to find out more about The Promise in Aberdeen, contact

Gette Cobban

Senior Development Officer (The Promise)

ACVO TSI

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Mar 4, 2024

March update from Gette Cobban –  Senior Development Officer (The Promise), ACVO TSI

Stories of Change Conference

On Monday 5th February, I was up and out to the Aberdeen railway station for the 05.55 train to Edinburgh for a day of discovery, connections and insight.”

The Stories of Change Conference is the first of this kind held in the four years since The Promise was launched. It presented a great opportunity for those across Scotland to get together to share stories and experiences about the difference The Promise is making for families.

I have never arrived at a conference before and been immediately offered the choice of scrambled eggs or a bacon roll. What a welcome! Next was a chance to walk round the large number of storyboards highlighting the diverse variety of different projects across the country. Some similar, some very different but the big thing in common was that all were the result of co-production, developed in partnership with those they are working to support.

Full details will appear soon on The Promise website but be warned at the moment you will just get a message that information will follow soon but keep an eye on this page over the next few weeks and there should be plenty information to come

In the first session, which I attended with colleagues from Autism & Neurodiversity North East, we were welcomed by Fraser McKinlay, Promise CEO and heard a presentation by Natalie Don, MSP & Minister for Children, Families and Keeping The Promise.

Fraser chaired a really interesting panel discussion with three ladies who themselves were care experienced and they talked about the impact this had on their career choices and how their lived experience adds value to the work they do. More information about this as well as a video of the session is available on The Promise website.

Next, I attended a session around “moving on – 100 days of listening”. We linked up with Rachel Hood, the Promise Design School Programme Lead who led us in a practical session using “Jack’s story” to highlight what needs to change to make a real difference for young people. The methodology was really useful and something that Rachel uses within The Promise Design School to get people thinking differently. More information about the Design School is available on The Promise website via this link.

It was great to be at the conference with likeminded people and I recommend attending the next one if you can. Everyone in that room was 100% behind the ethos of The Promise and keen to make sure it works.

Fraser finished the session with 3 reflections that we all need to consider going forward:

We need to be honest: really honest with ourselves about what needs to be done. Keep looking forward and generate conversations with others to make sure change can happen.

We need to move forward with hope and expectation: whilst planning and strategy is vital we need to tackle these with hope and the expectation that change can happen. If we don’t have this we can get bogged down in the documents rather than keeping an eye on the difference that we want to see.

Scotland must be persistent: Basically, the message is “stick with it”, we all know that at times changes feels hard and we can feel we are struggling to make things happen. We need to stick with our efforts for change, keeping the final vision at the front of our planning.

You can read Fraser’s full comments about these points shared at the recent Carer’s Day 2024 to find out more.

The three reflections sums up my overarching message to you reading this article; The Promise has to be more than a document, it has to be a way or working together to ensure we do see change and achieve it together.

to find out more about The Promise in Aberdeen, contact

Gette Cobban

Senior Development Officer (The Promise)

ACVO TSI

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