Working collaboratively in 2025

James Dunbar, chief executive, New Start Highland

Who makes new year’s resolutions and sticks to them? I am going to be bold and say me. This year, I pledge to work with as many likeminded organisations as possible and will do everything in my power to create partnerships, both formal and informal that will help smaller third sector organisations than my own in this financially stretched time.

I do not need to tell anyone that poverty rates are increasing. Studies by the Resolution Foundation have shown an extra 300,000 people across the UK will be living in poverty in 2025 which is hard to compute. What’s even harder, I think, to compute is when I hear stories from my peers in the Highlands about what kind of situations, some children and elderly are facing on our doorstep, because they are living in poverty.

Public sector budgets are ever squeezed and it’s the third sector, where predominantly, the organisations who are doing the groundwork sit, who are losing out. This presents a huge knock-on effect. Evidence over the past two decades at New Start Highland has shown me that when our services have had to be turned off and on due to funding cuts, this results in people not being able to manage. People who have no furniture, no carpets, no bedding. These are people who do not want to be in this position and are there through no fault of their own. Living in deprivation has huge implications for children learning at school, children even going to school, people trying to get work, having sound enough mental health to think about trying to get work. It’s a very challenging situation to be in and we see it every single day.

I am proud that this year marks 25 years of New Start Highland. We’ve gone this distance because we’ve made brave decisions and strategic alignments. As organisations are squeezed, it puts huge pressure on teams to deliver. Scarcity of funding can naturally lead to more competition, third sector organisations are competing for less. Every organisation has different strengths and if we make a commitment to work together, we could achieve a lot more from operating collaboratively.

We gave out our first furniture pack in 2000. Over the last two years we’ve seen a 288% increase in demand for furniture and food packs, and I know for certain this will continue to rise. It is quite terrifying.

While we sit throughout this cold snap, seeing extreme weather across the globe, I do have the question, what more could we be doing? Since 2000, we have diverted 10,000 tonnes of homeware and furniture from landfill which feels like a great achievement. But we need to press on, not rest on our laurels and increase this figure through our programme of reuse. This needs wide-spread behavioural change which I think to an extent is starting to happen. Trends for second hand shopping are on the up – the cost-of-living crisis and sustainability concerns are driving more shopping towards preloved which is very encouraging. A report by GlobalData for resale specialist ThredUp showed global sales of pre-owned clothes alone are set to reach $350bn, by 2028.

So I would encourage any organisation, big or small, to contact me if you want to help make a difference. Whether it’s reuse, employment training, fighting poverty, I am so open to discussion and brainstorming. This is a call to action to help those experiencing vulnerability that some of us can’t even imagine. I am here, with rolled up sleeves, ready to tackle 2025.