The newly formed Home-Start Edinburgh will host a launch event welcoming high profile politicians and speakers on child welfare to celebrate the merger at Scottish Storytelling Centre on 3rd October from 15:00-18:30.

The launch event is hosted during “Challenge Poverty Week” to highlight the issues of families and children facing poverty and isolation. Challenge Poverty Week is an opportunity to demonstrate the many activities, charities, social enterprises and people coming together to tackle poverty across Scotland.

The new charity, Home-Start Edinburgh, aims to raise its voice against poverty and show the impact that can be made by supporting parents effectively and professionally without judgement through its network of highly trained volunteers.

Eliza, manager Home-Start Edinburgh, said: “Parenting is an incredibly hard job, and the added financial pressures families are currently facing are pushing many families to the edge of coping. We surveyed our families and 91% said they felt worried about their finances in the next few months. Our home-visiting volunteers offer a vital lifeline for parents to share their worries at this challenging time.”

Guest speaker Michelle Brennan Jones, added: “All families have aspirations for their children and society needs to close the poverty gap to be able to give babies the best start in life and allow them to fulfil their potential.”

Robin Black, chair of Board of Trustees, said: “We spoke to our stakeholders – the families we help, our staff and volunteers, our funders and our partner organisations – and all were supportive of a merger seeing the benefits and simplicity of one city wide charity. A financial analysis illustrated the cost benefits of the merger as we build additional scale and eliminate overlap. Yet, by far the biggest consideration was that creating an Edinburgh wide charity offers a wider area of operation and the opportunity to help more families living in challenging circumstances.”

Ben Macpherson, MSP for social security and local communities, Leith, commented: “Tackling Child Poverty is a national mission for the Scottish Government, and devolved Social Security is an important part of our work in this area - especially at a time when families are facing extra pressures as a result of the cost crisis.”

Christine Carlin, director, Scotland HSUK, concluded: “Being a parent can be challenging and never more so as we emerge from a pandemic into a cost of living crisis. We know that the support our wonderful staff and volunteers offer to families is life-changing for parents and importantly also for their children. The opening of Home-Start Edinburgh will enable their highly trained staff and volunteers to reach more families at a time when that help is never more needed.”