Organisations supporting families facing issues like domestic abuse, a relative in prison and childhood cancer are among those sharing £3.9 million of lottery funding.
The 20 groups receiving an award include Families Outside, which supports 600 families affected by imprisonment in Glasgow and North Strathclyde, providing them with emotional and practical support.
The £299,667 award will enable the organisation to expand its Regional Family Support Service and provide new peer to peer led support sessions for families.
Nancy Loucks, Families Outside chief executive, said: “Families Outside is absolutely delighted to receive this National Lottery award.
“The grant not only sustains the essential support we can provide to the most vulnerable families in Glasgow and North Strathclyde but also supports the development of new work promoting peer support for children and young people with a family member in prison.
“Such work creates an essential ‘safe space’ for families to talk about their experiences, helping them to process and address traumas they feel they cannot speak about with anyone else.”
Shakti Women’s Aid, which provides specialist support to BME women, their children and young people experiencing and/or fleeing domestic abuse, forced marriage or honour based violence, receives £386,132.
The group will use the funding to expand their outreach service in Tayside, Perthshire, Forth Valley and the Lothians.
Girijamba Polubothu, the group’s manager, said: “Shakti is ever so grateful to the Big Lottery Fund for this funding to continue and expand our Outreach Services.
“Without this funding, the black minority ethnic (BME) women and their children would have lost the only specialist BME domestic abuse support service available to them which caters for their complex needs.
“Ultimately, the funding will help BME women and their children to be safe.”
Team Jak, which provides practical and emotional support to children and young people with cancer and related illnesses receives £262,222 towards their new family base, Jak’s Den mark 2, in Livingston.
Other organisations receiving funding include £233,938 for Circle in East Lothian, which will use the funding to support family members affected by both parental drug or alcohol use, and poverty; and £392,006 for the Workers’ Educational Association which will deliver a programme of health and wellbeing activities for vulnerable and socially isolated people living in Aberdeen.
Maureen McGinn, Big Lottery Fund Scotland chairwoman, added: “Many of today’s funded projects will strengthen families’ ability to cope with a wide range of challenges.
“Whether dealing with the aftermath of someone going to prison, living with the emotional and psychological effects of domestic abuse or coming to terms with a child’s life limiting illness, these projects will make a real difference to hundreds of families, children and young people across Scotland.
“These National Lottery funds really are life changing and will have a positive impact for people who need our help the most.”
