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Back to main news pageReliance’s £10,000 support for Victim Support Scotland
Reliance’s £10,000 support for Victim Support Scotland
Scotland’s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill was the guest speaker at the launch of Victim Support Scotland’s National Schools Public Speaking Competition which is jointly sponsored by Reliance and Bank of Scotland Corporate.
Reliance Group MD Julian Nicholls, presented Victim Support Scotland’s Chair Ron Daniel and Chief Executive David McKenna with the company’s cheque for £10,000.
He was accompanied by Jim Greenoak, formerly Reliance’s Operations Director Scotland and now Director of Immigration Services. Susan Mallinder, Director of Internal Communications presented Bank of Scotland Corporate’s cheque.
The joint sponsorship of £10,000 each from Reliance and Bank of Scotland Corporate means that the competition will be truly national for the first time with heats taking place in all 32 of Scotland’s local authority areas.
The sponsorship money will also enable Victim Support Scotland to run separate competitions for primary and secondary schools with one school from each group eventually talking their way to a top prize of £10,000.
The cheque presentations were made at Victim Support Scotland’s annual general meeting which was held in one of the spectacular committee rooms at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
Mr Nicholls told the audience: “Reliance is very proud of its community involvement programme.
“As you might expect from an organisation which is heavily involved in the criminal justice system we support several organisations which offer help to offenders.
“But we are also very conscious of the tremendous job Victim Support Scotland does to assist victims and witnesses, and we are delighted to help them in that role by jointly sponsoring the National Schools Public Speaking competition.
“We are particularly pleased that our involvement will enable VSS to make the competition truly Scotland-wide for the first time.”
Susan Mallinder echoed his remarks adding: “Victim Support Scotland does a fantastic job, and the School Public Speaking competition is an exceptional event.
Mr MacAskill told the meeting that he was very conscious of the need to support victims and witnesses, and detailed a number of measures the Scottish Government is introducing to help both groups.
He added: “The National Schools Public Speaking Competition is a venture which both I and the Lord Advocate Eilish Angiolini wholeheartedly support.
“It not only gives young people the opportunity to develop their public speaking skills, it makes them aware of issues like knife crime and anti-social behaviour.
“From our point of view it is fascinating to hear the young people’s point of view and their take on how we should deal with these very serious issues.”
Ron Daniel said: “We are extremely grateful to both Reliance and Bank of Scotland Corporate for their support, which will enable us to take the National Schools Public Speaking Competition to a new level.”