In Your Shoes - Metta Ramsay

Overgate Health Week launches

Today is the start of an exciting week at Overgate as a project I have been working on finally comes to life. We have partnered with 17 local organisations to deliver Overgate Health Week and each day we will focus on a different health topic from the benefits of physical activity, young people’s health, nutrition and healthy eating, mental health, cancer support and drugs and alcohol. My colleague Karen Michie and I have worked hard to pull this campaign together so it’s exciting to see our first physical campaign come alive within the centre after 18 months.

Police Scotland Youth Volunteers (PSYV) are joining us today and I am keen to meet them. I will be joining PSYV as an Adult Volunteer in the coming weeks just as soon as my Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) certificate is processed.

Alongside this, Monday is the day I catch up with our retailers and distribute a weekly ‘What’s On’ newsletter that includes key information and centre statistics.

On a personal note, my sister and I recently signed up for an Odeon limitless card, so tonight we are off to the cinema to relive a favourite childhood movie - Cruella.

Overgate X Local Influencers

A key part of our marketing strategy this year is to liaise and work with local micro influencers across Overgate’s social media channels. Today I have identified a list of 15 potential influencers and have created a partnership brief to reach out with. Keep your eyes peeled on Overgate’s social channels in the coming months to find out who the centre will be partnering with.

This afternoon, the centre has been quiet enough to allow me to catch-up with a few retailers and film some retailer ‘reel’ content for our Instagram page.
Overgate has signed up to become official members of the Breastfeeding Friendly Scotland scheme so today I also displayed some signage for this around the centre and met with Veronica Patullo, Project Officer for Maternal & Infant Nutrition at NHS Tayside. Veronica is currently trying to get as many local businesses as possible to sign up to the new Breastfeeding Friendly Scotland scheme so it was wonderful to hear more about it.

I would never call myself a football fan, however, I must admit I enjoyed watching the Scotland vs. England Euro 2020 match at the weekend and I’m going to my parent’s house tonight to watch the game against Croatia!

Can you hear the birds in the trees?

Every Wednesday morning starts with a Microsoft Teams meeting with Overgate’s management team to catch up on what we are all working on. The pandemic has meant our team has been split in half with days working from home and days in the office, so it is nice to all catch up (and share what we are binge watching on TV…)

This afternoon has been exciting as I got to visit local social enterprise, Uppertunity, to collect bird boxes that their clients have kindly been painting for us and will be located in the trees in William Gardiner Square.

This evening I am meeting a couple of my friends after work for a walk so fingers crossed the rain stays off!

Meetings, meetings and more meetings!

It’s not often that my days are jam packed with meetings, but today has been one of those days. My three-hour morning meeting was a quarterly management meeting with our client, Legal & General. Without giving too much away, it was really positive to hear about new retailers interested in joining Overgate to fill our vacant units…watch this space!

My afternoon meeting was with Xplore Dundee who we are planning to work with next month to deliver a family themed activity weekend at Overgate. I really enjoy collaborating with other local businesses in Dundee and identifying to deliver additional appeal for our shoppers.

I received my first covid vaccination today at the Caird Hall (thank you NHS!) and this evening, my sister and I are treating our Dad to a meal at Meze Grill as part of his Father’s Day gift.

Helping to develop the young workforce

This morning started with a catch-up call with the marketing and PR agencies I work alongside to ensure we are delivering everything within Overgate’s agreed strategy and taking advantage of any additional opportunities.

A big focus for Overgate this year is to support Developing the Young Workforce and today I liaised with Employer Liaison Advisor, Michael, to agree that Overgate Management will deliver a Digital Skills CV Workshop to pupils at D&A College on 1 July at their Gardyne Campus. I’m passionate about being able to give young people as many opportunities as possible via Overgate as an opportunity I received whilst at university is partly the reason where I am today.

This afternoon I spent some time organising goodie bags for three winners of the Dundee 2030 competition that we also ran in partnership with Developing the Young Workforce, and I managed to secure some great prizes to include from our retailers.

To finish off the day, I had a catch up with my colleague Karen and our Centre Manager Malcolm Angus regarding an entrepreneurial workshop that we will be delivering to pupils from six local secondary schools in October.

But it’s the weekend…

Today is not a working day for me, however, I find myself at Overgate because I just couldn’t miss out on seeing the activity being delivered today as part of our Health Week.

We have Dundee United Community Trust located on our external site with a pop-up football pitch, and Bonnie Dundee hosting garden bingo and a garden quiz in William Gardiner Square. Dundee Cycle Hub are hosting a pop-up outside Overgate and Iain Hay from the Hub is bringing their Dr Bike Service which is offering free bike safety checks and mini services. I expect it will be very busy and Iain and the team will be sharing advice on how people can cycle safely within the city, stay active and help to reduce air pollution. We have four-year-old (and very cute) Wylde Falconer helping us with our media photocall. Mhairi Cormack from Dundee Volunteer and Voluntary Action Group (DVVA) is also bringing along new E-trikes for the day and the public can test them out. I’m looking forward to having a go on one myself!