As The Usual Place in Dumfries prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary in June 2025, it faces an undeniable financial challenge that threatens its future sustainability. For the past decade, TheUsual Place has been a beacon of hope in Dumfries & Galloway, providing disabled young people with additional support needs not just with opportunities but with a real path to becoming valued contributors to their communities.However, in a moment of critical financial pressure, the future of this transformative work is at risk.
A Decade of Transformation and Empowerment
Since its inception, The Usual Place has been committed to providing disabled young people with additional support needs not just a service, but a chance to build their own futures. Built in response to the voices of those who would otherwise be invisible, the charity has grown to serve thousands of young people. Through its café, training, and mentorship programmes, young people have developed skills, confidence, and self-worth, enabling them to contribute to society in meaningful ways.
However, their mission is not simply to provide daycare or a place to fill young people’s days. They are dedicated to creating genuine opportunities for growth, not passive participation. The young people they work with don’t just receive services—they actively develop skills, gain real-life work experience, and become contributors to their communities.The Usual Place is a skills academy where expectations are high, just as they would be in any professional setting.
Yet, despite the undeniable success of this model,The Usual Place is now at a crossroads. Rising operational costs—including significant increases in National Insurance, the Real Living Wage, and inflation—combined with the most competitive year ever for securing funding through trusts and foundations, and limited access to statutory funding, have created a perfect storm of financial pressures that threaten the sustainability of The Usual Place’s work.
A Challenge with Widespread Implications
“The Usual Place is more than a café,”says Craig McEwen, Chief Executive at The Usual Place “It’s a place of growth, empowerment, and opportunity. We are not just serving food—we are serving futures. The young people with additional support needs who join our programmes are building lives, not just receiving services, and in doing so, they are seen and heard, and are reshaping society’s understanding of what young people with additional support needs can contribute.”
Despite generating revenue through café sales, venue hire, and catering, The Usual Place relies heavily on external funding to sustain its operations. However, limited access to statutory funding and a highly competitive funding landscape, now make long-term financial stability increasingly difficult to achieve. This is compounded by rising operational costs—especially as the costs of National Insurance contributions and Real LivingWage increases come into play.
In response to this financial reality, The UsualPlace’s Board of Trustees has made the difficult decision to restructure its staffing, prioritising core training and mentorship programmes that are essential to its mission. Unfortunately, this means reducing staff numbers by6.03 full-time equivalent (FTE) posts, including 2.6 FTE mentoring roles.
Funding Proven Solutions
Craig says: “Our approach is proven to make a difference. We don’t just provide a temporary solution—we offer long-term empowerment. Our work has been acknowledged in numerous forums as best practice, including consultations with government committees and collaboration with universities. The disabled young people we support don’t just complete training; they thrive and make lasting contributions to their communities. Our work addresses the preventive need for support by providing young people with additional support needs a chance to build their futures before they fall into a cycle of reliance on services and support.
“We are also dedicated to working closely with partners, funders, and decision-makers to ensure that investment in services that work—such as our skills training, mentorship, and community integration programmes—is prioritised. We need the government to support proven solutions that have a direct impact on reducing long-term social isolation, youth unemployment, and dependency on welfare services.
A Preventive Approach to Impacting Change
“The Usual Place’s approach is grounded in prevention. By challenging stereotypes and providing young people with the skills, confidence, and independence they need, we are not simply filling a gap in service provision—we are actively preventing future social and economic costs. We know that preventive action is far more effective—and cost-effective—than waiting for issues to escalate. The skills we teach, the opportunities we provide, and the real-world working environment we offer all contribute to a future where young people with additional support needs can be self-sufficient and engaged members of their communities, without the need for costly institutional care or services.
“We cannot underestimate the long-term societal and economic costs of inaction,” says Craig.
“The impact of failing to provide sufficient support to young people with additional support needs is not just felt by them—it’s felt by all of us. If we do not invest now, we risk creating a future where young people face long-term unemployment, social isolation, and greater reliance on welfare services. This is not just a challenge for The Usual Place—it is a challenge for society as a whole.”
Celebrating 10 Years and Looking Ahead
As The Usual Place approaches its 10th anniversary, it remains steadfast in its commitment to building a future where young people with additional support needs are valued, respected, and fully included in all aspects of society. But it needs the support of the community and decision-makers to ensure that its work continues.
“We have always worked from our values: that everyone has equal worth, can contribute to their community and deserves dignity and respect. Everyone has potential,” says Craig. “Together, we can make sure that the opportunities we create don’t end here. We need to continue showing that every pound invested in our programmes returns far greater value in terms of social impact and public benefit. We are creating a life, not just a service, and that makes a difference to all of us.”
Craig says: “As one young person told me today: “Why do we have to fight so hard for something that’s so good?”.”
The Usual Place is calling for young people, their families, café customers, partners, social media followers and the wider community to send messages of support and stories of how The Usual Place has, and can make a difference.
These should be sent to their MP, MSP and localCouncillors and to share these to their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/attheusualplace
