A Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation built by, and for, the communities of Dundee — working to close the gap between people and the healthcare they deserve.
Vibrant Health Advocates Dundee was established as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation to address a gap that frontline health workers and community volunteers had been noticing for years.
Too many Dundee residents, particularly in the city's more deprived data zones, were disengaging from health services not because they didn't care about their health, but because the system felt impenetrable, unwelcoming, or simply exhausting to navigate alone. We set out to change that relationship — between residents and their GP, between patients and their consultant, between citizens and the decisions that affect their wellbeing.
Our work is grounded in the principle that health inequalities in Dundee are not inevitable. The city has long carried some of the most stark health outcome disparities in Scotland — lower life expectancy, higher rates of preventable hospital admissions, and significant mental health challenges concentrated in specific communities. We believe that informed, supported, and empowered individuals are the single most effective lever for closing that gap.
As a SCIO, we are accountable to our beneficiaries and to the wider Scottish public. We work closely with NHS Tayside, Dundee City Council, the Integration Joint Board, and a range of third-sector partners.
Vibrant Health Advocates Dundee grew out of conversations happening in community kitchens and tenement stairwells long before it had a name or a registered number. In the early 2010s, a loose coalition of community health workers, retired nurses, and neighbourhood activists in the Hilltown area began meeting informally to share stories: a neighbour who had attended three appointments without understanding her diagnosis; a family waiting months for a stalled mental health referral; an elderly man who had stopped seeing his GP because he felt dismissed.
The answer, they agreed, was not to fix the NHS from the outside, but to walk alongside people as they engaged with it. With seed funding from Dundee City Council and the support of a local GP practice that offered meeting space, the group formally constituted itself as a SCIO and began delivering structured advocacy sessions in 2014.
What started as a single weekly drop-in at a community centre in the West End has grown into a city-wide operation spanning twelve regular venues, four core programme areas, and a network of trained volunteer advocates who give thousands of hours of their time each year. The name — Vibrant Health Advocates — was chosen by the founding group to reflect both the energy they wanted to bring to the work and the vision of a Dundee where every resident can lead a full and healthy life.
Our West End drop-in, circa 2015
Vibrant Health Advocates Dundee exists to reduce health inequalities in Dundee by empowering individuals and communities to understand, access, and advocate for the healthcare and wellbeing support they are entitled to. We believe that every person in this city — regardless of income, literacy level, immigration status, or prior experience of health services — deserves to be an active and informed participant in their own care.
We achieve this through direct one-to-one advocacy, community health education, and by raising the collective voice of Dundee's underserved residents within the wider health and social care system.
As a SCIO, we are accountable to our beneficiaries and to the wider Scottish public. We work closely with NHS Tayside, Dundee City Council, the Integration Joint Board, and a range of third-sector partners to ensure that our advocacy is joined up, our referral pathways are live, and our services remain responsive to the evolving needs of the city. Every year we review our programme of work with the communities we serve to make sure we are spending our charitable resources where they will make the greatest difference.
Vibrant Health Advocates Dundee is led by a Board of Trustees who bring together expertise in health and social care, community development, financial governance, and lived experience of the challenges our beneficiaries face.
Chair
Treasurer
Trustee
Trustees serve on a voluntary basis and meet quarterly to oversee strategy, finances, and the ongoing development of our charitable activities. Alongside the Board, our small paid staff team and a dedicated network of trained volunteer advocates carry the day-to-day work of the organisation.
Whether you need support, want to volunteer, or would like to partner with us — our door is open.