Preventing Crisis Together in South Crieff
2025-02-07 • No comments • • South Crieff
Letham4All SCIO has been working with a variety of partners across Perth and Kinross at a very local community level, a dignified and holistic route to reduce the impact of poverty. As a result of this work, Letham4All has successfully piloted the use of the Pay Point Platform and extended to scope of Perth Cards, to provide small amounts of financial support, to help people in immediate financial crisis. Working with existing referral routes this project will provide an additional route for support for those who are not successful with a crisis grant or where a crisis grant is not an appropriate option. The Paypoint Platform enables the sending of utility voucher codes by text message to a mobile phone that can be redeemed in the usual place people top up their utility cards/keys and the Perth Cards across Perth and Kinross can be used in a variety of shops to purchase food and utilities.
This referral-based support has been accessed by a range of public agencies and 3rd sector organisations who have had no other means of supporting people with financial support to offer a breathing space while longer-term solutions are set up. This has been particularly effective out with traditional working hours and at weekends and support can be organised and delivered within an hour. We know from feedback from agencies that being able to offer this quick solution to those most in need is very beneficial to the household, encourages further discussion of longer-term solutions to prevent further crises, and reduces stress and worry. Partners have also told us that being able to use the Pay Point Platform as a means of offering support saves valuable staff time in handling and delivering cash payments for utility tops-ups and is a much faster way of getting support to their clients. To deliver this project Letham4All and its partners use the Citizen Advice Bureau’s information-sharing protocol, The Fast Online Referral Tracking System, FORT. This system enables all partners to see what referrals and support services have been received by a service user eliminating the risk of duplication, and giving support services a clear picture of services received and of any gaps emerging in meeting the needs of the person.
The Star Garden community outreach workshops.
2025-02-07 • No comments • • South Crieff
The Star Garden workshops will aim to involve the local young people in the community in gardening and other outdoor activities. We want to provide the children and young adults of Crieff with more exposure to gardening, composting, and sustainable gardening techniques. We understand not everyone has access to their own garden or gardening equipment, therefore with these workshops we aim to provide an opportunity to let a possible passion flourish amongst the youth. These workshops will provide a non-mainstream educational offering of engaging activities, in which the local youth will learn a range of skills both working as part of a team as well as independently.
The workshops will involve learning basic gardening techniques, such as planting and discussing growth cycles. Garden art, such as painting plant pots and other crafts. Composting workshop, learning about what can and cannot be composted. Herb and vegetable gardening, creating a ‘salad garden’ and learning how to care for herbs. Gardening also has many benefits for individuals with sensory affected disabilities. The activities in the workshops will help support the development of motor skills, can encourage emotional regulation, aid cognitive development, help deal with sensory responses and more.
The ‘Crieff Gleam Team’, who do litter picking in the local area, is something of interest to us as well, and we would like to also support their work during our workshops and get young people more involved in the community in which they live. We want to encourage the youth to explore the potential that comes with living in a rural location, such as having the opportunity to grow their own food in the garden, having a large outdoor space where they can come to relax and feel at peace. It is worth noting that the workshops will be free of charge for all those participating, as our main priority is to provide an opportunity for the youth of Crieff to explore new interests and hobbies.
To ensure the sustainability of these activities, we will run the workshops throughout June, July, and August. We plan to provide cover to accommodate the unpredictable Scottish weather, ensuring that the workshops can proceed rain or shine.
School Uniform Bank - Back to School & Nursery Packs-Cupar Angus, Meigle & Alyth
2025-02-07 • No comments • • Coupar Angus, Meigle & Alyth
2025 will be our fourth year running our Back to School Pack. In 2021 we provided 152 packs, in 2022 - 340, in 2023 - 400, and in 2024 we provided 512 Back to School Packs and 91 Back to Nursery Packs (our first year running this service). Our Packs are available to anyone who lives in these wards.
What is in a Back to School Pack?
Our packs include 3 shirts, 2 bottoms, 2 jumpers/cardis, 2 PE t shirts, 2 PE bottoms, a PE jumper and a school bag. We also aim to include school shoes and/or trainers plus stationary and other back to school essentials like pack lunch boxes or pencil cases. Everything a child needs for taking part in their school journey.
What is in a Back to Nursery Pack?
Our Back to Nursery packs include 5 days of mix and match outfits; 5 jumpers, 5 t-shirts, 5 bottoms, messy play clothing, a seasonal jacket and footwear. We also add in extras such as sun hats, vests and socks as we know children need these items to fully participate in their learning and no one comes home clean after one day in nursery!
Packs are personalised to each schools colours and the child’s style preferences (so you can tell us if they won’t wear shorts, or will only wear cardigans!) and their sensory needs to make sure the packs are made to suit the individual. We also ask for bag colours and characters and try our hardest to match up to their personal style. We believe our service should make the child feel confident and comfortable that they match their peers.
SO IF YOU THINK THAT...
- All children should have access to high quality school uniform?
- We should protect our environment and make positive pre-loved clothing choices?
- By making little changes to our own lifestyle to support others we can make big changes for the future of our children?
Then please support us by voting for our Back to School & Nursery Pack project. Thank you.
Team Social Flock
AYP Revamp, Repair, Replace and Re-Wear!
2025-02-06 • No comments • • Coupar Angus, Meigle & Alyth
We asked our young people and families about the impact of the cost of living on them, and what we as an organisation could do to ease this. The most common issue was the cost of clothes with ever growing kids. Some parents also said that children with sensory needs were not keen to buy new clothes as they liked the feel of the texture of certain garments, so help to repair them would be appreciated.
If funded, we will run a series of sessions over the Easter, Summer and October holidays in partnership with a local sewing group where skilled workers will be on hand, along with youth workers, to help mend and improve items of clothing. Our AYP branded hoodies are extremely popular, and we can also add our logo to any other clothing, potentially making it more desirable for the young people to wear. Young people could even add the logo to their clothes to give them a new lease of life.
The whole project is a chance for our young people to be creative, for families to save money, and for waste to be reduced too. This could be extended to school uniform swap shops and become a regular feature of our work.
Family Food Creation and Learning
2025-02-10 • No comments • • Coupar Angus, Meigle & Alyth
Pupils from each year group will learn to cook a meal, such as a main meal and pudding using healthy food choices and budget ingredients. They will plan, prepare and cook within school and take a meal home. The project would last for 10 weeks allowing each class to participate in 3 sessions (Burrelton P.S. has 3 mixed year classes), they will also bring in a parent and/or guardian during their last session to join in the learning, cooking and fun. The classes will be facilitated by an outside worker and school support staff. The aim of the project is to give life skills to pupils to prepare easy home cooked meals from scratch to share with their family on a set budget. Pupils will also learn about nutrition, healthy eating and family food budgeting as part of the project sessions. We hope to use some of the school grown garden vegetables as part of the sessions with support from Burrelton in Bloom.
Coupar Angus PS Toast For All
2025-02-07 • No comments • • Coupar Angus, Meigle & Alyth
Coupar Angus PS Parent Council would love the opportunity to provide each pupil with a piece of toast when they come into school in the morning. Research has shown that eating breakfast is important for everyone, but especially for children. In general, kids who skip breakfast will feel tired, restless and irritable. Eating a healthy breakfast has been shown to help attention span, concentration and memory - all very important for learning.
Senior pupils carried out a breakfast survey, the majority of pupils surveyed said they do have breakfast most days, however 6% said they don’t have breakfast before school. Pupils said when they don’t have breakfast in the morning they come into school feeling hungry, tired, unhappy, sad & angry. 86% of pupils surveyed said they would like to be offered toast when they first come into school.
P7 teacher Mrs Gourlay believes offering each child something to eat in the morning will improve learning & behaviour within the classroom.
Around 20% of pupils at Coupar Angus PS are classed as living within relative poverty – we want to do anything we can to help these pupils by offering warm toast as they come into school. Giving every child the best start in life is the first of five strategic priorities adopted by Perth & Kinross Council and we believe providing breakfast will give them a good start to their day.
Coupar Angus PS currently runs a breakfast club from 8am however this is chargeable at £2 per day which could potentially exclude some families. Toast For All will be free for every pupil.
We plan to run Toast For All initially on a Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday and if it’s as big as a success as we think it will be we hope to roll it out to 5 days per week. We plan to start on the first day of term after the Easter holidays on Wednesday 23rd April and run until the Easter holidays in 2026. The teachers will monitor improvements in learning/behaviour and we will do more surveys with the children to gauge their opinions on the project.
A rota will be drawn up for each week and a teacher/volunteer will arrive at 8.45am and prepare the toast. It will be put on lidded trays to keep it warm and senior pupils will take it around all classes at 9.05am and offer it to every pupil.
We believe every child should have something warm to fill their tummy in the mornings and we hope this will improve behaviour, attention spans and willingness to learn.
School Uniform Bank - Back to School & Nursery (Central and North Perth)
2025-02-07 • 1 comment • • Central and North Perth
2025 will be our fourth year running our Back to School Pack. In 2021 we provided 152 packs, in 2022 - 340, in 2023 - 400, and in 2024 we provided 512 Back to School Packs and 91 Back to Nursery Packs (our first year running this service). Our Packs are available to anyone who lives in these wards.
What is in a Back to School Pack?
Our packs include 3 shirts, 2 bottoms, 2 jumpers/cardis, 2 PE t shirts, 2 PE bottoms, a PE jumper and a school bag. We also aim to include school shoes and/or trainers plus stationary and other back to school essentials like pack lunch boxes or pencil cases. Everything a child needs for taking part in their school journey.
What is in a Back to Nursery Pack?
Our Back to Nursery packs include 5 days of mix and match outfits; 5 jumpers, 5 t-shirts, 5 bottoms, messy play clothing, a seasonal jacket and footwear. We also add in extras such as sun hats, vests and socks as we know children need these items to fully participate in their learning and no one comes home clean after one day in nursery!
Packs are personalised to each schools colours and the child’s style preferences (so you can tell us if they won’t wear shorts, or will only wear cardigans!) and their sensory needs to make sure the packs are made to suit the individual. We also ask for bag colours and characters and try our hardest to match up to their personal style. We believe our service should make the child feel confident and comfortable that they match their peers.
SO IF YOU THINK THAT...
- All children should have access to high quality school uniform?
- We should protect our environment and make positive pre-loved clothing choices?
- By making little changes to our own lifestyle to support others we can make big changes for the future of our children?
Then please support us by voting for our Back to School & Nursery Pack project. Thank you.
Team Social Flock
Get Into Tennis and Bowling - Under 12s Free Memberships for 2025-2026
2025-02-05 • No comments • • Coupar Angus, Meigle & Alyth
We want to offer more sports opportunities to primary aged children to encourage them to have a more active lifestyle. One of the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis means parents/carers are unable to afford to give their children this chance. During Health Week, the Primary School children take to the bowling green and tennis courts and love trying out the sports, so we aim to provide more of them with the opportunity to continue playing and having fun.
We would offer free memberships for children in local primary schools and 50% off all lessons and Easter and Summer camps throughout the period March 2025-March 2026.
We provide free access to all equipment which is available to any child when the club is open, over and beyond the coaching and camp sessions.
The Alyth Bowling & Tennis Club is located next to the Alyth Primary School and is easily accessible on foot in the middle of the town.
We have reached our estimated cost of the project by reviewing figures for the past 2 years of families paying for yearly membership, regular lesson blocks and participating in Easter and Summer camps. We have given ourselves a stretch target of 100% increase in the number of children accessing sport. We have estimated the cost of this project to cover 50 children getting free memberships and 50% off all lessons and camps for one year.
Preventing Crisis Together in Rattray
2025-02-07 • No comments • • Rattray
Letham4All SCIO has been working with a variety of partners across Perth and Kinross at a very local community level, a dignified and holistic route to reduce the impact of poverty. As a result of this work, Letham4All has successfully piloted the use of the Pay Point Platform and extended to scope of Perth Cards, to provide small amounts of financial support, to help people in immediate financial crisis. Working with existing referral routes this project will provide an additional route for support for those who are not successful with a crisis grant or where a crisis grant is not an appropriate option. The Paypoint Platform enables the sending of utility voucher codes by text message to a mobile phone that can be redeemed in the usual place people top up their utility cards/keys and the Perth Cards across Perth and Kinross can be used in a variety of shops to purchase food and utilities.
This referral-based support has been accessed by a range of public agencies and 3rd sector organisations who have had no other means of supporting people with financial support to offer a breathing space while longer-term solutions are set up. This has been particularly effective out with traditional working hours and at weekends and support can be organised and delivered within an hour. We know from feedback from agencies that being able to offer this quick solution to those most in need is very beneficial to the household, encourages further discussion to longer-term solutions to prevent further crises, and reduces stress and worry. Partners have also told us that being able to use the Pay Point Platform as a means of offering support saves valuable staff time in handling and delivering cash payments for utility tops-ups and is a much faster way of getting support to their clients. To deliver this project Letham4All and its partners use the Citizen Advice Bureau’s information-sharing protocol, The Fast Online Referral Tracking System, FORT. This system enables all partners to see what referrals and support services have been received by a service user eliminating the risk of duplication, and giving support services a clear picture of services received and of any gaps emerging in meeting the needs of the person. Letham4All will reach out through its existing partners and networks in Rattray to ensure that information on how this support can be accessed through the referral process and The Fast Online Referral Tracking System is widely shared and understood.
Logos, Eat, Repeat
2025-02-07 • 1 comment • • South Crieff
"People who give you their food give you their heart." - Ceasar Chavez
The aim of our Logos, Eat, Repeat Project is to consistently provide free food at after school and evening sessions from May 2025 – March 2026 during term time. This includes toast, fresh fruit and hot/cold drinks.
We've previously had funding to provide food for young people during the holiday periods and would like to extend this offer to cover term times as well (May 2025- March 2026).
Following Maslow' developmental theory, we understand that food is key to growth and progression. By providing free food at each of our sessions, we ensure that all young people have access to a basic need without stigma.
We run 3 after school clubs for high school aged young people and 2 evening clubs, one specifically for S1’s and the other for S2 and over.
We currently offer toast and hot drinks at our sessions but due to the increased demand, we are unable to sustain this. In every evaluation that we have completed the young people have indicated that food is one of the key factors in why they attend the club.
There are young people living in the community who don’t regularly come into the club, but will come to the door and ask for toast because they know Logos is a place where they can get something free to eat.
One young person described: "I think the first time I came was because of the food and drinks but I have grown attached to the club and it's like a second home to me." - Young person aged 15.
We would like to be able to provide free food at each of our After School and evening club sessions from May 2025 – March 2026. This would include hot and cold drinks, toast and fresh fruit.
Young People always ask to cook and bake in their youth club sessions. Along with providing food at our after school clubs, we would also like to offer at least 2 cook and eat sessions per month, whereby the young people are involved in cooking a meal which they can eat together. This would also give them the opportunity to try new healthy foods. We are currently running Soup-A Saturday’s as part of the Warm Space funding, and we would like to be able to offer similar sessions during our evening clubs.
Through our Soup-a Saturday sessions where young people make soup together, we have observed young people improve their team working skills, communication skills, listening skills, responsiveness, resilience and responsibility.
Youth voice and participation is fundamental in our delivery. One of the requests from our young volunteers, many of whom are volunteering as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award, is to complete their level 2 Food Hygiene. We would like to provide the opportunity for them to complete these awards.