Lord High Commissioner ‘inspired’ by visit to Bridges Project

Lady Eilish Angiolini was impressed by what she saw and heard when chatting to Bridges Project’s young people, staff and volunteers during a special visit to the organisation.

Lady Angiolini is the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and chose Bridges Project as one of two community projects to visit during the first day of this year’s General Assembly.

The visit was facilitated by East Lothian Lieutenancy. Lady Angiolini and her husband, Domenico Angiolini, were therefore formally greeted by Lord-Lieutenant Roderick Urquhart before being taken on a tour around the Bridges Project building.

Led by CEO Emma Scarcliffe, Lady Angiolini was introduced to the various teams within Bridges Project and had the chance to speak directly to young people, staff, Trustees and volunteers about their experiences of the charity.

One of the most powerful moments of the tour was when Lady Angiolini heard from a young person who, due to her social anxiety, had not attended high school at all before being referred to Bridges Project. The teenager is now working on several qualifications, is about to start high school in S5 and talked about Bridges Project’s important role in enabling her to reach this point.

Another young person the Lord High Commissioner spoke to was Sasha Sands, who talked about the support she has received from Bridges Project around moving into her new home.

“It was really nice to be part of the whole experience and to talk to Lady Angiolini. She was so nice and thought it sounded like the support I had received had been very good,” said the 20-year-old.

Lady Angiolini also got the chance to experience first-hand some of Bridges Project’s group activities in action. She visited the Gaming Group and also witnessed – and sampled – some of the baking young people were doing.

Volunteer Shea Robertson and placement student Kerra Stewart, who were leading the respective activities, talked about how the Gaming Group and baking were instrumental in helping young people reduce their social anxiety and isolation and develop their confidence and social skills.

Throughout the visit, Lady Angiolini was clearly inspired by Bridges Project and the charity’s impact on young people.

She said:

“It’s just been fantastic and inspiring to be here. Everyone here is doing a brilliant job.”

Lady Angiolini was also impressed by the uniqueness of Bridges Project.

“I can’t remember there being any projects like this when I was younger. It could have saved a lot of people,” she continued.

‘A real privilege and honour’

Bridges Project’s CEO said it was a ‘real privilege and honour’ to be able to welcome the Lord High Commissioner to the charity.

“I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Her Grace Lady Angiolini for visiting us. Everyone at Bridges Project – from staff to Trustees, volunteers and young people - are all immensely proud to be part of this organisation so to be able to showcase and share our work with her was absolutely incredible. We all thoroughly enjoyed speaking with Her Grace and the visit is something we will treasure and remember forever,” said Emma.

Inspirational address

When giving an address at the end of her visit, Lady Angiolini spoke directly to the young people present and spoke about her own journey of going from cleaning fish fridges at Marks and Spencer’s to holding the high-level roles she currently has.

Before heading straight back to the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly, she gave the young people some words of empowerment, encouragement and inspiration.

“Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you can’t do something. You need to be determined and have dreams. If you have a passion for something, just keep going at it,” said Lady Angiolini.