A CHARITY working with families in Dumbarton and the Vale affected by alcohol and drug addiction has received funding of almost £90,000 to help local young people.

Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs (SFAAD) has received £88,785 of Young Start funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to expand its services for people aged 12-26 living with the effects of family members drug and alcohol use.

The money will be used to continue one-to-one support services, without a limit to the number of sessions offered.

It will also help to expand the charity’s provision of small group work and structured evening sessions.

Claire Wadsworth, SFAAD’s senior family support development officer for West Dunbartonshire, said the lottery support would be vital in teaching young people new skills.

Claire, who has worked with SFAAD for seven years, has spent the last year  running a pilot project called Routes, which allows young people to organise their own activities and meetings.

She told the Reporter: “It has been really lovely, because sometimes what I think they like to do, they don’t want to do.

“They loved being listened to. It is so important that the ideas come from them.”

Currently, there are 34 young people in West Dunbartonshire using the programme.

So far it has taught them basic first aid and home cooking skills, while a recent Zoom class saw the young people pick up tips from a professional make-up artist.

Claire believes that this group will give the young people on the programme a better kickstart to life than before.

She said: “A lot of the young people do not know how to cook and rely on takeaway and junk food because of the surrounded addiction.

“Our new Cooking on a Budget course helps them make basic meals and recipes that are much healthier for their development.”

During the pandemic the young people on the programme have been receiving weekly food parcels and fortnightly wellbeing packages from the charity.