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At Simba, we support families in Scotland who have lost their baby. We help those grieving create precious moments to honour their baby’s memory. Where there is darkness, we shine gentle light by making time, giving space and sharing love. The approach we take is deeply personal, our team and volunteers coming together because every baby matters. Every single one. With only a tiny percentage of Government funding, we rely on the generosity of our incredible supporters throughout the year. At Simba, we help in three main ways; gifting our hand-crafted Memory Boxes, our beautiful Trees of Tranquillity and our precious Bereavement Rooms. By choosing Simba, you will be supporting many families affected by baby loss across Scotland.

It is important for us at the Hospice that the environment for our patients and their families is the best it can possibly be. We know that gardens are intimately connected to our health and well-being across the life-course. This does not change with end-of-life care. Our plan is to create a large vegetable garden, visible from our Day Services unit. We need to clear a large area of ground, include some raised beds, bring in some good quality soil and create a clear pathway from the main Hospice building. The work will involve the use of a digger to create the initial area and pathway. We will then plant a selection of vegetables which in time will produce a lovely selection of vegetables for use in the Hospice kitchen. Patients, staff and families will benefit from freshly picked potatoes, beans courgettes, herbs, onions, leeks and cabbages. Our physiotherapy team in our Day Therapies service will encourage the patients to become involved in the seeding, planting and growing of the vegetables. It will be a wonderful way to include our patients in a healthy, rewarding , outdoor pursuit as well as providing healthy produce for our meals. It will be a therapeutic activity in itself, offering a sense of achievement along with a connection with nature and a chance to work alongside others. It will also save the Hospice a considerable amount of money in the long run which is wonderful.

YMCA Edinburgh was established in 2006 and now works with over 200 children, young people and their families per week, to transform lives within Leith, Edinburgh and East Lothian. One of YMCA Edinburgh's flagship programmes is Plusone Mentoring. Plusone Mentoring supports young people aged 8 to 14, who are disengaged with school and at-risk of offending. We recruit and train volunteer mentors who are each matched with a young person to meet weekly over a 1 year period. This commitment allows time to build a trusting relationship, provide the young person with a listening ear and support the young person to work towards personal goals in relation to positive decision making, improving education engagement, building self-esteem and increasing confidence. The Plusone Mentoring Model was developed in 2009 by YMCA Scotland, Association of Directors of Social Work, Violence Reduction Unit and the University of Dundee. The programme has identified a way to help young people through early-intervention in hopes of improving school engagement and performance by having a consistent supportive mentor in their lives. The key to the programme is that mentors are volunteers, they choose to be involved in the life of the young person and for many young people this adds a heightened sense of value and trust to the relationship. The Plusone programme has been a great success so far with 86% of participants having significantly changed their attitudes to offending and 64% of the young people having significantly improved relationships in their neighbourhood. The programme at YMCA Edinburgh has recently achieved the Scottish Mentoring Network Quality Award which is a testament to our dedication to the project and its long-lasting affect on communities and young people. Plusone at YMCA Edinburgh was launched in April 2013 and works in partnership with Education, Social Work and other voluntary organisations across Edinburgh. 2015 has been a busy year for Plusone, with 30 young people matched with a mentor. We are hoping to expand this programme further to allow us to reach more young people in need of support who are currently on the waiting list due to high demand for the service. We also wish to ensure that the young people currently on the programme have access to positive activities and learning experiences in order for them to be able to make the most of their time with us. Funding will ultimately help young people at a challenging cross-roads in their life who are on the cusp of offending but with the support of a positive role model can go on to achieve their potential.