‘GO is more than just its charity shop’
Charity Giving Opportunities is much more than just its charity shop, the charity’s newly-appointed general manager has said.
Michael Bougourd took on the role after Chris Murphy stepped down.
He joined GO, which works with neurodiverse individuals, socially-affected people and individuals who have come out of prison, in 2019.
Now he has taken on his new job, he is looking at how the charity can progress, both in terms of operating as a business, but also with the training aspects that it offers to service users.
‘GO is a place where it takes hold of you, the passion just builds and builds inside of you,’ said Mr Bougourd.
For many islanders, GO is all about the popular charity shop, which based on Southside.
But the charity does much more than that.
‘The charity shop is the smallest thing for us, it purely provides us with the funds to rent the building and develop training,’ said Mr Bougourd.
In the coming year Mr Bougourd is keen for the community to better understand what GO does for the community, including providing training and support in various areas for disadvantaged people.
‘In the last three years 50 trainees have come through our doors and 44 of those have gone on to work independently,’ said Mr Bougourd.
He added that when people leave prison, there are two things they need, accommodation and employment – and GO can help with the second of these.
The charity currently has 11 people working there, but could help up to 30 people at any one time.
And not only does the charity help the community, but also the environment.
‘There are so many strings to our bow, but the training aspect is the most important to us,’ said Mr Bougourd.
Mr Bougourd worked at the prison for 10 years and said that his background there had given him the tools to do a better job at GO in his new role.
