The Cottage Family Centre was established in 1987. The focus of the work at the Centre is to provide a range of support to those families and individuals within family units who are vulnerable to social exclusion as a result of factors such as poverty, unemployment, poor housing, relationship breakdown, drug and alcohol problems and health related issues.
Following significant efforts in fund raising, the Cottage completed the construction of a purpose built Centre and moved there in 2005.
The Cottage Family Centre is located in the Templehall area of West Kirkcaldy. The Templehall area appears in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2006 as an area which is in the top 5% most deprived areas in Scotland for overall multiple deprivation.
From the SIMD findings, the Templehall area, along with other surrounding areas, is reported as:
- being in the top 15% of datazones (an area of around 700 – 1000 population) with high levels of working age adults with no qualifications;
- having a high percentage of children among the population;
- having a significantly higher percentage of single parent households compared with the national average; and,
- having weekly household income significantly lower than the national average; and,
- having a much higher percentage of people who are unemployed and people in receipt of key benefits and credits compared with the national average.