Whole Family Equality Project
This project for families from diverse ethnic backgrounds in Edinburgh aims to address poverty and inequality within ethnically diverse communities in Edinburgh.
The Whole Family Equality Project is supported by Capital City Partnership and delivered by Children 1st and CHAI. The project aims to bring about significant and measurable improvements to the lives of individuals and families from ethnically diverse communities across Edinburgh, and to empower people by giving them a leading role in the decisions that are made about the project’s design and delivery. The work has several elements, outlined below.
Whole Family Support
Based on the successful Maximise! model previously used to support families in Edinburgh through school clusters, the Whole Family Equality Project will partner with Children 1st and CHAI to identify and work with around 120 ethnically diverse families in Edinburgh. The aim is to provide holistic support, working towards outcomes such as improving each families’ financial resilience, improving health and wellbeing, and increasing children’s positive participation in school life and educational attainment. Bringing Capital City Partnership’s expertise in employability, we will also work closely with those families who want to move into work, or better work, and enable them to carve out career pathways that support their aspirations.
The holistic whole family support approach aims to deliver transformational change, providing wraparound support that addresses family wellbeing needs, money worries and employability support simultaneously, to ensure each family has the capacity to move out of poverty, and achieve their goals. Recognising the entrenched nature of racial inequalities across the UK, and in Edinburgh, this project will help to identify and address the barriers faced by ethnically diverse families living in poverty.
Citizens' Panel
A Citizens' Panel will be established to help direct the Whole Family Equality Project. This will involve around 20-25 individuals representing ethnically diverse communities in Edinburgh, who will have the opportunity to engage with all stages of the project, feed in their knowledge and ideas, and vote on decisions about how the project is taken forward. We see this as a critical element of the Whole Family Equality Project, which seeks to empower ethnically diverse communities to help identify and address the inequalities they face. As well as influencing the project itself, we intend to share this learning with stakeholders and policymakers across the city to influence broader change.
Participatory Budgeting – Small Project Grants
Alongside the support offer, we will also establish participatory budgeting panels, inviting communities to collate and/or create ideas for small scale projects that will make a difference to their community, and address poverty and inequality in some way. Four panels will be established and invited to engage their communities in voting for one project each to be taken forward and implemented.
Sharing Learning
All elements of the Whole Family Equality Project will be evaluated and evidence-based learning will be shared along with a change management toolkit, to help ensure that the project’s successes can be replicated and expanded more widely. The Whole Family Equality Project is led by Capital City Partnership and is funded by The Robertson Trust, Scottish Government and The City of Edinburgh Council.
