Rooted in Renfrew, built for its workers
A community organisation that exists because good health information should reach everyone, not just those who can seek it out.
A different kind of health organisation
Vibrant Health Advocates – Keystone is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation rooted entirely in Renfrew. We exist because we noticed something specific to this town: the workers who keep its economy running — the warehouse operatives, the production line staff, the admin teams in riverside business parks — were consistently the people least likely to engage with conventional health promotion. Leaflets go unread. Drop-in clinics require time that shift workers do not have. Workplace wellbeing felt, for too long, like something reserved for large corporate employers with in-house HR budgets.
We take a different approach. Our health advocates are ordinary community members trained by qualified health professionals to deliver focused, friendly, evidence-based talks during the lunch break. We work with employers — from sole-trader warehouses to mid-sized logistics companies — to identify what their teams actually want to know about. Sometimes that is physical: back care, diet, recognising the signs of hypertension. Sometimes it is mental: managing anxiety, sleep hygiene, knowing when to ask for help. We let the workforce set the agenda, because people engage with information that speaks to their own lives.
Since our founding, we have built lasting relationships with dozens of Renfrew employers. We return regularly rather than offering one-off visits, because we understand that behaviour change is gradual and trust is earned over time. Many of our volunteer advocates are themselves Renfrew workers who received talks through their own employers and wanted to pass that knowledge on. That cycle of community investment is what makes Vibrant Health Advocates – Keystone more than a health project: it is a movement of local people taking care of each other.
Registered in Scotland
We are a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation — governed by a voluntary board, accountable to our community, and free to focus entirely on our mission.
How it began — in the industrial estates of Renfrew
Vibrant Health Advocates – Keystone grew out of conversations happening in Renfrew's industrial estates. A small group of local people — including a retired occupational health nurse, a former logistics manager, and a community development worker with long experience in Renfrewshire — kept noticing the same pattern: workers in physically demanding, shift-based roles were experiencing entirely preventable health deteriorations, simply because no one had ever found a way to bring useful information to them in a format and setting that worked.
The founding group spent a year consulting with employers, speaking to workers during factory and warehouse visits, and working with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde health promotion colleagues to design a model that was genuinely accessible. The lunchtime talk format emerged from that consultation, not from a textbook — workers themselves said: 'Come to us, keep it short, make it useful, and make sure we can ask questions.'
That is exactly what we have done ever since, and Renfrew is the better for it.
Why we exist
Vibrant Health Advocates – Keystone exists to improve the health and wellbeing of working people in Renfrew by taking practical, credible health information directly into their places of work. We believe that geography, occupation, and income should never determine the quality of health knowledge a person can access. Through free, on-site lunchtime wellbeing talks delivered by trained community advocates, we reach the workers who are most often missed by mainstream health promotion — and we do it in a way that is warm, respectful, and genuinely useful to people's daily lives.
Our board and advocates
Vibrant Health Advocates – Keystone is governed by a voluntary board of trustees who bring together expertise in public health, business, community development and financial management. Our trustees are all connected to Renfrew and Renfrewshire, and they guide the charity with the kind of practical, grounded judgement that only comes from knowing a place well. Alongside the board, our team of trained volunteer advocates — many of them local workers themselves — are the beating heart of the charity, delivering sessions week in, week out across the town.
Margaret Dunlop
Chair
Alistair McBride
Treasurer
Priya Nair
Trustee
Want to join us?
We are always looking for people who want to train as volunteer health advocates. No prior health knowledge is required — just warmth, reliability, and a connection to Renfrew.
Find out how to get involvedBring wellbeing to your team this week
Book a free lunchtime session for your Renfrew workplace — no paperwork, no cost, no fuss.
Get in touch