You Made Christmas

In the run up to Christmas, Families Outside was delighted to receive a large number of gifts from organisations, community groups, individuals, and churches including Greyfriars Church in Lanark and the Swanshine Project in Edinburgh.

We gave these gifts to children of the families we support and to children visiting prisons in Scotland during the Christmas period.

One family member was brought to tears, as she was overwhelmed at the kindness and generosity of the gifts she received for her daughter and herself. The family had been homeless, then in temporary furnished accommodation, and had only moved into permanent accommodation the week before Christmas. Mum had no money, as her benefits had changed, stopped, and started over an 8-week period.

If they had not received these gifts, they would have had no presents at all. The family would like to say “thank you very much for your support; it really did make all the difference!”

Another family had experienced significant financial difficulties throughout 2017 including benefit change, rent and council tax arrears, debts, and Welfare Reforms. Mum suffers from long and enduring mental ill health, in addition to experiencing her partner’s imprisonment and all it entails.

Christmas was going to be difficult financially and emotionally, and although Mum had applied for a budgeting loan to cover the cost of Christmas, she did not receive an award. This meant that the gifts they received through Families Outside were the only presents her daughter received on Christmas Day. Both mum and daughter are extremely grateful for your kind donations.

A large number of the presents were donated to HMP Low Moss & HMP Greenock for their children’s Christmas parties, Family Contact Officers have informed us that the children were delighted to receive a present at the parties. In particular, a number of the dads expressed their appreciation and gratitude at having the opportunity to be able to give their children a present for Christmas personally.

If you would like to make a donation to families affected by imprisonment, either in cash or in kind, please visit www.familiesoutside.org.uk/donate or call 0131 557 9800.

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