Grant Is Music To Group’s Ears

Grieving young people in Midlothian will now be able to access help through music therapy, thanks to a £500 grant from the Princes Trust. Midlothian Young Carers, a project run by Children 1st, is one of 11 organisations to receive a grant from The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in the second round of a grants programme funded by Comic Relief.

The money will be used to provide one-to-one therapist support, which will help youngsters to use music as an outlet for expressing their feelings on subjects such as bereavement and loss.

The Midlothian Young Carers service provides support, group work, advocacy and art therapy, tailored to meet the specific needs of young individuals. The work is aimed at improving the quality of life for each youngster, and includes working with other agencies to support the whole family.

Children and young people using the service can be affected by illness, disability, substance misuse or mental health problems within their family.

Helen Napier, service manager of Midlothian Young Carers, said: “We are delighted to receive this grant from Comic Relief. It will enable young people to use music as a means of expressing feelings, both painful and happy, which may not readily be expressed in words.

“We aim to support young people living in often difficult situations to be able to find ways of dealing with the issues facing them, and this is a very helpful tool which would not be available without the grant.”

Assistant director Alex Fox, of The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, said: “The grants programme has uncovered a huge level of need for funding for young carers services, and the projects will not only benefit the young carers in their area but will also generate learning which will feed into a toolkit of resources produced by the trust for the benefit of young carers across the country.”

Children1st is the most recent name of the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which was formed 120 years ago.

It supports families under stress, protects children from harm and neglect, helps them recover from abuse and promotes children’s rights and interests.