Vibrant Health Advocates – Caldera runs practical life-skills and wellbeing workshops for Carnoustie’s school leavers, giving young people on the Angus coast the confidence, knowledge and self-advocacy they need to thrive in work, college or training.
The moment a young person walks out of school for the last time is exhilarating — and quietly terrifying.
In Carnoustie and the surrounding Angus communities we serve, many of those young people have never been shown how to register with a GP in a new town, how to talk to an employer about a mental-health dip, how to cook a balanced meal on a tight budget, or how to recognise when they need help and ask for it clearly.
Vibrant Health Advocates – Caldera exists to close that gap. Through a programme of hands-on workshops, one-to-one coaching and peer-led sessions, we prepare school leavers aged 15–19 for the real demands of independent adulthood — equipping them not just to cope, but to build genuinely healthy, self-directed lives in one of Scotland’s most distinctive coastal communities.
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We give young people in Carnoustie and across Angus the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to take charge of their own health and future.
We give young people a working vocabulary for their own wellbeing — so they can spot early warning signs, talk to someone they trust, and navigate Scotland’s mental-health support landscape with confidence. No jargon, no stigma: just practical tools they can use from day one.
From budgeting a first payslip to cooking nutritious meals on a student grant, our workshops tackle the unglamorous essentials that school rarely covers. Participants leave with checklists, templates and the muscle-memory of having actually done these things in a room with their peers.
Whether it’s asking an employer for a reasonable adjustment, querying a benefits decision or challenging a landlord, our self-advocacy sessions teach young people how to represent themselves calmly and effectively. We role-play real scenarios drawn from Angus young people’s own experiences.
Launchpad Life Skills — cooking session
Mind Ready — peer discussion group
Peer Mentoring Circle — Carnoustie
Since our first lunchtime sessions at Carnoustie High, we have grown into a structured programme reaching hundreds of young people each year.
More than nine in ten participants leave our workshops feeling more confident than when they walked in. Six secondary schools across Angus now partner with us to bring our sessions directly into school life — and demand for our summer intensive grows every year.
We are a community organisation in the most literal sense: almost everything we do is delivered by people who grew up here, know these streets, and care deeply about what happens to young people as they take their first steps into independent adulthood.
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partner schools
Whether you volunteer, donate or partner with us, every contribution flows directly into the lives of young people navigating one of the most significant transitions of their lives.
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