Projects for Apex clients come in all shapes and sizes. This year, Apex Grampian, based in Aberdeen, was donated a hand-crafted 15 foot, unused fishing boat by a member of the public who heard the team was looking for a unique project to involve their service users in. The boat had sat for many years outdoors and had deteriorated into a completely unseaworthy state.
The Aberdeen team involved service users from a number of their programmes, including their intensive support youth justice project and criminal justice social work projects in making the boat ship shape! A wide range of age groups, both male and female, were involved in the upgrading work required and the task was undertaken by small groups and also individuals during one to one time. Whilst working on the boat some service users were able to reduce hours on their Community Payback Orders as well as gain new practical skills in the process.
The whole boat was stripped back, re-sanded, re-painted and waterproofed; the engine also had to be re-conditioned back into a serviceable state before the vessel was fit to sail again.
The boat has been upgraded to such a high standard that the team can now sell it and will reinvest the money they make into another project that their service users can work on.