B&Q Livingston

At Armadale Academy we believe that no child should go hungry, therefore our aim to to provide help and support for our students and families in the form of food sharing cupboard which will help parents to access food at short notice. For families in urgent circumstances a food parcel can be made up to meet the needs of individual families. Our family support workers work closely with families 52 weeks of and deliver various clubs/courses offering support in various forms.We are also in the process of setting up a cooking workshop for families to attend and up skill. With help from the neighbourly scheme we are able to continue to offer services to the Children and families with in our community.

Whitburn and District Community Development Trust are a local charity run by volunteers. We offer support for people in Whitburn, East Whitburn and Greenrigg and provide a range of services to support the community to access information on local services. Development trusts are community organisations which: Are owned and managed by the local community Aim to achieve the sustainable regeneration of a community or address a range of economic, social, environmental and cultural issues within a community Are independent but seek to work in partnership with other private, public and third sector organisations Aim to reduce dependency on grant support by generating income through enterprise and the ownership of assets. All trading surpluses are principally reinvested in the organisation or the community. Local people set up development trusts to tackle local issues and to improve the quality of life in their community. As a result, development trusts become involved in a very wide range of activities. We would like support, particularly in our Community Fridge Project, Where we are able to re distribute surplus food to those who need it the most. Our community Fridge is one of our newest projects and is gradually becoming busier and more popular within the local community. We would appreciate if we could receive surplus food donations from our local store, as we have an Lidl store within our Town. We already receive products from our local Co-op. Any other surplus stock would be appreciated. Another project we would like support in would be using staff time to support is in our environmental projects, including our Community Garden project and our Friends of Polkemmet volunteering sessions. For more information please do not hesitate to get in touch regarding dates. We also provide access to the digital world by providing free use of desktop computers, support from our Digital Inclusion Mentors who can help creating and updating CV’s. We also host WESLO’s Welfare Rights Officer every second Monday morning and Blackburn and Seafield Credit Union every Tuesday morning. Our Community Development Worker has been working on a variety of community projects across the town, across a variety of themes: ENVIRONMENTAL; Re- establishing the 'Friends of Polkemmet group'; Securing funding to develop a community garden. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY: including our weekly walking football group for older men and setting up a weekly Parkrun (5k) at Polkemmet Country Park. WELFARE ADVICE: Worked in partnership with Citizens Advice Bureau to employ a full time CAB worker within our community. YOUTH PROVISION: Working with local organisations and local authority to run a summer club for young people over the summer holidays including giving every child a hot lunch. Finally this also included, working with young people from the Academy to encourage them to become more involved in the community, we planned and delivered a community ceilidh.

We provide temporary accommodation to homeless young people. While staying with us, young people are provided with a key worker for one to one support and the opportunity to participate in group work. We aim to support them to gain the skills to live independently when they move into their own tenancy, and also use a holistic approach to help them overcome any barriers to fulfilling their potential they may have.