Shetland Home Company

[Sukibind]

Well, its 10 months since COPE received £112,312.00 to "Provide up to 15 work placements" for people with disabilities and as far as I can ascertain there has not been so much as 1 place provided. I would be delighted if COPE could correct me on that point and tell me that several new placements have been provided. What I do know is that the old Scrapstore has been 're-furbished' and that the 'pet project' soap shop have had huge amounts of money splurged on them, and to what effect? This is Shetland where we are more impressed with what you do, rather than what you have.

 

I also note that the prices in the Scrapstore have reached 'London' prices!! It would seem to be that it now thinks of its self as a fashionable antique store... Has it lost sight of the fact that most of its content is donated? and that the people that do donate would like their items to help POOR people to replace/ furnish their homes. It seems to me that COPE scrapsore has lost its way, where once it was the place that people in need could turn to for help in furnishing a modest home, it now seems to be trying to be some sort of fashionable home design ...thing.. Which is the only word I could come up with to describe what COPE has turned into, and poor folks can, well, look elsewhere...

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[Babsy]

It used to be a busy place full of laughter and banter, where you could get a bargin and could drop the odd item off. Never ever told,"to take it to Rova Head as they did not want it". (a printer in good working order with nearly new ink cartridge!) The atmosphere in there now is acid I have stopped going and to be quite frank with you,"I widna even pit a dug in there tae sh*te"!

[Ghostrider]

Well, its 10 months since COPE received £112,312.00 to "Provide up to 15 work placements" for people with disabilities and as far as I can ascertain there has not been so much as 1 place provided. I would be delighted if COPE could correct me on that point and tell me that several new placements have been provided. What I do know is that the old Scrapstore has been 're-furbished' and that the 'pet project' soap shop have had huge amounts of money splurged on them, and to what effect? This is Shetland where we are more impressed with what you do, rather than what you have.

 

I also note that the prices in the Scrapstore have reached 'London' prices!! It would seem to be that it now thinks of its self as a fashionable antique store... Has it lost sight of the fact that most of its content is donated? and that the people that do donate would like their items to help POOR people to replace/ furnish their homes. It seems to me that COPE scrapsore has lost its way, where once it was the place that people in need could turn to for help in furnishing a modest home, it now seems to be trying to be some sort of fashionable home design ...thing.. Which is the only word I could come up with to describe what COPE has turned into, and poor folks can, well, look elsewhere...

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A bit of spin afoot I suspect, perhaps it would have been more accurate if they'd said, 'continue to provide up to 15 work placements....'

 

Having not visited the Scrapstore in person for a very long time I'm not going to say anything about the actual "shopping experience", however having scanned over their Facebook page a few times, I agree, the prices seem high, and the selection on offer, poor, which has done nothing to encourage me to actually go there to see if its any better in the flesh. Personally my first ports of call when looking to buy anything second hand locally is either Shetlink's Classifieds, or Facebook Shetland Classifieds, followed closely by the Saleroom. The selection is usually IMHO much better, and the prices more attractive.

 

I would question the value of the recent rebranding of all of COPE's activities, how much did the designing and putting in to production their new "corporate branding(s)" cost, and what gain/loss have they seen so far in terms of business turnover?

 

Particularly suspect is that whoever maintains their Facebook presence seemed unaware that (or incapable of operating F/B adequately to achieve it) page names can be changed, so instead of simply changing the name of the current pages and thus taking all their existing followers along with them, went and made a brand new page and asked existing followers to to the new one. Fine if you're an avid supporter and follow the page closely, but useless for the many "occasional" F/B users who more often than not are likely to only bother looking at the Scrapstore's page when something posted on it came up in their feed and caught their eye. No posting = no input to feed = person pretty much forgets the Scrapstore exists.

 

The name change IMHO was a complete waste of time and effort. This is Shetland, a very limited and finite marketplace, nobody is going to come to Shetland from elsewhere to buy secondhand bruck however fine a corporate image and logo they project, and Shetland is small enough that there's not many that aren't aware the place exists. More to the point, the greater part of those who know it as the Scrapstore are likely to just keep on calling it that, and the rest of us who haven't even gotten around to calling it that yet, will just keep on calling it "the secondhand place the disability folk have" or some variation on that theme. The Shetland Home Company or whatever they call it now will only be adopted and used by a relatively select few who have something of a fixation about only referring to things by their "proper name".

[oddtablet]

I have struggled for years to understand why some people working/ volunteering full-time only received a charitable donation which used to be £20 or so per WEEK. I feel that this demonstrates poor business practice and does not reflect the commitment given by their volunteer workforce.

[Colin]

1st off;

I think that, in 'value for money' terms, Cope does a pretty decent job but, do they actually provide 'work placement training' or, is it more along the lines of 'respite care' or day centre 'gets them out of the house' type of stuff? 

Don't know about anyone else but, I'm hard pressed to think of anyone (handicapped/disabled) who has obtained a job after being 'trained'(?) by Cope. 

I have seen the same 'faces' in there for years and, quite frankly, nearly all of them  are un-employable by any 'normal' measure.  No fault of their own and, if they are being 'exploited'(?) in order to proved employment for their able bodied 'trainers'(?) at public expense, a great shame.

 

I think that Cope's re-branding is a wasted exercise, why? Because to me (and many others) it's still Cope and not The Shetland Home Co (whatever that may be about, I don't know)

 

As for their pricing, was their 'target market'(?) ever really intended to be 'poor people'?  If you think that the price of an item is to high then, make them an offer..  After all, if said item was donated, they cannot make a 'loss' on it and, they may be happy just to 'shift' it.  Prices are not 'written on stone'.

[Colin]

I have struggled for years to understand why some people working/ volunteering full-time only received a charitable donation which used to be £20 or so per WEEK. I feel that this demonstrates poor business practice and does not reflect the commitment given by their volunteer workforce.

I think that you might be approaching this from the wrong angle.

 

When is a volunteer not a volunteer?

 

Volunteers, by definition, give their time freely to their committed cause as and when they may be available and, if they wish, can 'walk away' at any time.

 

They cease to be volunteers when they are told "you have to be there by..  and you will stay until.."  That makes them 'staff'.

 

If volunteers are 'paid' a small amount each week, might it not be the case that the small amount is intended to cover 'incidental expenses' such as travel costs?

 

As for being able to get someone (staff) to 'work' for you for £20 pw or less.  That to me seems to be 'good' business practice <G>  MP's do it all the time with their interns..

[oddtablet]

I take your point re volunteering however most of the folk' working or training' at Cope consider they are working. I am not aware of anyone who is in receipt of a charitable donation weekly moving on to a paid work placement so have always thought it was disappointing as some were actively seeking this and had the capabilities to progress. 

[paulb]

its a worthy cause. plants and butties too. the Volunteers are wonderful folks loads of praise richly deserved. the whole concept of protected training/work is excellent a pity the condems have closed remploy and other similar projects.

 

the clients should always be there main concern if and its a if they have lost track of there original objectives then maybe a review by them is needed. i maybe wrong i often am but adult social services are meant to fund adult training/ sheltered work placements. if so its a saving if support is from else where.  

 

finally the clients of cope are not unemployable. they face complex problems but still they work. really well done the workers and  Volunteers. with a caring employer there are roles that they can do. as a community Shetland like all small communities would find work for the less able bodied. so please support cope and please remember folks its better for us that cope works well and can take on more clients.

 

our larger employers could consider work placements tesco, coop and the council could easily provide places.   

Edited March 12, 2015 by paulb

[Colin]

Again, it's a case of 'perception'.

 

By workers, do you mean the volunteers(?) who man the counters etc. or the 'clients' who are there for 'training'?

 

The volunteers, if they wished, could easily get paid employment elsewhere whilst the clients, by and large, could not.

 

I sometimes wonder if some of the clients are there, simply, to give them something to do and, as I mentioned earlier, to provide their parents/guardians with a little respite.  If this is the case then, imho, the £112,000 is being pretty well spent.

 

The alternative would be for the SIC to run it's own version of Cope and, I shudder to think what THAT would cost.....

[Colin]

"our larger employers could consider work placements tesco, coop and the council could easily provide places."

 

I could be wrong but, I believe that there is a legal requirement for larger employers to engage a certain percentage of disabled/handicapped people but, like everything else, fitting the right ones into the appropriate niche is the problem.

[wally jumblat]

In my experience, COPE is a very well run and hugely inspiring organisation which does a great amount of valuable work.

 

I don't begrudge anyone the right to have their own opinion, on any topic. However, on the rare occasions I dip into the parallel universe of Shetlink these days, I invariable leave almost immediately, shaking my head in despair at the uninformed, negative and bitter witterings of the small handful of 'commentators' who are still active here.

 

I don't suppose any of you will pay the slightest attention to the following quote, but if you did the world might be a slightly better place.

 

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

[paulb]

a little unfair most of us a supporters of cope.

[Windwalker]

 

I don't begrudge anyone the right to have their own opinion, on any topic. However, on the rare occasions I dip into the parallel universe of Shetlink these days, I invariable leave almost immediately, shaking my head in despair at the uninformed, negative and bitter witterings of the small handful of 'commentators' who are still active here.

 

I don't suppose any of you will pay the slightest attention to the following quote, but if you did the world might be a slightly better place.

Yip and I've just shaken my head in despair concerning the above quote! As one of the "small handful of commentators" who still use Shetlink, I don't think it's fair to group everyone in the same pot. Interestingly, on this rare occasion you visited Shetlink, it seems you did so just to be negative and bitter, (your words). Pot, kettle

[wally jumblat]

Yes, you are entirely right Windwalker. Not everyone on Shetlink is negative, and my previous post was certainly too sweeping in that respect. 

 

In my defence though, Shetlink definitely has a hard-core of very critical contributors who pick fault with just about everything that is going on in the islands, usually with little regard to the facts. These people seem to be so dominant here that infrequent users, such as myself, can't help forming the impression that the default tone of the place is one of negativity and criticism. There is clearly a time and place for constructive criticism, but it would be great if some of the most negative contributors could be convinced to take positive action of some sort, rather than being content to snipe from the sidelines.

Edited March 12, 2015 by wally jumblat

[JustMe]

COPE or the Shetland Home Company are using facebook to advertise some of the things they have for sale and to me the prices seem reasonable.  Have not been in there for ages mainly because I have no current needs but certainly intend to go again in the future.

 

As for the good they do for their "clients" I would say that they provide some meaning to the lives of people who are really not going to get a job in the commercial world.  If this makes the "clients" feel better about themselves then that is great and well worthwhile.  If it just gets them out of the house providing a bit of respite (or breathing space) for parents or carers then that is also great. 

 

I imagine they get scrutinised before new funding is provided and I can only think that those providing funding are happy with the way it is being used.  And of course there is a "green" element in that goods re-sold might have ended up at whatever the dump is called these days.  Yes that is also great.