Connect Project Evaluation
Buttle UK has been providing financial support for children and families for over 60 years. We make grants to around 10,000 families a year, typically providing up to £300 worth of household goods (e.g. cookers, beds, washing machines) for families who are struggling both financially and in other areas of their lives. This helps fix an immediate problem, allowing a child to have a hot meal each day, go to school in clean clothes or get a proper night’s sleep.
9 January 2016 | by Pixie Parker | Read time: 1 Minute Read time
Over the years we have seen how important that small contribution can be to family life and it has made us consider what could happen if we were able to provide a little bit more. What could the families we support achieve with a grant of around £1,500, a committed front line support worker and a little bit of imagination?
The Connect Project has been all about testing this. In May 2014, with the support of the Big Lottery Fund, we began work in Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire seeking out support workers and families to work with.
In the following year we have made grants to 227 families worth a total of £300,000. Grants have been designed to meet both families’ immediate material needs but also to address longer-term issues. The money has been spent on all sorts of things from household goods, to sports activities for children, to therapy.
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