The community of MYPAS: “A sense of belonging”

To celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week, the team at MYPAS explore what community really means to them and how their work helps build spaces of connection, safety, and belonging for young people across Scotland.

From long-serving staff to newer team members, their reflections highlight the power of compassion, shared purpose, and creating environments where everyone feels seen and supported.

We’d love to hear from you too. What does community mean to you?

MYPAS embodies what it truly means to be a community. With an ever-growing team and members who have worked in the organisation for varying lengths of time, being part of MYPAS brings a sense of belonging to its people. 

We asked some of our team members what community means to them – and how they believe MYPAS helps to build it. 

Kate, working at MYPAS for 18 months: 

I think community means a place where you can ask people for things and give things to other people, both easy and difficult, like support or company. 

MYPAS builds a community by meeting needs that aren’t being met, wherever it can. At our LGBT social group, one of our young people said that MYPAS is their community right now, where they had none before, which came out of noticing there wasn’t a space for LGBT young people locally. 

Dawn, working at MYPAS for 12 years: 

When I think about community I think about a sense of belonging, being with people who share similar values and experiences.  I think about supporting each other through good and bad times and empowering each other to be the best versions of themselves 

MYPAS builds community by working together with young people and other professionals to provide a service that meets the currents needs and trends of the communities we work in.  

Laura, working at MYPAS for 4.5 years: 

A community for me is a group of people who support each other.  Where we feel a sense of belonging, safe, being held, understood and cared for. Community helps us feel less isolated. It helps us feel less alone and lonely.  A community can watch out, and create a positive, encouraging environment for each other, help when the times are hard, celebrate achievements and support and guide when things don’t go how we planned. A community builds us up, not pull us down.  

MYPAS builds community by working to provide a safe, nurturing environment for staff and clients. By encouraging people to look within themselves and recognise their own strengths. By showing people how amazing they are, drowning out the outside influences and helping them reach their full potential.  

As MYPAS started in 1999 trying to fill a gap to help young people with their mental health in Midlothian, it was through the building of a strong community we’ve grown not just in size, but in purpose.  

Over the past 26 years, our services have expanded to other areas, and our team has grown, but so has the wider community around us. As much as we support the local community, it supports us in return, shaping our work, guiding our direction, and helping us thrive as a charity.  

The community we’ve built isn’t just internal; it lives in the connections, partnerships, and trust we share with those around us.