30th March 2022
This year, we promised to do everything we possibly could to provide our families experiencing hardship with the support they deserve after years of watching families living standards decline and we kicked this off back in January when we announced we would be working in partnership with Amazon UK to provide families across Fife with household products, clothing, footwear and toiletries through our new Big Hoose Project.
Today we announce the next stage of our anti poverty initiative 'Houses to Homes' in partnership with Scotmid, Craig and Rose, Fishers Laundry, Bell Group Kirkcaldy, RGM Heating Ltd.
The Houses to Homes project – to use goods like wallpaper, paint, carpets and home furnishings to improve and refurbish houses - will work with a team of decorators, painters, joiners and electricians giving practical on the ground home improvement support and advice .
Bell Group Kirkcaldy who have been a huge support to the Cottage over many years will work with us to pilot a group workshops which will offer parents the opportunity to learn painting and decorating skills from their training centre.
We will also continue to work in partnership with Cosy Kingdom to ensure our families receive energy support and advice at the earliest opportunity.
Since the Big Hoose Project started over 60 charities in Fife, 150 schools, health centres, social work, housing and family support teams; and 40,000 goods worth £1m have been delivered to nearly 8,000 families in Fife.
By end of 2022 we expect at least 15,000 families to benefit.
Scotmid has kicked off their support with a £10,000 donation and is offering support with toiletries and other items such a household cleaning products. Additional bedding has been donated following us being unable to meet demand twice in the last 3 months by Fishers Laundry and Craig and Rose have donated pallets of paints.
Pauline Buchan, Manager at the Cottage said’ Only by working together across all sectors will we be able to raise families living standards, empower families, make them feel seen, heard and valued which will in turn improve their health, wellbeing and overall quality of life in the long term’. With more and more families experiencing poverty we cannot continue to simply focus on a short term fix, we need to see lasting change and support at the time of need, our children and families deserve nothing less.
