At the end of each month we release a newsletter to our subscriber to share updates from us at The Circle, opportunities for individuals in the third sector, and some wisdom and good news from the team to uplift and inspire.
Sharing our knowledge in order to support the growth of More Than Profit, Social Enterprise, and charity organisations is a key part of our mission at The Circle. Our newsletter is one of the many ways we aim to do this.
You can catch up on the content from our January Newsletter below and subscribe here to receive future newsletters.
Embracing 2021
Some Words From Our Founder About The Year Ahead
Like many social enterprises, charities and businesses, we started this year with hope that we would get back into the office in January and build up our community once more face to face by working with our amazing tenants, clients and Academy candidates. Unfortunately, a further lockdown was announced, and this was not to be.
Memories of March 2020 came flooding back and of course the overwhelming emotions I felt during the announcement of the first lockdown. This time though, I felt slightly different. The team pulled together so much last year to get us through the low points and times of uncertainty…
You can read the full blog from Kirsty here.
Inside The Circle
An Ode To… Winter Walks. This month, no matter the weather, we’ve made setting foot outdoors our mission. For risk of sounding like a broken record, we won’t talk any further about the benefits of fresh air, exercise and topping up on your vitamin D via the sun, and their positive impacts on your health and wellbeing. But we will say that the team have been out for plenty of walks this month, and some have even managed to grab a socially distanced catch up with Kirsty and Odie. If you haven’t been out for a stroll as often as you’d have liked this month… hopefully these pictures of the team out and about with Odie will make up for it!
Odie and Jennifer 
Odie and Ruth 
Odie and Jenny 
Odie and Alice 
Odie and Michael 
Odie and Paul
Tenant Of The Month:
Our tenant of the month for January is Families outside. This national organisation is dedicated to working with families affected by imprisonment in Scotland. They provide a national helpline and direct one to one support in the community via family support coordinators. Sharing information and support on issues such as the justice processes, finance, housing and emotional support.
“Both myself and my colleague Claire are based in The Circle office which has been the first time we have had a space directly to call our own. Since moving to The Circle we are able to build links with great organisations. The support that we have received from Paul has been great particularly given the difficulties affecting all of us at the moment. Both Claire and myself have been very much welcomed to The Circle, and we both look forward to being in the office and meeting everyone in person!”
Laura Scofield, Regional Manager (North), Families Outside
You can find out more about the organisation, and their work across Scotland on their website.
Consultancy
Industry Insider: The Circle Network is the best place to find opportunities and advice from The Circle team and the wider Circle community. There are also regular posts and updates from local organisations and funders. You can also expect exclusive live updates from CEO and founder of The Circle, Kirsty Thomson, to be rolled out in the coming weeks. We strongly recommend you join the group or risk missing out on invaluable learning and opportunities for your organisation and for your own personal development.
Click here to join the group on Facebook.
Are you self employed?
Click here to find out if you can claim a grant through the income support scheme. The deadline for claiming the third round of SEISS if you are self employed was 29 January 2021. Keep an eye out in future emails for updates on this, and other relevant grants.
The Circle Academy
“Wow! What an inspiring journey. I had so many thoughts racing through my mind. I have never felt so encouraged!”
Some feedback from Wanda, A participant from Cohort 3 of The Circle Academy Programme about her experience.
The Semi Circle Programme. This month we welcomed the first intake of participants to The Semi Circle Programme. We’ve extended our offer of 10% to individuals that sign up to access the programme in February. You can find out more about our flexible online learning programme, and sign up here.
Squaring The Circle. This month we hosted a ‘Squaring The Circle’ session with Lynn Hendry, who shared her experience of working in the not-for-profit sector to help viewers understand how best to communicate with customers and funders to reach mutually beneficial goals. It’s fair to say there were a few major lightbulb moments during the session. You can access this session by signing up to The Semi Circle programme, or keep an eye on our Eventbrite for upcoming webinars.
Good News
In January, several members of the team signed up to work on our mindset, and work towards becoming our best self’s thanks to this course from YMindset. We’ve learnt about gratitude, time blocking and goal setting in preparation for achieving our goals and tackling the year ahead.
In House Tip Of The Month
We’ve made #WellbeingWednesday a regular feature on The Circle Networking Group. Check out some wellbeing tips from Scot Gov’s Clear Your Head campaign, or head to Facebook to join the conversation.
Have you heard?
We are delighted to announce that this month we have received our Gold Standard accreditation from 4 Day Week Campaign! We trialed a 4-day week back in 2020 and are pleased to say it has been hugely beneficial for the team and is now a permanent practice here at The Circle. If you are in a position to change or influence the move to a 4 day week in your organisation, we can’t recommend it enough!
Subscribe
That’s all from our January Newsletter! Click here to receive our monthly newsletter via email, and click here to join The Circle Networking Group on Facebook for more frequent updates.