Big Lottery boost for city teen care charity

A HUGE cash boost has been handed to a city charity that helps youngsters who have been put into care.

The Dean and Cauvin Trust will receive 770,000 to help support scores of the area's most vulnerable teenagers.

It is one of three Lothians organisations to benefit from a significant windfall thanks to the Big Lottery Fund, which invested a total of 1.5 million in the area in yesterday's announcement.

For Dean and Cauvin, which is based in Leith and was founded in 1733 - making it one of the Capital's oldest charities - it means the work with troubled youngsters will be able to progress.

It is paying particular attention to those who are approaching the end of their stay in supported care and need support in the move to living alone and developing into adult life.

The money will also go to helping those in their mid to late teens who find themselves pregnant.

One girl involved in that process is 18-year-old Rachel Howden, who was taken into care at the age of 14 and soon found herself descending into a life of truancy, alcohol and trouble with the police.

However, the trust stepped in and helped her change her life. She is now expecting her first child and wants to study social sciences at university.

"My family had completely broken down and I just didn't care about them, school or anything," she recalled. "I started to drink and to get into a lot of trouble.

"When I met my aftercare social worker at the Dean and Cauvin Trust, things started to get better.

"I got my drinking under control and I'm now back on track, and been able to get my own flat."

The charity's assistant director Pamela Kidd said: "Statistical evidence shows that the young people who have a care background are less likely to achieve academically, and are at a higher risk of becoming dependent on substances or experience homelessness than their peers. They also have few or no support networks so they are very vulnerable in this time.

"This money will enable us to put an extensive support package in place during this transitional period when young people move from the safety and security of the residential setting to living independently in the community."

The other organisations to benefit were Home Start West Lothian, which received 250,000, and the Trust Housing Association, which was given nearly half a million pounds.

Home Start will offer increased one-to-one support for parents in the area with children under five, while Trust Housing Association will extend its work with older black and ethnic minority residents.

Big Lottery's chairwoman in Scotland, Alison Magee, said: "We are supporting three very different projects in Edinburgh and West Lothian, which will open up new doors of possibility to families, young care leavers and older people.

"They each work with a specific community to enable them to feel valued and to develop the skills and confidence to aspire for a better quality of life."