Youth & Families
Our Youth & Families team provides a range of services that support children, young people and their families.
“You have been such a welcome support. My son has felt accepted and safe. He has madefriends. Knowing that you will be calling on a regular basis is such a huge relief”
“I can’t thank you enough we had nothing and the kids hadn’t eaten a hot meal in over a week, we could not have managed this year without all your help and support”
“Thank you for calling me. I did not think anyone would want to talk to me right now and I’m in very dark place.”
Our services for famlies and young people:
• Young Carers Services
A number of services which provides a range of support to children and young people caring for their family members. We support young carers aged from 5-25, across the locality of South West Edinburgh, and their families. There is one to one support, school based support, group support and other opportunities for young people with a caring role. We provide help, support and advice as well as activites for young to young adult carers, including residential trips.
If you know a young person who would benefit from any of our groups, please contact us on 0131 455 7731
• Adult Carers Services:
Information and Support, part of Edinburgh Carers Support Team, in South West Edinburgh. This is a service for anyone who is a carer, which offers support, information and advocacy to carers on a one-to-one basis as well as monthly Carer Support Group, and a Carer Peer Support Group. We can also signpostand provide mental health and wellbeing support to help with any challenges you might face.
An outing for one of our groups
• Youth Befriending Services
Space for Youth Befriending provides children and young people aged 5 to 16 years, living in the South West of Edinburgh with a volunteer befriender once a week for 2 – 3 hours who will support and encourage them to explore new activities, find new interests and hobbies with a view to engaging in local youth provision. Youth befriending aims include building confidence increasing self-esteem, engaging positively with education, improve social skills, engage in extra-curricular activities and widen a young person’s social network.
We are proud to hold an excellence in befriending award from Befriending Networks UK.
We are looking for people to support this service too. For more information on this opportunity and the service, click here.
• Big Hearts Befriending
This project supports young people. city-wide, who are in kinship care, aged 7-14 years old, in partnership with Big Hearts Community Trust who are living with a close relative as they are not able to be cared for at home.
• Young People’s Counselling
An in-house counselling and art therapy service for young people using our services and schools in South West Edinburgh. This is a unique service that offers one-one counselling on site or on school sites to children and young people between the ages of 5yrs and 25yrs.
• Friday Youth Club
Open access and detached youth work provision. Every Friday 4:30pm to 6pm for ages 8-11 and 6:30pm to 8pm for ages 12-14. This was developed in response to a request from the community and is extremely popular! Entry is on a first come first served basis so don’t leave it late!
• Bookbug
This group is for all parents and carers in the area with little ones (Under 5) to come together every Tuesday 9:30am to 10:30am and join us for some rhymes and stories. Breakfast provided with toast and juice for the smaller attendees. Loads of fun with Jane and Robbie!
Fun and games at Bookbug, one of our volunteering opportunities
• PHEW
PHEW offers 18 to 25 year olds a safe and friendly space to make connections with others and develop a better understanding of mental health and wellbeing, in a group setting, or via 1:1 support. Call us on 0131 455 7731 for more information.