Our Work

Young people working together in a community kitchen during Slate's Nourish cooking programme in Irvine

How we work

Practical, respectful, community-rooted

Every Slate programme is built around two principles: practicality and respect. Practicality means that everything we teach is immediately usable — no abstract theory, no generic advice that ignores the realities of benefit income, insecure tenancy, or a phone with limited data. Respect means that we never treat care leavers as a problem to be managed.

Our participants are capable, resilient young people who have navigated more complexity by the age of eighteen than most adults face in a decade; what they need from us is specific knowledge and a trustworthy guide, not deficit-focused welfare. Our delivery model centres on small group cohorts — typically six to ten young people — who move through a programme together, building peer relationships alongside health skills.

Peer ambassadors at the heart of everything

We recruit and train peer health ambassadors from our alumni network, and these ambassadors co-facilitate sessions, ensuring an environment where participants feel genuinely understood rather than professionally processed. Beyond structured programmes, we provide one-to-one health navigation support for young people at moments of acute need or transition — a new diagnosis, a housing move, a first job, a mental health crisis — and we maintain warm, active referral relationships with NHS Ayrshire & Arran, North Ayrshire Council's throughcare and aftercare team, local food banks, and community mental health services.

Our Programmes

Four programmes — one connected pathway

Each programme can be entered independently, but together they form a comprehensive foundation for health confidence in independent life.

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Health Compass

A foundational health navigation programme that gives young people the practical knowledge to find, access, and use health services with confidence.

Health Compass covers GP and dental registration, understanding NHS rights and responsibilities, reading prescription labels, attending appointments alone, and knowing when and how to escalate a health concern. Sessions are held in small groups of six to eight participants, with one-to-one follow-up support available for those who need it.

We also provide a practical reference booklet — designed with Slate participants — that acts as a lasting resource rather than a one-off handout, covering everything from how to order a repeat prescription to what to say if you feel dismissed in a consultation.

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Nourish

A hands-on cooking and nutrition programme designed around the real constraints of low-income independent living in North Ayrshire.

Nourish runs across six weekly sessions in a community kitchen, combining practical cooking skills with straightforward guidance on nutrition, food labelling, meal planning, and shopping on a limited budget. Every session produces a meal that participants eat together, and every recipe is costed to a realistic weekly food budget aligned to current benefit rates.

We address food bank use without stigma, cover kitchen safety for new tenants, and build the kind of comfortable, habitual relationship with cooking that sustains good nutrition over a lifetime rather than just for the duration of a programme.

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Mind & Momentum

A mental health and emotional wellbeing programme that uses plain language and practical tools to help young people understand and manage their own mental health.

Mind & Momentum draws on approaches validated by NHS Education for Scotland and adapted for young people with experience of adverse childhood experiences. Topics include recognising stress and anxiety, understanding the connection between physical and mental health, sleep hygiene, the impact of social media, and how to access support through CAMHS transition services, GP referrals, and local third-sector organisations.

The programme is delivered by a trained facilitator alongside a peer ambassador who has themselves completed the Slate pathway, creating a non-clinical, credible learning environment where participants feel genuinely understood.

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Work Ready Health

A programme preparing young people in Irvine for the health challenges of entering employment — from managing a long shift to knowing their workplace wellbeing rights.

Work Ready Health addresses a gap that other employability programmes consistently miss: the health dimension of sustaining work. Sessions cover managing medication around shift patterns, understanding sick pay and self-certification, recognising occupational health entitlements, coping with fatigue and work-related stress, and communicating health needs to an employer without fear of discrimination.

Delivered in partnership with local employers and the North Ayrshire employability network, the programme is tailored to the industries most accessible to young people in Irvine — hospitality, retail, logistics, and entry-level care sector roles — ensuring the content is immediately applicable from the first day in post.