Group set to expand services

Local community group, ParentSpace has been awarded £150,000 National Lottery funding to support its work with local parents.

Local community group, ParentSpace has been awarded £150,000 National Lottery funding to support its work with local parents.

The group, based at The Volunteer Hall in Duns, will use the cash to continue its work resourcing parents through courses, drop-ins and one-to-one support.

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It will also expand its team of facilitators and launch a new befriending service.

Karen Lerpiniere, project lead, said: “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way.

“Now, thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to continue our support to parents and extend the range of what we do.

“There is really no more important job than that of being a parent and we want parents to feel they have support to do the best job they can.

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“We’d like to thank The National Lottery, BAVS and everyone else who has supported us to make this happen.”

ParentSpace has been running since 2013 and is currently staffed by a team of nine.

It was founded by Di Murray after she realised that parents needed more support in the community.

The group would normally run face-to-face sessions, but has moved all their services online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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It currently runs two online drop-ins per week, facilitates a closed group on Facebook and offers telephone support. Online parenting courses are also planned.

One service user told us: “ParentSpace changed my life!

“I’m honestly not sure how I would have got through lockdown without them.

“I’ve never felt so welcome, at ease, non-judged with complete strangers in my life.

“I have spoken about my mental health issues, my children, my relationship and my life. I have told them how I have been feeling the good the bad and the bloody ugly.

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“And not once have I felt judged, embarrassed or felt I did something wrong. I felt listened to, understood, loved, and have been given some of the best advice in my life.”

The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund will not only allow these sessions to continue, but to expand the service, currently only available in Berwickshire, throughout the whole of the Borders over the next three years.

To find out more, and for information on how to access the service, visit www.parentspace.org.uk