Kirkton Families

Nadia, Amanda and Diane are pleased to see me. It’s nice and I take it personally, even though I know that they welcome everyone from WM2U with open arms. It wasn’t always like this. When I first met Nadia and Amanda last September both of them were quiet and it took a while for them to open up and chat to me about their kids, their concerns and how isolated they felt. There was no way I would have imagined them forming and running their own group. But they had already found each other, and it wasn’t long before they found Diane, who cares for her three grandchildren. All of them were attending a Monday afternoon Family Fun Activity group run by the Community Learning and Development Team. After the group, they all went to the community café for tea. The community café is run by volunteers, including Mel who Chairs the Local Management Group. And it is Mel who found Nadia and Amanda when they missed the bus to take their kids on an outing last summer. She took them to the zoo instead. Since then, she has been involving them in the running of the community café, ensuring that they are trained in food hygiene, first aid and food handling so now they can run it themselves.

In the meantime, the Community Learning and Development team have given other kinds of support: putting on activities for the kids so that they can spend time with the parents listening to the individual issues that are of immediate concern. They have supported Nadia with her benefits and are advocating for her to get her fence repaired so that her son can play out in the back garden. And they are helping Diane navigate her role as a kinship carer and access the support she is entitled to. The WM2U coordinator has been supporting the CLD team as needed, providing small amounts of money for things like a fridge at the community centre, helping with other funding applications and making links with organisations across the city.

It didn’t take long for the women to find their feet. By October they were confident enough to speak to funders about their hopes. By March they got involved in a ‘conversation café’ with local practitioners and strategic leaders speaking out about the issues which need addressed in their local community and adding their insights to developing solutions. They told me what they thought of me for throwing them in with a bunch of strangers at that meeting, but with a twinkle in their eyes. Since then, WM2U has invited Diane to present her experiences of being a kinship carer in public, Nadia has started representing the community at Local Community Planning Partnership Meetings and they have hosted visits from practitioners in other areas of Scotland keen to know more about what they do.

Wm2u is a place where you can be heard, having a voice that isn't dismissed.
Letting you know people have a place where you have an opinion.
Help where u can't find it on the internet or have the opportunity to do different things that you might not thought was possible.
I have come a long way from last year thanks to everyone in wm2u.
My son is playing with children all different ages and from different schools that has helped him being more comfortable with others around him.
Being able to be yourself without being judged has always been one of my fears but thanks to wm2u that has changed me for the better.
The list can go on with the amount I have achieved from being part of wm2u.

When I visited yesterday, Nadia was standing in the middle of a room full of about 25 kids and several adults, clearly in charge. Her whole posture had changed, and she exuded confidence. Diane took me aside to tell me what had changed ‘we run it now’. There are activities on at the centre three evenings a week for the kids and the Community Learning and Development team are requesting more support from youthwork for the older ones. The women have invited other local families to join so the group has swelled from around 8 when it started to about 50 now.

Nadia and Amanda were helping Mel in the café when I left. When I asked them what they were going to do next, they told me that they hope to put more on for the kids. Amanda’s son who has just left college is going to be helping out at the food larder over the summer.

When I asked them what had made the difference Diane looked a bit surprised and said ‘it’s you’. I understood that to mean it’s all of us: most especially the Community Learning and Development team who listen and act on what they hear, drawing in support from across the Council and the Third Sector. And it’s WM2U who believe in the potential of these women, and give them opportunities to get involved in making a difference firstly for their kids, then for others in similar positions to them, and finally for their whole community.