Established in 1986, The Yard is an award-winning charity with the key purpose of building thriving communities for disabled children, young people and their families through the medium of play. A real strength of our service is that we work with our users from birth to age twenty-five, so families are on one journey with us: providing invaluable consistency of support.
Offering a safe, inclusive environment at each of our centres, adults often refer to The Yard as a home from home. For many it is one of the only places where they can relax as a family and be themselves. As a result, families feel less isolated as they have a chance to meet others facing similar challenges and build up crucial support networks:
"I love The Yard because the smile it puts on my son's face is priceless. It's helped him grow as a person, become more open to allowing others into his space, and makes him feel safe and accepted. The staff and volunteers are amazing with all the children."
In 2024, we worked with over 3000 children across our centres in Edinburgh, Dundee and Kirkcaldy and through our outreach services.
This year, we opened our new centre in Glasgow and a refurbished centre in Dundee, meaning we can support more families than ever as we reach our 40th anniversary.
Responsibilities
Have you a real passion and commitment to improve the lives of children and young people with disabilities and their families?
As a trustee, you would help oversee the good governance and administration of The Yard, focusing on areas including:
* Setting and maintaining our vision, purpose and values
* Developing our direction and strategy
* Providing oversight and support to the Management Team
* Ensuring the organisation has the appropriate structure and resources for its work
* Ensuring appropriate systems for reporting and monitoring are in place and working
* Managing risk and ensuring compliance and accountability with the governing document, external regulators and the law Making certain that the financial affairs of the organisation are conducted properly and are accurately reported
Expectations
Trustees are expected to attend 6 Board meetings, our AGM and a Board Development Day a year. There are 3 Board committees, and most Trustees are a member of at least one.
We are particularly keen to receive applications from people who have experience in:
Financial Management and oversight to take up the position of Treasurer Paediatric or Disability services Public affairs and / or government policy More information on The Yard and the role of the Trustee can be found on our website.
The closing date for applications is 20th August 2025 at 12, noon.