Smile Scotland is a charity that was established 10 years ago with one aim — to help individuals with poor mental health or minor convictions to get back on their feet in the long term.
In the past decade, it has helped changed many lives through its work of upcycling furniture and auctioning off all sorts of weird and wonderful items.
Its founder Clive Hampshire says the origin of Smile Scotland came during a discussion about what other charities were doing to help these people, and asking: “What would we do different?”
“There were many charities for those with poor mental health or convictions but in our eyes, what would happen is they would be there for six weeks, walk out with a CV, and be let down again.
“We decided we would start a charity, Smile Scotland, and work with just a handful of people.”
They started off with a small garage in Hardgate in Aberdeen city centre, and set up as a showroom.
“Customers would come to us and our clients would clean and upcycle an old chair for example.
“By the next week it was sold, so that gave them the wee boost they needed.”
Smile Scotland’s greatest story to date, according to founder Clive
Their “greatest story to date” was a man named Mark who wouldn’t leave his flat and hadn’t worked in 20 years.
Clive recalls he “came for a half day and told us he wouldn’t be back”.
“However he was with us for four and a half years, before going to find himself a job.”
Following the garage, the charity got a shop on Broomhill Road.
Right before Covid they drove past a place in Oyne.
“We thought, well there’s our auction house.
“The auction house helped our clients because it developed skills of picking up furniture, cataloguing, numbering, prepping for sale, giving a clean if it was needed.”
From the auction house, they created a salvage yard and opened a coffee shop.
The volunteers can now build up skills in hospitality and retail within the coffee shop.
People come in for community service or placements from prison
Clive believes the unique point of Smile Scotland, is they work with a smaller number. Smile Scotland work with roughly 6-8 people a year, but they stay with them long term.
“People come in for community service, and placement from Peterhead prison, but most tend to stay longer with us.
“They stay with us until their destination is ready”.
‘The customers don’t know any difference’
Smile Scotland also has quiet places for volunteers, a mental health nurse, and all the staff taught specifically about mental health.
Core staff and clients are all treated the same, and the customers don’t know any difference.
“They all get a uniform, customers don’t know who’s a client, who’s staff, we are all the same.
“We work side by side with them rather than across the table from them.
“People come with us through GP referrals, self referrals and family referrals. People can come to us any way they want as long as they’re over 16.”
Smile Scotland founder: ‘The biggest lesson I’ve taken away is to listen to people’
Clive believes that the most important thing he’s learned in his 10 years is the importance of listening.
“The most important thing to them that day might not be the most important thing to us that day, but we’ve very quickly learned to listen.
“It might seem trivial to us, but we’ve got to listen to their story, not add to it.”
‘Our favourite thing is to see someone moving on’
I asked Clive what his favourite role was within the business.
“I’m the auctioneer so I really love the auctions.
“For the charity, however, our favourite thing to see is someone moving on.
“When it’s their time for the next destination, we know our job is done.
“I must stress that we have an amazing team, who make Smile Scotland what it is.”
So, what are the weird and wonderful antiques that have gone for sale?
Smile Scotland has had its fair share of weird and wonderful objects over the years.
“Just recently we had the Ballater Station masters’ Rolex watch, which was actually a gift for him from the Queen Mother’s lady-in-waiting.
“There was a note with it saying she was going to miss him.
“We also had a collection of 12 motorcycles for auction, which I absolutely loved.”
‘We decided what we were going to do and stuck with that’
Finally, I asked Clive about plans for the next ten years.
“We decided at the beginning what we were going to do, and we’ve stuck to that.
“We have a decade under our belt and we’re very proud, we’re building and getting stronger; there’s so much we can do.
“But at this time, we’ve now moved into premises that we own. And it’s got a coffee shop, it’s got a salvage yard, a small antique centre…
“We’ve also got the auction house, which holds a few UK records already.
“It would be great to continue building, and get some more clients in. We’d like some more volunteers too so we can help more people.”
Conversation