We are delighted to share the news that our Space for Youth Befriending project has been awarded a grant of £19,124, funded by Scotch Whisky Action Fund, administered by Foundation Scotland.
The Scotch Whisky industry is and has been involved for many years in a range of initiatives to promote responsible attitudes to alcohol and tackle alcohol-related harm. The establishment of this fund by the Scotch Whisky Association is a further development of that commitment as it supports targeted interventions designed to tackle alcohol-related harms in Scotland’s communities.
Our Youth Befriending service is aimed at children and young people living in South West Edinburgh who are impacted by historic or familial alcohol use. With more than 20 years of successful work in this area, Space has been granted this funding to extend our support city-wide and increase our service capacity by 50%, allowing us to provide befriending support to at least 60 children each year.
All of our services focus on improving the welfare of local people, from those early days when we supported just 20 people a week, to our current support of more than 750 local Broomies and South West Edinburgh residents.
With our Youth Befriending project, we understand how parental alcohol use can create very challenging home lives and that the support of a volunteer befriender can provide some much-needed stability in their lives. Space offers support to not just the young people affected, but the whole family unit, to ensure that they are empowered to find a way forward to a positive destination together.
The results of our previous work speak for themselves, with 72% of young people that took part in our Youth Befriending project showing improvements in their emotional health, 77% with improved resilience, and 58% reporting that they feel more connected in their community.
However, our work has highlighted that there exists a growing need for this service, with requests for supporting coming in all across Edinburgh due to a lack of similar projects elsewhere in the city.
The award funded by the Scotch Whisky Action Fund, administered by Foundation Scotland, will allow us to extend our help and support families in the wider Edinburgh area affected by drug and alcohol use – reducing the wider impact of alcohol abuse, and making the city a better place to live in.
Could you become one of our Volunteer Befrienders?
As our service grows, we will be looking to take on board more volunteers to help with this vital Youth Befriending project. If you have any experience of spending time with children and young people and some knowledge of the current issues affecting them, you would be a great addition to our team.
However, no experience is necessary to become a Youth Befriender, as we provide full training before your match takes place. We pair young people and their befrienders based on shared interests to create an easy basis for connecting with one another.
If you have a passion for art, skateboarding, watching the footie, or baking cakes, there’s a young person out there who loves them just as much as you do and is looking for befriending support.
Get in touch with our team at youthbefriending@spacescot.org to find out more about getting involved with this great project as we take it city-wide.