Community Unicorn Trail
Levenmouth in Fife has 26 of Fife's 97 zones in the 20% most deprived areas per the 2020 SIMD. Students from this area have noted their frustration and lack of engagement with others and opportunities that are more readily available in other parts of Fife. The FCSA wanted to deliver a programme that would help our members to grow their esteem for and ownership of their local community. To do this we planned to install an FCSA Unicorn Trail* into Letham Glen in Levenmouth.
The Trail includes seven colourful unicorns designed and decorated by young people within local and national organisations who support Mental health and Wellbeing within their communities. The project aimed to highlight organisations that focus on mental health in their communities by encouraging locals to get out on a walk and find the unicorns along the trail. We hope that young people will enjoy the adventure of counting them and taking in the details painted by other young people.
We worked with the local Council and MSPs to get permission to install the Unicorns in the Glen as it is a local authority park. The Unicorn Trail was installed on Monday the 2nd October by Balfour Beatty and the FCSA team delivered an afternoon of ‘walk and talks’ to celebrate the install. Fife College Built Environment Students and Staff cut out the Unicorns and the Supported Programmes Student’s helped to weather seal them as part of the give back to the community unit in their course. In total, over 300 people were involved in the design and decoration of the trail. This number is from across Fife College students, volunteers, and group members for various organisations.
The organisations involved are all very pleased that this extra support has increased the visibility of their services, as well as growing their member's feeling of ownership within their communities. Public feedback during the installation day and on social media has been overwhelmingly positive.
Thank You!
The project was partially funded by the Fife Voluntary Actions; Mental Health in the Community Grant which covered the unicorn material and art supplies. Balfour Beatty covered the cost of installation materials and staff donated their time to install the Trail.
Fife Voluntary Action
Fife Voluntary Action (FVA) is the third sector interface for the Fife Council area. They are an independent charity that receives funding from key public sector agencies to ensure the third sector is robust, and resilient and delivers high-quality services for the people of Fife. Balfour Beatty is a leading international infrastructure group with 25,000 employees across the UK, US and Hong Kong leading the transformation of our industry to meet the challenges of the future.
LGBT Youth Scotland (Leven & Buckhaven)
LGBT Youth Scotland are Scotland’s national charity for LGBTQ+ young people, working with 13–25 year olds across the country. They also deliver the LGBT Charter programme to schools, organisations and businesses.
Adoption UK
Adoption UK’s vision is a society in which every child who cannot live with their birth family can thrive in childhood and as an equal chance of a bright future as an adult. Their role is to secure the right support at the right time for children who cannot live with their birth families, from childhood into adulthood. Their focus is adoption, and also support kinship care and early permanence.
Sam's Cafe (SAMH)
Sam's is a mental health peer support service SAMH provides across Fife and Inverclyde
Police Scotland Youth Volunteering
PSYV aims to strengthen relationships with young people, break down barriers and promote ways to make Scotland's communities safer.
Autism Rocks
Autism Rocks is a registered Scottish charity whose mission is to build an autism support centre in Fife which will be the first of its kind in the area. They want to see Fife as a place where kids and adults with Autism/Asperger’s are accepted and included as a valued part of the community.
