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Up to 50 redundancies expected at Findhorn Foundation


By Garry McCartney

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The Findhorn Foundation and Community Park. .. Picture: Daniel Forsyth..
The Findhorn Foundation and Community Park. .. Picture: Daniel Forsyth..

A spiritual community is facing a large number of redundancies as a knock-on effect of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Findhorn Foundation’s chief executive officer, Caroline Matters, has confirmed that the charity which runs educational courses and workshops, popular with visitors from the UK and overseas, has lost the vast majority of its income since lockdown was introduced in March.

She said: “We rely on residential visitors, but have not been able to run any of our programmes, so 80 per cent of our income has gone. As a result, we are now entering a formal consultation period with our staff and have already had to make some redundant.

“However, we are mindful of both our residential and non-residential employees, and looking for ways to raise the finance to avoid redundancies.”

The Findhorn Foundation is a spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage and registered as a Scottish charitable trust in 1972. It has since been home to thousands of residents from more than 40 countries.

As well as running educational programmes, it also houses around 40 community businesses. Before the pandemic, its main site, The Park at Findhorn and Cluny College in Forres, housed more than 400 people.

Around 3000 participants from around the world take part in residential programmes each year.

Ms Matters said: “We usually welcome participants from all over the world. We hope to build our programmes back, but there is great uncertainty because of Covid-19 travel restrictions. We hope to welcome everyone back once it is safe to do so.

“In the meantime, we are looking at how to develop more online programmes and partnerships in the local area. We seek to strengthen our links with the area and want to develop more local partnerships, such as with Moray Council and Moray College, while there are fewer visitors and we have more opportunity to do so.”

It is thought that up to 50 Findhorn Foundation employees may lose their jobs, including residential employees who may also lose their homes.

Ms Matters added: “The foundation is at the heart of The Park and the spiritual community here. Our community is supporting anyone who may lose their jobs. I am unable to provide redundancy numbers at this point.

“This is all really painful for everyone and we are looking at how to support our staff financially and with accommodation. We are seeking to ensure that anyone who is made redundant is supported and helped to find accommodation, including offering some of our own.”

In a recent edition of the Findhorn Foundation’s magazine Rainbow Bridge, a programme participant sent her “very best wishes to all those made redundant from the foundation”.

She added: “I really hope with all my heart that you have heard appreciations and compassions from those who have had to make these difficult decisions.”



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