KPC Chair's Blog

Hi, I’m Lindsey the Chair of Kinning Park Complex. Being Chair of a SCIO comes with a lot of responsibility, but it also gives me a brilliant opportunity to help shape the future of an organisation I care deeply about.

Taking on the role of Chair felt particularly meaningful to me after I previously spent 3 years as a KPC staff member. I’ve seen first-hand how much work goes into keeping this amazing community organisation running with limited time and resources. This insight allows me to effectively support the staff running KPC and helps us make good decisions collectively.

What I’m looking forward to next

There has been a huge amount of change in the last couple of years. We’ve faced challenges, learned a lot and adapted. One thing it has shown me is how much we can achieve when people work together for a shared cause!

We’ve not long finished celebrating Kinning Park Complex’s 30th anniversary with a 55-day programme of community activity, marking the 55-day sit-in that brought the building into community ownership 30 years ago. What I loved most about the programme was the variety of activities demonstrating our local community is full of people with lots of different skills, interests, experiences and ideas.

There are a lot of people who deserve recognition for making the 55 days happen: staff, volunteers, members, artists, performers, community groups, partners and everyone who turned up to get involved. I’m incredibly proud of what everyone delivered.

And I think it gives us something really useful to take into the future. We know what’s possible when we all work together.

Our New Strategy

I’m really looking forward to sharing our new 3 year strategy with you next month. Developing this strategy with our staff, volunteers, members and local community has given us the opportunity to reflect on where we are now, what we’ve learned and what we want the organisation to look like in the years ahead.

I’m excited to see our ambitions turn into real action, opportunities, conversations and experiences for our members, communities and everyone who supports KPC.

Our Community Being Involved

I’m keen to see more people involved at KPC. Community organisations work best when there are opportunities for local people to shape, influence and make things happen themselves. I’d love to see more people getting involved in conversations, joining activities, sharing their ideas and finding their own ways to contribute.

This could be turning up to an event, suggesting activity ideas, volunteering, becoming a member or simply telling us what you think about our community space.

The anniversary programme showed me just how much more vibrant the organisation becomes when lots of different people bring their energy. I’d love to see that continue.

Our Community Space Flourishing

I’m also really looking forward to seeing our space being used in new and creative ways. The building has been through a huge amount of change over recent years, and the refurbishment brought some significant challenges that we’re still working hard to overcome.

There is so much potential in making sure our space works for as many people as possible and we will continue to listen to what you, our community, actually need. 

And there are many brilliant organisations, community groups and people doing fantastic work across Glasgow, and there is huge potential for us to work together in partnership to achieve more.

If you have any ideas you would like to share, pop in and talk to the team or email hello@kinningparkcomplex.org.