Press Release
More help for local families in Western Scotland
15 March 2005
A new Home-Start development worker has been appointed to kick start efforts to double the amount of help the charity offers to families with young children in Scotland.
Home-Start is the United Kingdom's only charity that recruits and trains volunteers to help families with children under five in their own homes.
The charity already has 31 schemes in Scotland, helping 1,882 families and 4,180 children. But in Western Scotland there are only seven schemes and an identified need for more.
Maureen Trumper started her new job extending the services of Home-Start in the West of Scotland on 1 March 2005. She will cover an area from South Ayrshire to Argyll and Bute, and as far east as South Lanarkshire. She aims to provide Home-Start's informal, friendly support in another 10 communities in the region.
The new position is funded by grants from the Henry Smith Charity, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland.
Trumper, a qualified social worker, set up and ran the Home-Start scheme in Dunfermline for fourteen and a half years. "I set up Home-Start Dunfermline when my youngest son went to nursery, and left it when he went to university," says Maureen. "It will be good to be back at the beginning of things again with this job, and helping other schemes get going."
"I am keen to hear from people with skills running businesses, or from the caring professions, who could volunteer on the management committees," she continued. "We also want to hear from people who would like to help as home-visiting volunteers."
Maureen Hendry co-ordinator of North Lanarkshire Council for Voluntary Service recognises the success of existing Home-Start schemes and says that families and referrers can see the benefits of having a local scheme: "Home-Start has proved very effective in Denny and is valued by other agencies as a useful addition to the services they provide for parents. Being alongside families during times when they are most vulnerable, Home-Start gives the informal, friendly support that can make a real difference."
"We need to double our capacity in Scotland to respond to the demand from local communities for our services," says David Milliken, Director of Home-Start Scotland. "Getting funding to appoint Maureen and allow her to support and develop schemes in Western Scotland is the first step in this process."
ENDS
For interviews with Maureen Trumper call her on 0141 776 3042.
Home-Start Eldon House Business Centre, 74 Townhead, Kirkintillock, Glasgow, G66 1NZ. NB - Not available the morning of Friday 18 March.
Further details Home-Start Press Office
In Scotland Home-Start has 31 schemes which assist 1,882 families and 4,180 children and are supported by 723 home visiting volunteers and 252 management committee volunteers.
Across the UK, Home-Start has 337 local community schemes across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The charity supports 29,588 families and 63,917 children with 10,371 home-visiting volunteers.
Home-Start recruits and trains volunteers who are usually parents
themselves to visit families at home. They offer informal, friendly and confidential support. The service is open to all regardless of income, faith, creed or colour.
Existing Home-Start schemes in Maureen Trumper's new area:
Argyll and Bute:
MAJIK, based in Campbeltown (covers Mid Argyll, Jura, Islay and Kintyre)
Lorn (in Oban)
South West Scotland:
Wigtownshire (in Stranraer)
East Ayrshire (in Kilmarnock)
West Central Scotland:
Renfrewshire (in Paisley)
Glasgow North West
Glasgow South
