The Hour Is Nearly Upon Us!

One of our supporters, Emilie Charlotte, is taking part in a skydive in aid of With Kids.

Here is an update on what is happening with her efforts:

"Hello Peeps!

The time has flown by since my last post about Tiffany & I doing the skydive for With Kids! It is due to happen this Saturday, 31st May. The weather is looking fair enough which is a bonus, as I can’t imagine anything worse than being cancelled & having to go back weeks later! A bit like the dentist, I like to get it out of the way!

I won’t bore you with the fitness regime that I had intended on taking on because I couldn’t be arsed with it in the end. Instead I’ve stuffed my face with salad for the last few weeks, which evens things out somewhat.

Keen to immerse myself in uncomfortable situations, I let Tiffs drag me along to a posh wine-tasting do the other week. We were all given a bit of paper so that we could describe the aroma & taste of each different wine. All my answers just said ‘tastes like wine’, that’s how cultured I am! At least I lasted longer there than at the art gallery do that daughter dragged me to…

For anyone who is still reading by this point, we will keep you all updated via Twitter & Facebook about what is happening on Saturday. We have to arrive for 8.30, earlier if we want the jumps filmed (hell yes, this isn’t going to happen again!) We might be waiting for the weather to clear & might not even jump till 9pm, which is a little daunting! Apart from that, all I know is that we get 20 minutes training just before we board the plane….

Tiffany & I would like to thank everyone who has already donated towards the appeal. We would dearly love to reach our target, so if you haven’t yet donated, then please do here: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/withkidsskydive?

Special thanks goes to Suzy Blair from With Kids who has been a great help to me with organising it all, Vanessa Marte who has tirelessly promoted the event via social media & lastly Robert Carlyle for retweeting our link & being our all round inspiration!

Much love, Emilie & Tiffany xx"

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Our Ladies Lunch - May 2014

This Sunday we will be having our ladies lunch at the fantastic 29 Glasgow in Royal Exchange Square in the Supper Club, with a champagne reception in the 29 Apartment.

Joining us at 29 as our compère and our host will be Edward Reid, and Mr. Reid will also be performing for us!

For those of you who don’t know who Edward Reid is, he was a contestant on 2011’s Britain’s Got Talent and sang nursery rhymes and children’s television show themes, but with a twist as he sang them to the tunes of other popular songs. Well, might we add; really well.

As we said previously, he will be acting as our compère between our entertainment - the Jersey Tones and an extra special performance from a few of the children from With Kids, who will be putting on a wee play for us!

The Jersey Tones are a four man tribute act who perform songs sung by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, as well as the hits from the five-piece vocal harmony group, the Overtones.

We have heard good things, and they sound amazing so we can’t wait to have them perform for us, and we’ll let the kids surprise you with their play!

In addition to the entertainment, we will have a fabulous raffle and an auction where you will have the chance to win great prizes including an overnight bed and breakfast stay at Mar Hall.

As well as the chance to win something, there will be a guaranteed buy at the Bustle Lingerie pop-up shop;

“All of [their] lingerie comes direct to your door in style and beautifully wrapped! [They also] don't have a high street presence so you can be sure we deliver it at the best price.”

Bustle aren’t the only ones who we have to thank for taking part in the event, we also have a sponsor to remember who we are thankful to have. St. James’s Place Wealth Management, who offer face-to-face wealth management advice, which is tailored to meet your own specific circumstances, are our sponsor for this year’s lunch and we are fortunate to have such a great sponsor.

We would also like to thank the following for donating to With Kids for this event; 29 Glasgow, Dunmore Scotland, Gordon and Marion White, Ashoka Cook School, Celtic FC, De Vere Cameron House, and Munro Opticians.

We are very privileged to have such a great venue, a great host and great entertainment which will make this ladies lunch an event to remember, and we look forward to seeing you there.

To keep up to date with future events, and to get your photos from these events online, make sure to follow us on Twitter and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.

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With Kids Golf Day

Are you a keen golfer? If so, why not join us for the celebrity Alan Rough AM Golf Tournament to raise funds for With Kids at the impressive Mar Hall Golf & Spa Resort?

Taking place at The Earl of Mar Golf Course on Thursday the 29th May, teams of players, including celebrities such as Derek Johnstone, Frank McAvennie and Alan Rough himself, will compete on the day for both individual and team prizes.

Located just 10 minutes from Glasgow Airport and set within a tranquil 240 acre woodland estate, the course will give you spectacular views of the River Clyde and the Kilpatrick Hills.

The team will consist of four players, or three players and a celebrity, with a full team handicap of up to 18, and the best three net scores for each hole count per team.

The teams will be competing against each other in a Fourball Stableford competition with a 10am tee off, and there will be a range of prizes for the top three teams and individual prizes, including nearest the pin.

Some of the celebrities that will be in attendance at the event include Central FM presenter and Scotland’s most capped goalkeeper Alan Rough, Radio Clyde presenter and former Rangers and Scotland player Derek Johnstone, former SFA referee Willie Young, and football agent and former Celtic, West Ham and Scotland player Frank McAvennie.

Others confirmed for the event are former Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, Rangers and Scotland player Billy Dodds, BBC pundit and former Hibs, Celtic and Scotland player Murdo Macleod, and former boxing champion Ian McLeod.

The price for a team is £500, which includes a round of golf as well as a three course dinner for each team member.

If you would like to take a team for a fun day out, whilst raising vital funds for With Kids, please email events@fatbuzz.com or call Fiona MacDonald on 0141 427 0727.

Fiona will provide you with a form that you will need to fill out, identifying which company you are from, how many people you're playing with, and their handicaps.

Please share this with your friends if you think they would be interested, and remember to keep up-to-date with the day on Facebook and Twitter.

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Track Henry, the Charity Teddy

Once Upon a Donation

Two lovely fans of Once Upon A Time have come up with a wonderful idea for donating to two charities chosen by OUAT stars Robert Carlyle and Lana Parilla. 

Henry, a very busy and adventure-thirsty little teddy bear will be travelling the world, connecting fans, sharing cultures and raising funds for With Kids and the International Trauma Treatment Program. 

Henry will travel by mail and stay for a week to 10 days so that he can visit his destination properly.  He’ll also bring with him 2 travel books, one for Robert and one for Lana and participants will fill these with pictures and stories of Henry’s tour.

Henry will be raising funds as he travels (even small donations help) and hosts can choose to donate to either (or both) of the charities chosen by Robert Carlyle (With Kids) and Lana Parrilla (International Trauma Treatment Program).

The busy little bear has now been booked up until 2016 and so far has 65 hosts that he’ll be visiting worldwide.

There will be lots of lovely pictures and info showing Henry’s progress on the Tumblr site.  If you’d like to keep up to date, would like Henry to visit or want to find out more then please visit the Once Upon A Donation site on tumblr. 

You can also follow them on twitter @OUaDonation or on Facebook, and you can keep up with Henry’s travels by viewing the map here.

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Caring for Kinship Carers

At With Kids, we offer many different services to accommodate and help struggling families in the more poverty stricken areas of Glasgow and Edinburgh - and one such service is kinship care.

Kinship care is the care of children by people such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends, because their natural parents are unable to care for them. 

The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 emphasises that, if any child cannot be with their parents, connections should be maintained within the family circle if at all possible, and according to Mentor UK, one in 77 children across Scotland grows up in a household with friends or relatives.

The idea for a Kinship Care Group first arose two years ago when a local kinship carer approached us after an activity session, and asked if With Kids could assist her in setting up a local kinship care group as there was a gap in support services to aid local kinship carers.

We agreed, and so the With Kids Kinship Care Group was set up as a friendly, safe place for kinship carers to meet regardless of the legal status of their arrangement.

The group now meets every Wednesday morning, and allows kinship carers to share stories, issues, and worries, and give advice to other kinship carers in a similar position as themselves over a cup of tea or coffee.

The kinship group supports the idea of peer support and learning, where the kinship carers provide each other with emotional, practical and mutual support to alleviate feelings of criticism and isolation, and experiences of little or no practical support in managing the complicated family situations that they deal with.

Some members of the kinship group recently signed up to the Scottish Kinship Care Alliance’s Justice for Kinship Kids campaign, and on the 19th February 2014, they protested outside The Scottish Parliament to urge MSPs to vote for amendments to increase the support available to kinship care families in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill.

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill is just one of the common issues that has been discussed by a programme of guest speakers at the With Kids Kinship Care Group, along with issues such as food poverty, fuel poverty, and welfare reform.

These sessions are open to other known kinship carers locally, and any other organisations who want to find out more about kinship care or any common issues that affect children in care.

If you would like more information on kinship care or the With Kids Kinship Care Group, you can contact us at With Kids Edinburgh on 0131 453 6937, With Kids Glasgow on 0141 550 5770 or get in touch on Facebook or Twitter.

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A Belated but Heartfelt Thank You

Now that the seasonal chaos has just about died down, we would like to take a moment to thank all our With Kids supporters, both big and small, for your overwhelming response to our Christmas Appeal 2013.

Thanks to your invaluable support, we were able to provide 102 families in Glasgow and Edinburgh with food parcels, and also 232 children with presents to open on Christmas morning.

In addition to this, we also had 82 families along to our Christmas parties, where 175 kids received a present from Santa.

However, it’s not just at Christmas when we rely on donations; our summer programme and various groups and activities are also made possible this way throughout the year.

We simply couldn't reach as many families without your continued support, and we would like to take the time to thank some particular businesses, individuals, schools and nurseries who went above and beyond the call of duty last year.  

So, without further ado, (*drum roll*) we would like to take the opportunity to announce our very own New Years Honours List.

Thank you to the various businesses and organisations who helped support With Kids, including Scottish Fire & Rescue and Tommy Keay who as always, were amazing, The Disney Store in St Enoch Centre, fatBuzz, Kevin MaGuire and Merchant City Properties, Dell (Alexandra Parade), Excel Vending, Andrew Muirhead & Sons, Sainsbury's Longstone, Scottish National Heritage, CFC Foundation, Tango Tipica, UNITE, Port William Community Shop, El Barrio Glasgow, Maxim Tools, The Gallery, and Scottish Enterprise.

There were also many individuals who gave up their own valuable time in order to help make a huge difference to the families that With Kids support, including Tracy Heraghty and staff, friends and family from Scottish Power (Cathcart), Lisa Sullivan, Phil Worms of iomart Group, Alex and Jen Robertson, Laura O'Brien at CTG, Elaine McIntyre and Fraser Gowrie Johnston, Lorna Allan, Lucy Gardner at The Sun, and everyone who purchased from the Amazon Wish List.

As you are all aware of, we help provide individual, social and practical support to children and families across Scotland, so it was particularly heartwarming to receive the support from various primary schools and nurseries throughout Glasgow, including St Josephs Primary, Mount Florida Nursery, Balornock Primary, Ashcraig Primary, Alexandra Parade Primary, Garnetbank Primary and Wellfield Nursery.

Last but not least, thank you to Robert Carlyle, Emilie De Ravin and all the wonderful Once Upon A Time Fans, as well as JCI Glasgow and Daniel and Kim Robertson, who did an absolutely brilliant job organising and collecting donations from Caledonian and Glasgow University.

We have had so many people help us throughout the year that it’s impossible to name them all, so finally, we would like to say an ENORMOUS THANK YOU to everyone who donated, volunteered, tweeted, followed, shared and talked about With Kids in 2013.

You are all stars!

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Christmas On Credit

“Was Santa good to you this year?”. The words every child is asked at Christmas time, the answer to which can only be yes in the eyes of their parents. Who just want to do best by their children by any means necessary and that can sometimes land them in trouble.


Financial trouble, at Christmas time, is always a tough time financially but for some families it can be far tougher and the rest of the new year can also become a struggle too.

In a recent channel 4 documentary, “Christmas on Credit”, these problems are addressed and explains just how difficult the Christmas period can be for Britain’s poorer families. 

It opens with statistics claiming that 11% of British families are still paying off money that they borrowed for Christmas 2012, 93% feel that they are under pressure to spend too much during the festive period and around 15% of British adults plan to take out a loan for this year. 

Perfection is strived for so nonchalantly that the struggle that follows can be very harrowing, but it is kept aside until the new year then the worrying truly begins.

Around seven million people will borrow money this Christmas and four million of that will borrow just so that they can provide their families with a good hearty Christmas dinner. 

For one of the families interviewed in the documentary, the loan taken out for 2012’s Christmas has still not been paid off and are planning on taking out another loan on credit to pay for this year. At a nationwide average of £822, though, does it comes as any surprise that debt will arise for those on benefits who struggle to make it through the week let alone Christmas.

Loans on credit that have been given out last Christmas and have failed to have been paid will result in lower credit scores, meaning that loans this year will be declined. This will mean that this Christmas will be difficult but if you can scrape by then great, but what about next year?

The stigma of the whole idea and pleasantries of Christmas dull down the negative thoughts of the repayments are kept at bay because seeing the smiles on their children's’ faces is worth it.

However all of this being said, what are your thoughts? Do you think that Christmas has been over-hyped and become the source of anxiety amongst many British households? Obviously it is a great festive time that should be full of joy and time with your family, but should it cause so much strain on people? 

If you'd like to find out more about how you can help to raise vital funds for With Kids please click HERE. You can contact us on Facebook or Twitter or call us on 0141 550 5770.

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