A Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation rooted in Alloa, standing firmly in the corner of unpaid carers across Clackmannanshire since 2014.
Vibrant Health Advocates – Solenne is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation rooted in Alloa, the county town of Clackmannanshire. We exist because unpaid carers — the people who look after a parent with dementia, a child with complex needs, a partner living with a long-term condition — are doing extraordinary work in near-total silence. They are also, statistically, far more likely to experience poor physical and mental health as a direct result of that caring role. Solenne was set up to interrupt that trajectory.
Our approach rests on two pillars. The first is our respite guidance service: a free, personalised service that helps carers understand what a break might look like for them, identifies appropriate local provision, and supports them through assessments, referrals, and paperwork. The second is the Solenne Buddy Network, which pairs carers with trained volunteer Buddies for regular, reliable peer support. Many of our Buddies have been carers themselves and bring an authenticity to those conversations that no professional training alone can manufacture.
We are small by choice. Working solely in Alloa and the surrounding communities of Clackmannanshire means we can build genuine relationships with carers, with GP practices, with Clackmannanshire Council social work teams, and with the full range of statutory and voluntary services in the area. That depth of local knowledge is what makes us effective. We are not a helpline or a website — we are people who know this town, who will sit with you in the Speirs Centre or meet you near Alloa Academy, and who will still be here six months from now.
Registered Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation
Solenne began in 2014 when a small group of Alloa residents — several of them former or current carers — noticed something troubling. Clackmannanshire had a higher-than-average proportion of unpaid carers relative to its population, and the local services designed to support them were difficult to find, harder to access, and almost impossible to navigate without someone who already knew the system. The group's founding chair, herself a former carer for her husband through a long illness, was determined that no one in Alloa should have to learn what she had learned alone and under pressure. She and her colleagues registered as a SCIO, secured their first small grant from the National Lottery Community Fund, and opened a part-time advice post in a borrowed room on Mar Street.
Eleven years on, Vibrant Health Advocates – Solenne has grown carefully rather than quickly, always prioritising the quality of relationships over the scale of throughput. The Solenne Buddy Network — named in memory of a founding trustee who died in 2017 after years of tireless volunteering — was introduced in 2018 and has since become the part of our work carers mention first when asked what made a difference. We have expanded our hours, moved into our own space, and deepened our partnerships with NHS Forth Valley and Clackmannanshire Council, but the founding instinct remains unchanged: carers in Alloa deserve someone firmly in their corner.
"Carers in Alloa deserve someone firmly in their corner."
Vibrant Health Advocates – Solenne exists to protect the health and wellbeing of unpaid carers in Alloa and Clackmannanshire by providing compassionate, expert respite guidance and a trusted peer-support buddying scheme — ensuring that the people who give so much to those they love have somewhere to turn, someone to walk alongside them, and a genuine opportunity to rest and recover.
Solenne is governed by a board of trustees who bring together lived experience of unpaid caring, professional expertise in health and social care, and deep roots in the Alloa community. Our trustees give their time freely and are supported by a small team of paid staff and over sixty dedicated volunteer Buddies. Together, they are the reason carers across Clackmannanshire keep coming back to us — and keep telling their friends.
Chair
Treasurer
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Get in touch — no referral form needed, no wrong questions. We are here for carers, referrers, volunteers, and anyone who wants to know more about what we do.
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