St. Ninian’s Stay and Play Family Support Group

Excerpts from interview with Rhona Armitage, Group Leader of St. Ninian’s Stay and Play Family Support Group, that recently received DVA Volunteer Friendly Award and a Dundee Partnership Award.

Describe your area of work?
Our project is trying to reach out to and support isolated families with children aged 0-5 years, who are distressed not only by poverty, income inequalities and mental health problems but may also suffer from abuses like drugs, alcohol and physical violence. We are supporting people who have not engaged with the statutory services. We offer structured programmes and therapeutic services like gym, drama, arts etc., provide free food and invite statutory and voluntary bodies to the group including language therapy, pre-school home visiting service, social work, adult literacy, Dundee Women’s Aid and Money Matters.

What is the impact of your work on local communities?

The outcome has been very positive for both the children and their parents. We have been able to develop linkages for them with various statutory services and other voluntary groups. Most importantly people are beginning to build stronger relationships and maintain them outside the group.

What is your connection with Faith?
We are based in St. Ninian’s Scottish Episcopal Church and have clear connection with faith; but it depends on how you define the term. Our project is not only for Christians and we welcome everyone – families of no faith and families from other faiths who may benefit from our work. Fay Lamont, who is one of the Trustees of the project, does pastoral work for the group and spends time developing relationship with families attending the group.

What are the strengths of your group?
The strength of our group is that we understand the needs of our community and provide services that families and children enjoy and benefit from. Our Trustees also bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table and we also have a pool of dedicated volunteers.

What are the challenges that your group face?
The families we work with tend to lack aspiration in life and have low self-esteem; it is difficult to encourage them to participate in any training or development-based activities. It takes a very long time to build trust, and one has to be very patient and persistent with them. In general, there is lack of collaboration between various agencies for more effective responses to family problems. In our group, it is also increasingly difficult to sustain qualified and experienced volunteers.

Any message to people who will be reading your interview…
IT COULD HAPPEN TO ANYBODY. DON’T JUDGE….LISTEN!

If you wish to know more about the project or get in touch with Rhona , please contact Rhona Armitage (e: cooriekiminca@tiscali.co.uk or m:07947897893)