fiona mckenzie is

relentlessly inclusive

Fiona McKenzie is stopping lives from being wasted by giving society’s most excluded somewhere to belong. An ex music teacher, Fiona was fed up watching students follow the same narrow path from school exclusion to prison admission. Where society chose to push people out, Fiona chose to invite them in. Fiona quit her job and set up her very own community village, CentreStage, a place for everyone to belong and prosper.

Fiona can still recall being a child and watching in awe as her father inspired his students with such passion. From an early age, she was certain that she wanted to emulate her dad’s enthusiasm for teaching. “I would sit in the assembly hall watching my dad teaching, watching him putting on these amazing pieces of music and thinking this is absolutely brilliant and knowing I wanted to do that.”

Fiona worked as a music teacher for 20 years. Over the course of her tenure, Fiona’s belief in her students never wavered. Her belief in the education system, however, was a different story. She felt that the arts were undervalued, and it was having major consequences on students' lives. “If a pupil was misbehaving in Maths, as a punishment they wouldn’t get to go to Music. That would never be applied in the reverse. Not getting to go to Maths? That’s not going to happen.” Beyond that, Fiona saw talented student after talented student getting expelled from school because of behaviours developed through unavoidable upbringings. “I started to discover that there was a pattern of these kids getting excluded not ending up in good places, despite the fact they liked creative subjects or sports.”

As she became more disillusioned with the education system, Fiona quit her job aged 40, and set up CentreStage, a community hub for the arts where everyone was welcome. Its approach? Focusing on people’s potential, not their problems. “We have to stop talking about the poverty and the problems of people and start talking about the potential of people, the possibilities of people. That’s how we really change things.” 

At first, to keep afloat, CentreStage charged a small fee to participate in classes. Fiona, however, had a burning determination to include those who needed it most - the people who likely didn’t have the money or resources to join in. So she began exploring outside of her building and inside her community. She visited care homes, community hubs and prisons, volunteering her time and her piano to give some of Kilmarnock’s most neglected individuals a wee bit of fun and purpose.

As she sat behind her piano ready to meet her first group of inmates on day one at the prison, she was greeted by some familiar faces. “That was the most important day for me. My first class was with 10 men and five of them I had taught as boys. Those five boys had been great wee boys that loved music. But they were excluded.” Fiona was appalled that her school had let these children down by failing to see their potential, and remorseful that she herself hadn’t done more. “Had I been asked, I would have kept them in my classroom. But I wasn't asked. Those boys didn't get a choice. I didn't get a choice either, but mine was the bigger failure because I didn't advocate for them.” 

Fiona decided that she wasn’t willing to watch more kids in the same position continue to walk the same path. As she left through the prison gates on that first day, she made it her mission to help the next generation of excluded individuals find a different future.

From that day until now - 18 years later - Fiona has worked tirelessly to include and support the most neglected amongst her community. Whether it be under-served young people, ex offenders, the elderly, disabled and neurodiverse individuals or families on low incomes; the groups that society pushes to the sidelines are, often for the first time in their lives, invited to take centre stage. And the change in their wellbeing and confidence is incredible. 

The challenges that CentreStage has had to overcome in the past 18 years are pretty immense, but that hasn’t stopped Fiona. She has taken each one as a learning that she uses to further refine her impact and approach. In 2017, Fiona and her team were searching for a new, bigger home for Centrestage and discovered that the iconic Kilmarnock Academy building was vacant. Despite being told by many a naysayer that it was an impossible feat, Fiona submitted an application and just 2 years later, CentreStage had found its new home in what became Scotland’s largest ever community asset transfer to a charity. In a full-circle moment, Fiona found herself back in a school building.

There is, however, a key difference between Fiona’s previous school building and her current one. Within these walls, there are no students. Only customers. And Fiona’s main goal is to provide a welcome that encourages everyone to want to become part of the CentreStage community. From the welcome desk and the cafe to the activities and facilities, CentreStage puts service front and centre, creating a warm and inviting community village where everyone is welcome.

Although bringing people from all walks of life together through their wide array of arts-focused initiatives, CentreStage has two key work strands to support the most vulnerable in their community; Connect and ReConnect. The former still works with young people who have disengaged from school, and the latter applies the same strengths based approach to adults who have disengaged from their community as a result of loneliness, trauma or homelessness.

For both groups, Fiona believes the foundation is providing a space and sense of community built on trust, consistency and openness. “It's really about coming into a space that is welcoming and safe. It's about eating together. It's about not going away. It's about chatting and talking, discovering strengths, exploring different activities.” What is more, CentreStage isn't the only organisation occupying the building’s hallways. Fiona and her team have built a “map of opportunities” to offer full-service support to these groups, as well as the many others who walk through CentreStage’s doors. A jigsaw of services whose pieces until now, had lay distanced and disconnected. Fiona concluded that a puzzle is far easier to put together if the pieces are at least in the same box!

So when these individuals attend CentreStage, they can gain qualifications if they choose to, delivered in CentreStage by Ayrshire College. Then, if they so choose, they have in the very same building access to: mental health counselling, affordable childcare from Flexible ChildCare Services Scotland, housing support from the East Ayrshire Tenants and Residents Federation and East Ayrshire Council Housing Team, Autism support from National Autistic Society, financial advice from Barclays bank an Social Security Scotland, support for care experienced people from Who Cares Scotland, and East Ayrshire Kinship Families, creative skills development from organisations including Ross Cooney Music school and Little Art School, employment opportunities from Working Rite, Buzzworks, Hub International and Skills Development Scotland, community engagement initiatives including Powerful African Women of Ayrshire, and English Second Language hubs and physical wellbeing opportunities including CoreFit and Ayrshire Gymnastics. The plethora of services offered is incredible and offer a connected pathway from disengagement to employment, happiness and connection.

Fiona has worked hard to ensure that CentreStage is relentlessly inclusive to all who would like to come in. There are rules in place to maintain safety, but generally if a boundary is broken, the door is not shut. “If somebody comes in and presents poor behaviour, we tell them ‘you can't talk like that here, please come back tomorrow’. If they do the same thing the next day, it’s ‘please come back tomorrow’ until they come back presenting better behaviour. You tend to find they’ll come back in their own time and engage.” CentreStage also now operates a pay-if-you-can model, to allow everyone to take part. “if you can pay the value. Thank you so much for paying. If you can't pay anything, of course you can have it. But please let us work with you and the people in this building to get you to the point where you can pay something, because there's no dignity in a hand out.” Between the activities, community events and the first-rate cafe, nowadays, 50% of CentreStage’s income is self generated, supporting Fiona and the team to continue building an inclusive, connected community.

All these years later, as Fiona thinks back to that first day outside the prison gates, she feels grateful to have learned about the challenges faced by the most vulnerable and excluded people in the community and very glad to have been able to help create a different pathway for them and their families; a pathway propped up by belonging, purpose and most importantly, by focusing on potential, not poverty.