Changing tomorrow's lives today
The services delivering life-changing love, care and support to children, young people and their families across Scotland.
The mission is simple but helping disadvantaged children and families towards a brighter future is complex, challenging, and potentially life-changing.
Not all children are born with an equal opportunity and every Aberlour Children’s Charity service is driven by the ambition to improve the lives and life chances of children and young people.
The diverse work ranges from delivering residential and fostering care to supporting the recovery of families affected by alcohol and substance use; from easing pressure on families at risk in the early years to ensuring children with disabilities get the best, most engaging support; from rushing financial assistance to families on the brink of crisis to supporting interventions when the challenges cannot be overcome and children can no longer safely stay at home.
Service teams tailor their work to each child and family, working towards shared goals, building strong, caring relationships, and helping ensure the United Nations Convention for The Rights of The Child is a reality for every child.
Lynne O’Brien, Chief Officer of Children and Families, said a thread of care and compassion runs through all of Aberlour’s work with every service underpinning Scotland’s commitment to The Promise to transform the lives of children and to keep them safe, respected, loved and with their families whenever possible.
She said:
Our teams across Scotland deliver a huge range of services but all of them are working to ensure every child has an equal chance of happiness today and tomorrow.
“Every day, in many different ways, our skilled teams help and support children, young people and their families to live their best lives and enjoy their best futures.
FAMILY SUPPORT
It does exactly what it says on the tin but, in services across Scotland, Aberlour ensures families get the right support, at the right time, for as long as it is needed.
The teams are flexible, the help bespoke. From service to service and family to family, support is delivered how and when it is needed most, from early morning to late at night and weekends too. No two families are the same, each has different needs, and Aberlour tailors its work to meet them all.
The trauma-informed, seven-days a week support can be one-to-one or include the whole family, and takes place everywhere from home, school, cafes, or community centres.
The support might be needed for all sorts of reasons, from poor emotional health to domestic abuse, from sudden financial difficulties to looming homelessness, but, with sympathy and without judgement, workers spend the time to understand what children and their families need to thrive.
The priority is to build close, trusting relationships over time but, when crises strike, the family support teams are ready to respond with urgency and practical, impactful help.
DISABILITY SERVICES
The charity’s range of bespoke services for young Scots with learning disabilities, autism, or more complex physical and health needs, includes staffed accommodation and wide-ranging support packages to short breaks for young people.
All the charity’s spaces are safe and accessible, where children feel emotionally and physically secure while being encouraged to take part in activities. At home, school or in their communities, children are encouraged to explore interests, develop skills, build relationships and, most of all, have fun.
The residential services provide safe but relaxed environments for a child to come and stay for a short break that can offer their families a rest from their caring role.
It might only be a few hours, or a few nights, but for those caring for children and young people with disabilities, the chance to pause and take a breath can be life-changing.
FOSTERING
For 20 years, Aberlour has recruited, trained and supported foster parents allowing them to provide safe and loving homes for children.
The charity’s team helps the young people and their carers build strong relationships that often last a lifetime. Everything is shaped by the children and their families but fostering, sometimes challenging, always rewarding, has allowed countless young Scots to flourish.
Natasha Wallace, now 35, was the first girl to be fostered in the Aberlour service 20 years ago and says it changed her life.
She said:
I used to wonder what might have happened? Where I might have ended up? Would I be in a good situation?
“I don’t think about that now. I know who I am, know who my family are, and know they have my back.
“I would encourage any potential foster carer to give a child the same opportunity. If successful, that child has a family for life and knows someone loves them. That is such a huge thing.
RESIDENTIAL CARE
There are currently seven houses in the service and each provides a safe and loving home to children unable to live with their families.
The five houses across Fife and two in the Highlands are at the heart of their communities, close to schools and parks, and provide secure spaces where children can heal and grow.
Strong relationships and trust between adult carers and young people are the foundation of the service while the charity takes care to “hold the hands of those who hold the hands.”
Shona Quin, a clinical psychologist and independent consultant to Aberlour, said:
My role is around supporting the adults.
“When they feel fully supported and nurtured, they are then much more able to support and nurture the young people.
“To be surrounded by adults that are well and enjoy their work is massively significant in terms of the experiences young people have.
PERINATAL MENTAL HEALTH
When one in five women suffer mental health problems during pregnancy or after having their baby, the need for perinatal befriending is compelling and time-critical.
Aberlour has pioneered services offering emotional and practical support to new mothers, often vulnerable, disadvantaged and at risk of being overwhelmed by the challenges of parenthood.
Volunteer befrienders in Forth Valley and Lothian are trained to listen not judge, to empathise not impose, and, building relationships over time, ease mother’s feelings of isolation, improve their mental health, help them strengthen bonds with their babies, build connections in their communities, and empowers them to raise their family.
Liz Nolan, Director of Children and Families, said:
Around one in five new and expectant mums will experience perinatal mental illness and services like ours are vital for families across Scotland to support the health of women, partners and their babies.
“Our dedicated support services support new mums struggling with anxiety, depression and isolation during pregnancy and after their baby is born.
“Women tell us the combination of emotional and practical support for them and their families at home and in the community has changed their lives and, sometimes, saved their lives.
MOTHER AND CHILD RECOVERY HOUSES
The rehabilitation and community services helping women recover from addiction and trauma while keeping their families together has been hailed by experts and, more importantly, the mothers.
The residential support allows mothers to stay with their young children while receiving life-changing help to tackle issues with alcohol and substance use while strengthening their parenting skills.
So far there are two Mother and Child Recovery Houses, in Dundee and, more recently, Falkirk, providing nurturing and loving spaces for women and their babies during their recovery journey.
Both are supported by the Scottish Government and, opening the charity’s second house in Falkirk in September, Mental Wellbeing Minister Maree Todd said:
This house will allow women to access residential rehabilitation services and keep their family together.
“We know there is a strong link between women having children removed from their care and risk of drug-related death. Treatment is more effective when families are kept together and it also reduces the harmful impact on children.
GUARDIANSHIP SCOTLAND
A century and a half after Canon Charles Jupp set up a home for “mitherless bairns” in Aberlour, the charity he inspired offers a haven for lone, sometimes orphaned children fleeing terror, famine and war.
This statutory service provides Guardians to all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, victims of trafficking or at risk of trafficking after their arrival in Scotland.
Supported by the Scottish Government and delivered alongside the Scottish Refugee Council, Guardianship Scotland helps raise the voices of children with no one to speak for them, to protect their best interests, ensure their rights are upheld, and help them build secure new lives in Scotland.
Catriona MacSween, Service Manager, said:
It is hard to imagine what it must be like to arrive alone, in a strange country, with no one to turn to and no one to care for you.
“These young people are so far from their own, with none of the support and help from family and friends that we take for granted.
This article was written as part of the 'We are family' special edition supplement with the Sunday Post.