My name is Mandy Hunter and I began working as Centre Manager here at the Linton Lane Centre in 1996.

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Before I came to the Centre I had a long background of voluntary work within the community.  When my children were young I volunteered at Burntisland Playgroup as a committee member going on to be a Play Manager (where I am still the treasurer 37 years later).  I also spent 20 years at the Toll Centre in Burntisland as the Social Convener Fundraiser.  So I have a long experience of working within the community, fundraising and applying for grants.

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Over the years the Linton Lane Centre has moved from being primarily a youth focused venue to being a more family focused environment through playgroups, through women’s groups, supporting mental health groups.  Then once we took on the Foodbank here at the Centre and more and more people were coming into the Centre and we learned that they needed drop-in groups, breakfast clubs and this gave us the opportunity to realise what the needs were of the community, of all the people coming in through the doors and not just members of the recreational groups we were running.

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During Covid we closed for just one day and then re-opened.  We became a hub for other social support organisations as we were going out and distributing food parcels to the community.  I think this helped the Centre receive a lot of recognition and helped in creating a lot pf partnership working; I think a lot of people became aware of who we were, what we were and what we could offer.

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So now, after 27 years as Centre Manager, I have now changed my role in the Centre to CEO and we now have two new managers who have recently taken over the hands-on running of the Centre…