About the Charity
The Citadel Youth Centre has been serving the community in Leith since 1980. Services that they offer include but are not limited to employability and volunteering services for 16-19 year olds, the Families project for vulnerable 5 to 12 year olds and their parents/carers, a school based family support service, the Stand with Girls project promoting the rights of young women; and the Young Mums Group, which has been a source of support and learning for young mothers and their children since 2011.
The Funding Process
Citadel Youth Centre initially applied for 3 years of funding toward their Young Mums Group in 2017. Trustees awarded one year of funding with a tacit invite to apply again based on progress over the first year. The activity was delivered exactly as intended and the evaluation of the first year demonstrated strong evidence of learning and development.
Subsequently a further two-year award was made to sustain and develop the project completing a full 3 year grant award up to 2021.
How has the funding helped?
Prior to the grant money received from Cattanach The Young Mums group was just one service. It was an information and support group for parents with an on-site creche for the children.
With funding from Cattanach, a new service was introduced to The Young Mums group – the Mum and Babies group. This group uses creative methods to increase the bond between mother and child such as baby massage, messy play, sensory play and art. Before Cattanach began this funding, whilst the parents were getting valuable information from the Young Mums Group, there wasn’t a space at Citadel to encourage the bonding between mother and child together, with all the benefits this nurture brings.
Covid-19 Response
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit face to face meetings have had to be cancelled for now. Citadel continued to provide much needed support via a Facebook group. This provided a continuing support network to work through issues together, helping to combat the feelings of isolation that the pandemic has induced in many. In this group, support workers have also been posting weekly ideas, and links, for activities that the mums can do with their child at home to help build that relationship.
Summary
This new two-pronged approach to mother-child support results in mothers who are more capable of looking after their child, armed with the knowledge needed to support them but also have a stronger, more nurturing bond with their child through play and fun. Learn more about the process of applying for funding and see if your project would be a good fit for funding from Cattanach, you can find more information here.
