Learning & development strategy for department of 50FTE for ETD.▫️Co-leading culture working group improving connectivity and culture to deliver business needs.▫️Overall supported 1300 young people directly through Adventurous Activity provision.

Edinburgh

Responsibilities▫️Implementing delivery plans with annual KPI's, funding, targets & minimum standards.▫️Supporting young people through the programme to achieve progressions and positive outcomes.▫️Leading, developing & motivating 13 FTE team, 10 freelance staff, volunteers and key partners.▫️Annual business planning▫️Programme and partner management including as named person on AALS Licence.▫️Managing programme budgets and adventurous activity equipment replacement plans.▫️Leading Fairbridge team through organisational restructure and establishing new programme team.Achievements▫️Increasing young people numbers accessing Fairbridge Programme to 178 in 2013-14 (7 year high with less staff) achieving 78% positive steps and outcomes.▫️Created a self assessment Audit for Fairbridge programme tool to measure performance in line with KPI's, toolkit and minimum standards. Shared nationally as good practice example.▫️Managed 210 young people through Fairbridge & Get Started programmes in Edinburgh 2014-15.▫️Led learning & development strategy for 30FTE across Fairbridge, Get Started and Adventurous Activity delivery in Scotland, including back to basics training after 2014 restructure.▫️Increased team collaboration between development and delivery departments to improve results.▫️Piloted indirect delivery model for Get Started in Media in partnership with Screen Education Edinburgh.▫️Overall supported 1100 Young people through programmes achieving average 76% positive steps and outcomes.

National

Responsibilities▫️Developed & delivered training for the national training schedule. ▫️Leading Fairbridge Programme Training and Prince Trust Centres Training.Achievements▫️Training lead for volunteer induction training, still in place in 2018.▫️Redesigned Rough Guide to development Training to Fairbridge Programme Training.

National

Fairbridge Training, a social enterprise delivered high quality training based on the tried and tested practices of Fairbridge teams across the UK working with hard to reach young people. All profits from Fairbridge Training were gifted to Fairbridge at the end of each year.Responsibilities:▫️Developed/delivered accredited/non accredited experiential training for practitioners across public, private and third sector organisations▫️Fairbridge induction and bespoke staff team training.▫️Managed national training programme, line-managing staff ensuring quality for consulting work. ▫️ Project management ▫️Toolkit and policy development▫️Client and contract management for NCVYS; Youthlink Scotland; Fire and Police services; outdoor learning organisations; Premier League Football Club Foundations; and third sector youth services.▫️Representing Fairbridge on industry working groups and meetings.Achievements▫️Co-design of Scottish Government funded No Knives Better Lives: Sharp Solutions Toolkit. This work enabled Fairbridge Training to successfully win further training contracts for practitioner and mentor training worth c£50k training. ▫️Delivering youth work qualifications to 840 voluntary sector practitioners with NCVYS Youth Service progress contract. Leading the coordinating the delivery, accreditation and quality assurance processes for 8 trainers. OCN NE cited this work as an example of 'excellent practice, with strong validity in the assessment and verification processes.'▫️Over a three year period £294k profit reinvested back into the charity to support it's work.

National

▫️Developed/delivered programmes/courses for Fairbridge in Scotland, Fairbridge Training, Venture Trust, Outward Bound Metro, Beyond Adventure, Village Camps and Scottish Youth Parliament.

Edinburgh

Responsibilities▫️Design/delivery of personal social development and life skills programs for vulnerable young people aged 13-25.▫️Led teams of development tutor's with responsible for all aspects of delivery including, health and safety and quality.

Postgraduate Diploma, Outdoor Education, Pass

Subject studied: Community building and reviewing through outdoor challenge, Ecology and Field Studies, Environmental Education.

Bachelor'S Degree, Leisure Management