This was a talk I gave at an event to celebrate 10 years of Safe Families. The event was at The Faith Mission on 26th October 2024.
Well, it’s great to see so many friends here today to join in this celebration of 10 years of hope and belonging for families.
As we look back and look forward, we wanted to do that with the people that had made all this possible, our staff, volunteers and supporters.
Looking back
Nearly 30 years ago I started my career in social work not very far from here in Howdenhall road. I still remember my first shift in Howdenhall Secure Unit in November 1995.
We were working with some of the most damaged and traumatised children in Scotland.
Some of them were violent but most of them were just scared, lonely kids who were desperate for love and a sense of belonging.
I still remember taking 2-3 kids sledging on Christmas Day because they had no safe home to go to.
I remember thinking at the time ‘how is our system so dysfunctional that we allow children to get to the point where they need to be locked up in units that cost £5-6k per week?
Wouldn’t it be better for children, for society, for cost efficiency that we get involved with families earlier before the damage is done?
Why don’t we design services around what families need and want rather than waiting until children need to come into care?
Why don’t services conform to family’s needs rather silos and departments designed by accountants rather than practitioners?
So often we don’t step back and ask the simple question: what actually brings change?
How are people transformed? What gives people hope?
When we are in crisis, when we are feeling low, we seek out the people we love don’t we?
Its connection that fuels hope. Its love that sustains and fortifies us. Its community that makes us feel safe and supported.
Some of us need professional services, but most of the time we prefer informal support don’t we? What if we could create a service like that?
So, when I first heard about Safe Families, I didn’t need much persuading.
The question was, could it become a reality in Scotland?
In 2013 I was working for Bethany Christian Trust and I saw first hand what could be done in partnership with the local church to eradicate homelessness. Partnership, collaboration, vision could create night shelters, deliver food on the streets, provide addiction services and support churches to offer hope in deprived communities. What if we could partner with churches to offer hope and belonging to families? And so, in October 2014 Safe Families was born. If it wasn't born, its future was certainly cemented in a coffee shop at the top of Leith Street when Lyn Hair and I met and I asked her if she would come on as out first Senior Family Support Manager.
I want to pay tribute to Lyn today. I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that if it wasn’t for Lyn, there would be no Safe Families in Scotland. Lyn was our first family support worker, volunteer trainer, volunteer assessor, grant application writer, staff trainer and many, many other things. Thanks Lyn, we appreciate all that you brought to Safe Families over so many years.
Over the last 10 years we have grown and developed. Our big breakthrough was in 2018 with a big contract with CEC that lasted for 5 years. That funding came to an end last year but we are delighted that in the middle of an incredibly challenging financial environment, we have got new funding in Edinburgh that will take us through to 2026. Safe Families will be involved in family support hubs where families can get the help they need when they need it.
We have had the privilege of touching the lives of 100’s of families.
From October 2014 Safe Families in Scotland have:
- Received 1640 referrals
- Visited over 1000 families
- Connected 764 families to a volunteer
450 in Edinburgh
107 ML
81 EL
90 WL
- Hosted 47 families
- 1682 children have benefited
- 451 volunteers have supported a family
We are now in 9 local authorities in Scotland and around 55 around the UK. Over the next year we will work with around 280 families in the course of one year across Scotland. We are now in the Western Isles, the Lothians, Perth, Fife, Clackmannanshire, Aberdeenshire and we are in discussions with Stirling and there is in interest in the Borders and Falkirk.
As I have often said, Safe Families for me, is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It’s about a volunteer knocking on a door where hope is in short supply, and offering love and connection.
And we see that in our outcomes:
· 95% of families have maintained or increased their social networks
· 93% have maintained or increased their happiness and wellbeing
· 92% have increased their confidence and self esteem
· 89% have maintained or increased their physical needs
· 91% reported that their family relationships had maintained or improved
· And 92% reported that their positive parenting had maintained or improved.
These outcomes are great but it’s the love and compassion behind these percentages that bring transformation to families.
Tomorrow, I’m speaking on Luke 10 – ‘who is my neighbour?’ Is your community just the people you like? Just the people who look like you? Or are we called to stop and pick up the people who have been battered by others and have been left for dead. The thing about a good Samaritan is that its messy. That’s why the Priest and the Levite walked past. Its much easier to go to an elders meeting, or a finance committee or a Presbytery. There are nice, neat agenda’s and there is a beginning and an end.
Safe Families is about the spare place at our table. Radical hospitality with no strings attached. It’s not just about offering a better service, its about creating a more compassionate society. As Dr Thomas Guthrie often said, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.’
Many of you have loved the one in front of you so well. Today is a chance to for us to say thank you and to celebrate together this milestone in the history of Safe Families.
We’ve had some amazing events over the years –
- Family Fun Days at Arniston House
- Our 5-year anniversary in the Scottish Parliament,
- Our Black-Tie event back in April at Inchyra.
We have. and continue to have some amazing staff who bring hope and belonging into the lives of families every day.
But when I look back on the last 10 years – the thing I want to celebrate the most is the unseen and the ordinary.
- The text to a struggling mum in her darkest moment during lockdown.
- The volunteer taking out a child who is struggling with crippling anxiety.
- The volunteers who take out the non-verbal neuro-diverse boy so his granny can have a couple of hours to herself.
- To the volunteer who helps a mum to empty rubbish bags that have been filled with dirty nappies form months.
- To the volunteer who still meets a mum months after the support has officially come to an end.
- The volunteer who takes the teenager with no confidence to the careers fayre.
Amazing acts of love and kindness that never hit the headlines and never results in publicity.
That for me is Safe Families, and that is what we are here ore celebrate today. Somebody once said: ‘I’m not interested in whether you’ve stood with the great: I’m interested in whether you’ve sat with the broken.’
Thank for all of you who have done that so well. Through your love, you have given 100's of children the most amazing memories in the midst of really tough times.
As Fredrick Douglass once said: 'It is so much easier to build strong children than repair broken men' and I want to thank for all you have done to help children to thrive over the last 10 years.
Looking forward
Today as we stand at the crossroads of hopefully another 10 years, we are a new merged organisation with our friends from Home for Good. Not only are we supporting families, but we are also seeking to find homes for young people who desperately need love and security. Home for Good have excellent resources and training to encourage more people to foster, adopt or provide supported lodgings to teenagers. If you are exploring fostering you can speak to the enquiry team here. You can also sign up for an information event.
When Safe Families started in 2014 there were 15,500 looked after children in Scotland. Today that number has reduced to 12,206. It is great to see this number reduced, but for too many of our children we are still failing as a country. 20-30% of these children who are looked after will go on to be involved in the criminal justice system.
For the 3004 children who entered the care system in Scotland last year, around 700 of them are waiting for foster care, adoption and supported lodgings. This is a huge opportunity for the church in Scotland to step forward.
Imagine if every church becomes a haven for families in crisis and a church where foster carers and adopters feel loved and supported by their church community? Our vision is for a country where nobody feels alone because everyone deserves to belong. We want to create relationship and connection so families experience love and hope in the midst of crisis.
Over the last week we were looking at Matthew 10 when Jesus commissions the 12. He said to his disciples ‘Freely you have received, freely give.’ We want to freely give as we seek to get alongside family who are desperate for hope and belonging in Scotland today.
We would love to expand our scope and reach, and we can only do that with partnering with more supporters, churches and local authorities.
Thank you for all you’ve done and as we look forward to the next 10 years, we would love for you to come on this journey with us.
Please spread the word to friends, to churches that together, we can make a difference. As Martin Luther King often said 'lets, together, build a tunnel of love through the mountain of despair.'
For more information about Safe Families please click on this link.
If you would like to access some great training, sign up here.
