Charities

Quakers have run Venue40 as part of our community involvement since 1989. From this time all our profits have gone to charity. Each year we support three small registered charities which work in at least one of the following areas: social service, ecology, a 'Majority World' nation, Scotland. We usually support each for a period of three years and in recent years have supported each to an amount in excess of £1000 per year.

This year we are very excited that the concert performers offered to give all their proceeds to our supported charities. These are

Alternatives to Violence Project (Scotland)

Alternatives to Violence Project is a world-wide network of organisations promoting a non-violent society where we all live in peace and dignity.  The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) Scotland is a cross-border charity, affiliated to AVP Britain.  It supports the delivery of workshops for people who want to find ways of handling conflict without using, or being the victim of, violence.  AVP Scotland holds workshops in HM Prison Kilmarnock and in the community, in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The workshops, facilitated by trained volunteers, draw on people's own experiences and definitions of violence, using group exercises, activities and discussions to explore non-violent ways of working with conflict.

AVP Scotland is a volunteer-based organisation, seeking funding to employ a development worker and administrator, so that it can extend its work in developing alternatives to violence.

Registered Charity No. SC0398287 

Comann na Mara (Society of the Sea)

Comann na Mara (Society of the Sea) is a charity, founded in 2000, based on Lochmaddy, North Uist with the aim of establishing an aquatic education and research centre.  North Uist, population c.1200, lies halfway south in the Outer Hebrides (Na h-Eileanan Siar), comprising the island chain off the west coast of Scotland.

Lochmaddy Bay (Loch nam Madadh) has been awarded European status of a Special Area of Conservation.  The Bay has qualities that are exceptional and, in some respects, unique in Europe, so the area merits special stewardship as well as providing a vast area for education and research programmes.  A particular feature is the tidal structure, which gives low spring tide in daylight all the year round, enabling fore-shore studies to be continued in winter as opposed to some centres, further south, where there is no adequate shore access in winter daylight.

Comann na Mara hope to provide an eco-friendly building as a base for scientific research and for public education.

Registered Charity No. SC032295

Quaker Bolivia Link

Quaker Bolivia Link (QBL) is an international, non-sectarian development organisation guided by Quaker principles and dedicated to reducing poverty among the indigenous peoples of Bolivia. Since 1995, it has been working alongside the indigenous Andean people to fund, construct, and monitor community-based projects to secure food sources, promote better health, and generate income. As a result, there are now over 500 families growing healthy vegetables in their QBL greenhouses, and 55 villages have QBL water supplies. A Quaker response to Poverty.

Registered Charity No. 1055192

Quaker work in Britain and abroad

Quakers are active in work for peace and justice and reconciliation and relief work both in this country and around the world. As a relatively small and non-hierarchical organisation, much of our work is done on a voluntary basis, but we also employ staff both to administer our work and to deliver it. Religiously, we are a non-evangelical, open and tolerant community, believing that actions speak louder than words.