Charity partner is a credit to With Kids

With Kids Glasgow are delighted to announce that Allied International Credit (UK) have chosen us as their local charity partner for 2011.

Allied International Credit was founded in Ontario, Canada in 1955. In 1968 the Company expanded its operations into the United Kingdom and in 2000 it expanded into the United States when the Company opened its first US office in Phoenix, Arizona. Today AIC employs over one thousand people in seven production locations in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Allied International Credit (AIC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Allied Global Holdings. We provide exceptional debt collection services to financial institutions, government, telecommunications, utilities, retail and health care.

With Kids would like to thank Allied International Credit for their support and we will keep you updated with their fundraising activity throughout the year.

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A poor show as child poverty is rising in Britain.

Britain is one of the world's richest countries, but it has some of the highest rates of children living below the poverty line. With Kids is based in the East End of Glasgow ,this area has some of the highest levels of poverty in Scotland and the UK. Although the facts and figures that follow may seem bleak, not all families will have the same issues. However, living in or near an area of high poverty can affect you directly or indirectly through crime, lack of amenities, poor educational facilities etc.

The sheer volume that may need help means that sometimes children and families might not get the support they need; a parent struggling with a child with a learning difficulty or emotional issue might not know where to turn, a parent who's a former addict may be afraid to ask for help in case social services intervene. All families, regardless of background find that they have difficulties from time to time and too often parent's may not be aware of available support or the best action to take. With Kids aims to fill that gap and to provide flexible support that is suited to the needs of children and parents.

Some Facts and Figures:

In some postcode areas in the east end of Glasgow, 60% of children live in workless households, almost 50% of adults of working age are on incapacity benefit and life expectancy can be as low as 54. - Glasgow Herald

Over 90,000 children in Scotland live in severe poverty - of these:

• 72% of children parents’ are not in work

• 66% of children are in families claiming income support, job seekers allowance and incapacity benefit,

• 45% of mother’s of children have no educational qualification,

• 1 in 2 children live in single parent families,

• 10% of children are from an ethnic minority, compared to 2.6% not in poverty,

• 41% of children live in families with a disabled adult, compared to 17% of children not in poverty. - Living Below the Radar:

Measuring Severe Child Poverty in the UK - Save the Children

Poorer children are five times more likely to regularly miss school. - BBC News

Poverty in Glasgow is being blamed for malnutrition in almost one in five youngsters who attended a children's hospital in the city. Health experts say many families cannot afford a more varied diet. - BBC News

Scotland has the worst child poverty, the worst diet and the worst dietary illness in Europe. - Danny Phillips, Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland.

In Scotland half the working-age adults who are long-term sick or disabled are assessed as being at high risk of developing a mental illness. By contrast, only one in seven of those who are in work are assessed as being at high risk. For those who are unemployed, around one in three are assessed as at high risk. - The Poverty Site.

Addiction of all types - to nicotine, alcohol and drugs - is often found in people with a wide variety of mental illnesses. Clinical reports state that at least half of those who seek mental health treatment have some type of addiction. - Science Daily

Drug addiction is more frequent in individuals who have a mental illness compared to individuals without any mental disorder. Likewise, people who are drug dependent are more likely to suffer from mental disorders than non-dependent people. - Green Facts

NHS audits show that there were more than 10,700 emergency admissions to Glasgow hospitals for adults with alcohol-related problems over a 12 month period from 2007 to 2008. Statistics from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde reveal that 42% of Glasgow’s schoolchildren admit to being drunk at least once a month, with a further 27% admitting they are drunk on at least a weekly basis. In 2009 eight children under the age of 12 from Glasgow were admitted to hospital because of excessive alcohol consumption. Areas of high deprivation such as Glasgow East, have almost double the percentage of smokers than in affluent areas. - Evening Times.

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