Our North Lanarkshire service

Overcoming barriers
No matter how far away entering work feels for you just now, our Employability Advisers will support you to start taking your first steps towards entering suitable employment. You can talk to us about childcare, money worries, and what your money will look like when you go to work. You can also build your confidence and meet other single parents in a similar situation.

Building skills and qualifications
Our Employability Service can support you to develop and build your skills to help you get the job you would like. Working on a one-to-one basis, our Employability Advisers will support you to decide what type of jobs or college courses you would like to find out more about and the skills that would be needed to apply. Our training courses will help you to further develop the skills and interests you already have.

Work preparation
Starting or returning to work can seem daunting when you haven’t been in paid employment for a while. Our Employability Service will support you to get online, build your CV, look at current vacancies, complete application forms and prepare for your interview. You can meet our advisers on a one-to-one basis, book a place on our work preparation courses or come along to our Job Club to help you to find a suitable job.

In-work support
Entering a new job is exciting but can also bring its own challenges. Our in-work support service will help you to budget, achieve work-life balance and ensure that you gain access to all the services and resources you need when building a new routine. Our friendly advisers can offer you support by phone, text, email and in person.

Single parent community hub
Bringing up children on our own can sometimes feel lonely. We run local single parent hubs where you can meet other parents, find out more information on local activities and services, have some ‘You’ time and get your confidence back. Our Family Support Team will meet with you to share more information and when you are ready to come along, we will book you a place and help you join in.

School holiday activity programme
The school holidays are often an exciting time for children but getting time off from school can be expensive for parents and cause extra stresses and strains. We run a family activity programme during the school holidays, which involves fun days out and activities for you and your children to enjoy.

Accessing local resources and services
It can be difficult to know about all the services and resources that could help you. Our Family Support Team will share information and introduce you to local projects and organisations that can help make bringing children up on your own a bit easier. If you would like further information, please give us a call.

Support for dads
Local service workers can meet you one-to-one at a time and place to suit your circumstances. We can provide advice and support around:

• parenting
• childcare
• benefit entitlements
• housing
• health and wellbeing
• budgeting
• involvement with statutory services (i.e. Social Work, health professionals, nursery or school staff)
• or simply the struggles of everyday life.

One-to-one support offers a confidential, non-judgmental service which helps dads to reduce feelings of isolation, increase their sense of family wellbeing and parenting skills, and build confidence and self-esteem.

Our local workers can also support dads with referrals for:

• financial inclusion support
• crisis support
• food banks, baby banks, school uniform grants and more.

Money and debt advice
Our Money and Debt Advisers will provide you with help, support, advice and information to help you to better manage your money, deal with any debts and where needed, negotiate a payment plan.

One-to-one support
At some points during our years of being a parent we can find it difficult to juggle our childcare, wellbeing and health. Our friendly Family Support team can arrange to meet you and give you time to talk about any difficulties you may be facing. We can help you work out how to get the information and support you need to make life a bit easier.

Group support
We also offer group support sessions for you to build some positive time into your week. Meeting others in a friendly and safe environment can help reduce our stress levels and alleviate feelings of isolation, loneliness and anxiety. Our local Family Support Groups are informal, relaxed and friendly.

Training courses
We offer health and wellbeing training courses which can support you to manage your levels of anxiety and stress, reducing feelings of depression and supporting a better sense of wellbeing. Our courses are informal and will support you to find ways to take more control of how you feel about yourself and find ways to move forward in your life.

Please call our offices to speak with our Young Parents Worker to find out more about the support and advice we can provide for young parents.

Young parents’ hub
Being a young parent is rewarding and challenging. At our Young Parent Hub, you can meet other young parents who are in a similar situation as you. Get some time for yourself and learn about all the opportunities that are available to make life a little easier when bringing up your baby.

Training courses
It can be difficult to find time for yourself when you are bringing up young children. Thinking about accessing training isn’t always top of your list. We can help you to access training courses that will best suit your circumstances. Course could be about confidence building, parenting, budgeting, healthy eating and lots more.

Entering college
Young Parents have told us that it can be difficult to think about themselves and what they want to do when bringing up a young child or a baby. We can help you to prepare for and enter college or employment. Our Young Parents Worker can help you to look at the practicalities, including suitable childcare. We can help you to decide what kind of work would suit you, build a CV, job search, complete application forms and prepare for interviews.

We know that for many single parents trying to make ends meet in difficult circumstances, things can happen that you don’t expect. If you are struggling with essential costs such as food, school uniform, baby equipment, clothing or keeping your home warm and with hot running water, please contact our offices to find out about the support we can offer you. We can also provide support with costs around Christmas time and organise family activities during school holidays to help with the expense of keeping your children entertained.