AN initiative providing Inverclyde residents with access to warm spaces and social connection will return this winter.
Warm Hands of Friendship is back for a second year – supported by £100,000 of funding – after councillors gave the allocation the green light.
The project will provide one-off grants to community groups developing activities for those affected by the cost-of-living crisis.
As part of the scheme, they will ensure spaces, resources, advice and support are available as temperatures drop and prices rise.
According to the local authority, the programme, which launched in October last year and ran until March, provided 51 grants to 44 community groups and supported just over 10,000 people across nearly 1,300 sessions.
Council leader Stephen McCabe, convener of the policy and resources committee, where the investment was approved, said: “We, as a council, are committed to doing all we can to support the residents of Inverclyde with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the Warm Hands of Friendship is a great example of the public, private and third sectors working collaboratively to support some of the most vulnerable in society. There is no doubt that Inverclyde is a caring and compassionate place.
“The figures speak for themselves with over 10,000 people supported as a result of Inverclyde’s Warm Hands of Friendship last winter so it’s only right that with prices, and particularly energy costs, still sky high that we continue this support for another year.”
A report by Ruth Binks, corporate director for education, communities and organisational development, was considered at the committee on Tuesday.
The document said: “The Warm Hands of Friendship is a good practice example of community and the public sector working together to support residents.
“Not only did this project provide new ways to engage with local people, it also provided the opportunity for local organisations to understand the challenges faced by children and families and ensure that their voices were heard in the development of the Warm Hands provision.
“The evaluation of the project highlighted that volunteering had a significant role in the success of the projects.
“The majority of services were either aimed at families or older people and most had food provision as a key element of their offer.
“However, more than half of these projects reported that people were hesitant to engage with their warm space due to concerns around ‘needing charity and free food’ which highlights the continuing stigma around poverty and need.
“The Warm Hands of Friendship helped reduce stigma by this issue by having at its heart, that the warm space was intended to provide warm and friendly spaces to enable communities to come together.”
The programme was one of a number of projects approved by the committee.
