Strengthening support through trust: how the Hymans Robertson Foundation has shaped The Wee Bursary

As the Hymans Robertson Foundation (HRF) marks its 10‑year anniversary, it’s an opportunity to reflect on how the Foundation’s values‑led approach to funding has enabled more effective support for young people. One clear example is The Wee Bursary – where the Foundation is a key funder and a partner that has helped shape how the bursary works in practice.

From the beginning, HRF supported the bursary in a way that challenged traditional funding models. Rather than short‑term, tightly restricted grants, HRF backed an approach built on trust, flexibility and long‑term thinking. As Pauline Wilson, Secondary School Lead at FARE Scotland, explains, this has been critical in allowing the bursary to meet young people’s needs as they arise:

One of the things we’ve rarely been able to do in the third sector is have the flexibility of funds and multi‑year funding: usually it’s very outcome‑based and restricted. Whereas our relationship with the Foundation and other bursary funders was built on real trust.

That trust has fundamentally strengthened what the bursary can achieve. HRF’s support allows referral partners to respond to the realities young people are facing - whether that's poverty, disengagement from education, housing instability or mental health challenges. Instead of waiting for systems to catch up, support can be put in place when it matters most.

The need is young people in poverty, and the need is to support young people where they’re at - whatever that looks like.

The funders are committed to an inclusive funding model, the bursary can remove practical barriers that would otherwise prevent young people from staying in education or accessing work. This includes covering the cost of school uniform, transport, PPE or employment checks, and responding quickly when a young person’s home situation puts their safety or schooling at risk.

We’re already there, we already know what’s happening, and we can help young people fix these problems as we go.

The Wee Bursary has moved beyond crisis response. With the Foundation’s backing, The Wee Bursary actively enables choice, aspiration and agency, trusting young people to identify what will make the biggest difference in their lives. Pauline shares how this has allowed the bursary to support creative and non‑traditional pathways, as well as education and employment.

You get young people who don’t often have the opportunity to choose. This bursary gives them agency over their own lives.

That sense of empowerment is echoed directly by young people themselves. As Pauline recalls, one young person summed up the bursary’s impact simply:

You don’t just provide money - you provide opportunity and hope.

Beyond funding, HRF has also played a key role in strengthening funding and referral partnerships across Glasgow. By bringing organisations together and fostering collaboration, the Foundation has helped create a more connected support network - one that can adapt and respond even as circumstances change.

The Hymans Robertson Foundation has been the leader in bringing partners together,” Pauline says. “That legacy will always be there.

As the Hymans Robertson Foundation celebrates its 10th anniversary, The Wee Bursary stands as a clear example of HRF’s wider impact. By leading with trust, embracing flexibility and investing in partnership‑led solutions, HRF has helped shape a bursary that does more than provide financial support - it creates opportunity, builds confidence and offers hope for the future.

If you’d like to learn more about the work of the Hymans Robertson Foundation, or explore how partnership‑led, trust‑based funding can make a difference, please get in touch.