Charity receives major cash boost in Inverclyde

A NEW million pound project will help give some of Inverclyde’s most vulnerable children a better start in life.

Charity Barnardo’s has been awarded Big Lottery cash to help young victims of domestic abuse, mental ill health, addiction, trauma and neglect.

Nurturing Inverclyde – to be run with support from Inverclyde Community Health and Care Partnership – will benefit 300 local families.

The leading children’s charity plans to set up parenting groups, homework clubs, art therapy classes, a group for dads and provide outreach support.

Mary Glasgow, Barnardo’s assistant director of children’s services, said: “This award will help the charity develop Barnardo’s Nurturing Inverclyde, a family resource service to work with families with children under 12.

“The service will offer a range of supports to help improve family relationships.

“Together in close partnership with Inverclyde Community Health Partnership we hope to make a real effort to engage with families who are often called hard to reach but also easy to ignore.”

The Big Lottery’s £899,081 award was greeted with excitement at a recent ICHCP meeting where members hailed it as a major success for the area.

Congratulating the charity, the convenor of the ICHCP, Councillor Joe McIlwee said: “Barnardo’s Scotland have had a long-standing involvement in Inverclyde and we are delighted to have helped them secure funding for this much needed project.

“It will target children that are living in families where there are complex problems but where the children do not routinely receive social work services.

“By intervening as quickly as possible it should improve the outcomes for individual children and also reduce the rates of referrals to services such as the children’s hearing system and child and adolescent mental health services in the future.”

The head of children’s services and criminal justice in Inverclyde, Sharon McAlees, also believes the scheme will help give youngsters living in Inverclyde a better chance.

She said: “This was one of only four successful bids in Scotland.

“It will make a significant contribution to services for children in Inverclyde and will help move our parent strategy forward – it is a great investment.”

This investment is part of the Improving Futures Programme, funded by the Big Lottery Fund. They are donating £15.2 million pounds nationwide to help transform the lives of children between the ages of 5 and 10.

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