Bethany Christian Trust in Edinburgh has received £150,000 from the STV Children’s Appeal to boost financial support for Safe Families for Children, a community project running in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Safe Families for Children helps families in crisis get back on their feet and prevent children being looked after away from home. The project provides befriending, counselling, short term stays for young children with stable families, and resources including household items, toys, children’s clothes, food and transport.
A small professional staff team facilitate the efforts of hundreds of local volunteers to maintain a safe and high quality of service, and the funding boost is great news for the project.
Iain Gordon, Chief Executive of Bethany Christian Trust, said: “We are absolutely delighted that the STV Children’s Appeal has chosen to partner with Safe Families for Children (SFFC) Scotland. The generous and vital support of the STV Children’s Appeal means that scores of struggling families across central Scotland will benefit from the life changing support of caring volunteers in their local community.
“Many families find it difficult with illness, unemployment, relationship stress and many other issues of life. The partnership with the STV Children’s Appeal will allow us to grow the scale and reach of SFFC Scotland to communities in the Lothians and Greater Glasgow as we seek to support parents to cope with challenging situations and care for their families through times of difficulty and crisis. In so doing we will help families to become more resilient and critically keep families together, reducing the need for children to be looked after and accommodated away from home.
“We are hopeful that in partnership with the STV Children’s Appeal we can establish SFFC Scotland as a key source of help and support for struggling families in Scotland.”
Since launch in 2011, the STV Children’s Appeal has raised £11 million with 424 big and small grants distributed to projects across all 32 local authority areas in Scotland, providing much needed support to over 59,000 children. The money raised is distributed to provide practical help like food and warm clothes; create opportunities for training and employability; and enable social and emotional support for those who need it most.
Rob Woodward, STV CEO and trustee of the STV Children’s Appeal, said: “All the money donated to the STV Children’s Appeal remains in Scotland and will help bring about positive changes to the lives of vulnerable children and young people on our doorstep. With the help of the extraordinary fundraising efforts taking place in communities across the country we are able to support projects like Safe Families for Children that help improve the lives of children in Scotland. We are extremely grateful to everyone who supports the STV Children’s Appeal.”
Chris Wilson, Managing Director, Royal Bank of Scotland said: “We are delighted to have supported the STV Children’s Appeal for the last four years and really admire the great work they do. It is particularly rewarding to get to visit these amazing projects and see first hand where the money we’ve helped raise is making a real difference to people’s lives.”
Sir Tom Hunter, trustee of the STV Children’s Appeal, said: “Through the Appeal our singular ambition is to deliver sustainable solutions to end child poverty. It is simply unacceptable in modern Scotland to still have young people debilitated by poverty through no fault of their own. Thanks to this project and many more, the people of Scotland are doing their level best to combat poverty.
“This is about communities coming together and with a hand up, not a hand out, from the STV Appeal, helping themselves deliver sustainable solutions to end child poverty.”
Sir Ian Wood, trustee of the STV Children’s Appeal, said: “The generosity of the people in Scotland who provide such great support to the STV Children’s Appeal is always incredibly encouraging and heart-warming. It is deeply concerning that there continues to be a significant requirement across Scotland for this financial support. However, I do believe that the £2.9million raised this year will make a significant contribution to eradicating the issue of child poverty in Scotland. Throughout my working life I travelled a lot seeing an obvious divide between the haves and the have-nots around the world, and to know that this is also happening on our doorstep is deeply concerning. Everyone has a role to play in reducing the alarming child poverty statistics.”
If you’re an individual or group that would like to get involved with the STV Children’s Appeal and help raise funds for children and young people affected by poverty in Scotland, please get in touch with Natalie Wright at natalie.wright@stv.tv.
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