Many of the Rock Trust team came back to work this week, while those who’d been working throughout Christmas (including the amazing on call team) went off for a well-deserved break. It felt the right time to send around a new year message. Before we go charging into 2026, I wanted to encourage everyone (myself included!), to take time to reflect.  

What were some of your wins in the past year? What made you feel good? How can you create more experiences in 2026 that make you feel like that?  

Reflection helps us improve. It helps us find different ways of doing things. I sent this message for us to consider as individuals, but we do it as an organisation too. Charities don’t stand still as society moves on. We don’t live the same year over and over again. Nothing would ever change if we did. And in our sector its change that we strive for every day – positive, lasting change, in a society with so much structural inequality, so many broken systems, but so much hope and energy to try and do things differently.  

So, if you’re looking ahead at 2026 with worry, or even apathy, maybe have a wee look back at 2025 and find what made you feel good. It might just be the thing worth building on in the coming year.  

2026: Growing and changing for the better 

In 2026 Rock Trust are taking forward a new organisational strategy. Where we’ve seen success, we will grow; where we see opportunity, we will innovate; and where we need to overcome challenges, we will make changes.   

We remain focussed on: 

• Early intervention and prevention – we will continue to gather evidence of Upstream Scotland’s impact in schools to support a national rollout. 
• Increasing access to suitable housing for young people – we will expand our housing offering for young people, through initiatives such as repurposing empty homes. 
• Expanding Housing First for Youth – we will work with partners to continue supporting the rollout and delivery of Housing First for Youth programmes nationally and internationally. 
• Strengthening life-skill outcomes with young people ensuring they have the tools to thrive – we will continue to embed and expand our employability and health & well-being offering for the young people we support.  
• Tackling structural inequalities affecting care-experienced and marginalised young people – we will work with Local Authorities and Scottish Government to support the implementation of the Youth Homelessness Prevention Pathways. 

All of this work is made possible by the energy and commitment of our staff and volunteers, the trust of the young people we work with, and the support of our partners, donors and funders. Thank you to every single one of you.  

Happy New Year from all of us at Rock Trust.

You can read more about the difference we make, and the supporters who’ve helped us get here, in our annual review for 2024-25.