News Release
Scotland’s largest family support charity receives a £168,009 grant from The Big Lottery Fund.
Home-Start UK has been awarded a Big Lottery Grant from the Investing in Communities (Scotland) programme.
An award of nearly £170,000, spread over four years, will support a national project that aims to increase the supply of volunteer trustees with the range of backgrounds, skills and experience needed to guide the 32 local Home-Starts in Scotland towards long term sustainability.
Trustees are vital to Home-Start's across Scotland, without them the charity could not deliver an effective support service to needy families.
Dave Milliken, Director of Home-Start in Scotland said: "I am delighted to have been awarded this substantial grant. It will allow us to deliver training much nearer to our local Home-Starts in Scotland. Although many of them try to attend the annual trustee training event, with them spread so widely it can be difficult for people, who are voluntarily giving lots of time already, to travel significant distances".
Home-Starts in Scotland have said the Big Lottery grant is great news and will help them to deliver an effective support service to families that are struggling to cope.
Val Dunford, chair of trustees at Home-Start Ross and Cromarty agrees: "Our committee has been unable to attend Trustee Residential Training partly because of distance but also the difficulty in getting time off work. We have some difficulty recruiting and retaining trustees and would be delighted if our scheme were to benefit from this grant by being able to recruit much needed trustees.
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Contact:
Dave Milliken, Home-Start UK Director-Scotland t: 01259 729 819; e: dmilliken@home-start.org.uk
Notes to Editor
Home-Start
Home-Start is the UK's leading family support charity. We recruit and train volunteers to support parents with at least one child under the age of five. Our home visiting work is unique in the UK. The charity was set up in 1973 and in Scotland there are 32 Home-Start schemes, supporting 2,082 families each year. Over 1,000 volunteers visit families in their own homes - parents supporting other parents in a variety of situations including isolation, bereavement, multiple births, illness or disability. Nationally Home-Start supports nearly 35,000 families across the UK.
The Big Lottery Fund
The Big Lottery Fund distributes half of all National Lottery good cause funding across the UK. The Fund aims to enable others to make real improvements to the lives of disadvantaged people and the wellbeing of communities, through fair and open funding of people, projects and programmes.
Contact: Press office, t: 020 7211 1888
