About Us
A small organisation with deep roots — and a very clear sense of why we exist.
Vibrant Health Advocates - Delta is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation rooted in Paisley and serving unpaid carers across Renfrewshire.
We were formed because local carers told us — clearly, repeatedly, and with great patience — that they were falling through the cracks: too busy to navigate complex systems alone, too exhausted to advocate for themselves, and too often assumed to be coping simply because they kept showing up. We listened, and we built an organisation around what they actually said they needed.
Our work centres on three practical commitments: giving carers accurate, accessible information about their rights and the services available to them; creating regular, safe spaces where carers can speak honestly about their lives without fear of judgement; and helping carers identify and access respite before they reach breaking point.
We work closely with Renfrewshire Council's carers team, local GP practices, and the wider voluntary sector network across the area, so that our guidance is always grounded in what is genuinely available locally and right now.
Our fortnightly circles, Paisley
It means our staff and volunteers know our members by name, understand their individual circumstances, and can offer the kind of continuity that larger, more transactional services rarely manage.
We are independently evaluated, transparently governed, and entirely led by what the carers we serve tell us matters most. That accountability to lived experience is not a value statement — it is the operating principle behind every decision we make.
Real support, real homes
Vibrant Health Advocates - Delta grew out of a series of conversations that took place in a church hall in Paisley's East End several years ago. A small group of local people — some carers themselves, others who had recently stepped down from a caring role — were struck by how consistently carers in the area described the same experience: feeling profoundly alone in a role that nobody had prepared them for, uncertain what support existed, and quietly convinced that asking for help would somehow mean they were failing the person they cared for.
Those conversations became a listening project, the listening project became a programme, and the programme became this organisation. We took our name — Delta — from the Greek symbol for change, because change was exactly what carers kept telling us they needed: not dramatic transformation, but small, meaningful shifts in knowledge, in confidence, and in the sense that someone was standing alongside them.
In the years since, we have grown steadily and deliberately, always in response to what Paisley's carers tell us they need rather than what funders or commissioners assume they need. We remain a Paisley organisation first — deeply local, proudly community-led, and conscious that the trust carers place in us is something earned slowly and lost quickly. Every support circle we run, every benefits check we complete, and every conversation we have with a carer who has never told anyone how hard things really are, reinforces why this organisation exists and why the work is never finished.
Vibrant Health Advocates - Delta exists to ensure that unpaid carers in Paisley and across Renfrewshire are informed, supported, and never invisible. We believe that caring for a family member or friend is one of the most significant contributions a person can make to their community — and that carers deserve organisations which meet that contribution with genuine, sustained, and practical support.
Our mission is to provide every carer we reach with plain-language guidance on the benefits and services available to them, regular opportunities to connect with others who share their experience, and clear, honest information about respite — so that carers can protect their own physical and mental health, sustain their caring role over the long term, and never have to pretend that everything is fine when it is not.
Vibrant Health Advocates - Delta is governed by a board of trustees who bring together lived experience of caring, professional expertise in health and social care, and deep roots in the Paisley community.
They give their time entirely voluntarily, meeting regularly to ensure the organisation is well-run, transparent, and genuinely accountable to the carers it serves. Our small, experienced staff team carries out the day-to-day work of the organisation, supported by a network of trained volunteers who help deliver our support circles, outreach activities, and community information events across Renfrewshire.
Margaret Gillies
Chair
Alistair Drummond
Treasurer
Fiona Nwachukwu
Trustee
We welcome approaches from anyone who shares our commitment to Paisley's carers. Whether you are interested in volunteering, donating, or supporting us as a partner organisation, we would be very glad to hear from you.
Get involvedReach out to us — by phone, email, or in person at our Paisley base. We will always make time for a proper, unhurried conversation.