Big Lottery Fund improves the lives of Enfield families

One hundred and fifty Enfield families who need support will benefit from a three year project made possible by a grant of £900,000 from the Big Lottery Fund. The money has been announced today (26th January 2012) as part of the Big Lottery Fund’s first wave of projects in its £26 million Improving Futures programme. The programme aims to make a big contribution to improving outcomes for children within families experiencing multiple and complex problems.

The Enfield Family Turnaround Project will be led by the national charity, 4Children in partnership with Enfield Council and Enfield Parents & Children. The project takes a ‘whole family’ approach to build on families’ strengths, abilities and capacities helping them to provide a safe and nurturing environment where their children can grow up.

Focusing on Enfield’s Somali and Turkish communities, outreach workers will identify families with multiple and complex needs living in the areas of highest deprivation.  It is likely that some of the families will be among the 120,000 families which the government is hoping to target in its new initiative led by the new "troubled families tsar", Louise Casey.  The targeted families will be given an opportunity to design and influence their own interventions, and will be given access to a wide range of courses and activities including parenting courses (primary age parenting, specialist parenting for children with ADHD or autism and lone parenting); workshops on the education system including special needs and school exclusion; family counselling, anger management courses and support groups focusing on  domestic violence, addiction and bereavement; practical courses in hygiene, cooking, arts and crafts and money management; support in the areas of family bonding, after school kids clubs, supplementing children’s learning, literacy, numeracy and IT classes.

Charles Ellis, Deputy Chief Executive of 4Children, said:

4Children are delighted to be able to announce the launch of this new project in partnership with Enfield Council and Enfield Parents & Children. Families tell us how they often struggle to find the help they need and can be overwhelmed by a number of professionals who respond to the symptoms of their problems, not the underpinning causes.

“The Enfield Family Turnaround Project  will take a holistic whole family approach to focus on changing behaviour, with a clear contract with families to do all they can to turn their situation around to provide the loving, caring environment their children need. This means working with families to get a grip on the issues, identifying what they need to do to function more effectively and the support they need to do it.”

Cllr Ayfer Orhan, Enfield Cabinet Member for Schools and Children's Services, said:

This project represents the very best of partnership work bringing together the knowledge and expertise of local practitioners, Enfield Parents & Children, with the council's resources. It will lift the morale and aspirations of the families in greatest need providing a secure foundation for their children. We are entering an exciting phase where we will see very quickly how our families are responding."

Dee Eimer, Director of Enfield Parents & Children, said:

“I’m so excited about this project as it will enable us as a local organisation, together with the experience of 4Children and support from Enfield Council, to work alongside struggling families on early intervention programmes to enable them to increase the future success of their children.”

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