- Area:
- Scotland
- Programme:
- Making it Work
- Release date:
- 17 4 2013
The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) Scotland today (17 APRIL) announces a package of funding worth up to £7 million to support Scotland’s poorest single parent families. The Making it Work scheme will help lone parents tackle the many challenges they face in getting into the job market.
It is estimated that there are over 174,000 lone parents with 295,000 children in Scotland. Just below half are living in income poverty. While many lone parents want to work, escalating competition for jobs along with the challenge of finding the right childcare can mean some struggle to sustain or secure a job.
Big Lottery Fund Scotland Director, Jackie Killeen said: “Making it Work has a big ambition: to improve the lives of single parent families. The five partnerships we are supporting today have taken approaches which suit their local needs and circumstances. We want to see services such as education, employability and childcare coming together to help create a more holistic service and give lone parent families a better chance of a brighter future.”
Jobs & Business Glasgow’s Making It Work project will help vulnerable lone parents into employment or move closer to finding work. Working with a number of partners today’s grant of £1,999,803 will enable support measures to be put in place to help parents overcome the hurdles they face with trying to get a job. These will include skills development and job matching, training opportunities, vocational accreditation, social and personal improvement. Taster sessions and work experience placements will be available and methods provided to help individuals cope with personal challenges and childcare issues.
Calum Graham, Chief Executive of Jobs & Business Glasgow, said, “We believe that the current economic environment provides many opportunities to develop new and innovative approaches to service delivery, increasingly through partnerships between Third and Voluntary Sector organisations in the city. We are delighted to receive this grant funding from Big Lottery Fund Scotland which will support just such an approach to the delivery of the Making it Work programme.”
“With the support of our partners: One Parent Families Scotland; the Scottish Childminding Association; Rosemount Learning; Stepping Stones for Families; and the Wise Group, this significant investment will assist the partnership to deliver customised training that will improve self-confidence, mental and physical well-being and assist participants to capitalise on available learning and employment opportunities. Through this investment we will enable lone parents in the city to overcome the barriers they face and assist them to improve the quality of life for their families.”
With an honours degree in computer networking, John Connor enjoyed an impressive employment within related IT roles. Everything changed in 2009 when he gave up work to care full time for his terminally ill wife, and their twin boys. A year later John’s wife, and his mother, passed away leaving him devastated and unsure about his future as a single parent. Despite his grief John kept going, making his children’s happiness and security his main priorities. Feeling that the family home held too many upsetting memories the moved into rented accommodation but John couldn’t manage both rent and mortgage and got into financial difficulty. With the boys starting school, John needed to think about his own future.
He was referred by his health visitor to the Bridging Service at Jobs & Business Glasgow and spoke with his adviser about his financial concerns and the trauma of losing his wife and mother. He was encouraged to create goals, and shown ways to overcome his difficulties and take steps towards regaining a positive routine and structure in his life. A financial adviser offered guidance on budgeting and managing his debts, and John then went on a nine week personal development course which helped with his confidence, communication skills, assertiveness, and life balance.
Keen to work in health or social care John’s adviser is helping him obtain a voluntary position with the NHS Health Start Programme. He’s taking small steps and believes the support he gets from Jobs & Business Glasgow is helping his confidence and motivation. John is now able to look ahead in a more positive and constructive way and is determined to achieve a better quality of life for himself and his children.
Frances Chisholm, Press Team Scotland: 0141 242 1458
Public Enquiries Line: 0300 123 7110
Text phone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website:
www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
• Making it Work is targetting Glasgow, Edinburgh, North and South Lanarkshire, and Fife.
• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £25 billion over £28 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
• The Scotland Committee, has been making Big Lottery Fund decisions on Scottish projects since March 2007. As well as taking devolved decisions on Lottery spending, the Committee, led by Chair, Maureen McGinn, has and will continue to play a strategic role in the future direction of BIG in Scotland.
• The Big Lottery Fund is investing in Scotland’s communities through its Investing in Communities portfolio, as well as the small grants schemes Awards for All, Investing in Ideas, Communities and Families and 2014 Communities.
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