Gillian Farnington, seated here front left, spoke to the Members about the Prince’s Trust. After 12 years in the police force, she decided to take a year with the Prince's Trust managing one of the new personal development schemes.

The Prince’s Trust began in 1976 with the intention of improving the lives of disadvantaged young people and expanded into schemes for starting young businesses. Gillian explained how the latest scheme, centred in Dundee, is intended to tackle rising youth unemployment with the involvement of the YMCA, Perth College, Perth Council and Police Scotland.

Gillian is about to start her 3rd scheme and is looking to recruit 16 to 25 year-olds not in full time education. The recruits will face a number of challenges over 8 weeks as well as receiving residential accommodation and a budget.

Each week brings new approaches to the personal development of the recruits from team building, community work and running their own charity shop. The final two weeks allow each recruit to have a work placement.

The hope is that the young people will be able to stabilise their lives and get back some control of their personal development. Such a worthy enterprise was whole-heartedly acclaimed by the Members, some of whom are shown here with Gillian and her namesake, President Gillian.