Micah 2021 Projects

The Micah Fund is a way for people at Ps & Gs to give to charities and projects outside our church and beyond our usual partner organisations.

The Micah Fund supports projects in the UK which fall under one of the four areas of our new church strategy: changing lives, transforming society deepening influence and church planting. It also includes donations to Disaster Emergency Committee appeals, ordinands who have been part of Ps & Gs, and short-term missions.

The charities we are supported in 2021 were:

Bethany Welcome Centre
The Bridge Counselling Centre
Leith School of Art
New Team
St Andrew’s Children’s Society
Street Support Edinburgh

Hear from some of the charities about how they planned to use the money

Find out more about the charities we supported in other years.

Historically, the Bethany Edinburgh Winter Care Shelter has, during the coldest months of the year, provided beds for up to 75 people who were sleeping rough. With the arrival of Covid-19 in Scotland, the Care Shelter team recognised that the open plan setting of church buildings was no longer safe.

The Care Shelter is now known as the Rapid Re-accommodation Welcome Centre and operates from The Haymarket Hotel.  The service now has a greater emphasis on linking people who are homeless directly into a range of accommodation options. While men and women continue to receive a warm bed, hot meal and access to support through trained staff and visiting partner agencies, the main emphasis of the Welcome Centre is to be a route out of rough sleeping and into accommodation.

By the end of October 2020, Bethany Welcome Centre (BWC) had supported 172 different guests and had seen 142 move on from the service. During the first lockdown, BWC helped 94% of the people who stayed with them to move on to accommodation.

The Micah Fund donation would cover one week of the BWC’s operating costs.

Read more about Bethany Christian Trust

Bridge Counselling is an independent church-based counselling service overseen by Holy Trinity Church in Wester Hailes - one of the most deprived areas in Scotland. In an area where many people have been impacted by the stresses of multiple deprivation and suffered numerous adverse childhood experiences, clients come seeking support for an array of issues affecting their mental and spiritual well-being.

The counselling service provides help to relieve distress and releases clients to be more fully themselves in their day-to-day life and relationships.

The counselling team consists of five volunteers - a team leader and four newly qualified counsellors. To enable the service to be accessible to all who need it, there is no fixed charge for sessions. However, an affordable donation to cover costs is encouraged.

In 2020 the pandemic increased the burden of mental health problems, bringing with it increasing administrative and line management responsibilities for the Lead Counsellor. It is no longer sustainable for this important role to be done on a purely voluntary basis.

The Micah Fund donation would help fund a new paid role of Lead Counsellor.

Read more about The Bridge Counselling Centre

Leith School of Art (LSA) is an art education college in Edinburgh specialising in a wide range of art courses for adults. It was founded in 1988 by the late Mark and Lottie Cheverton, who were members of Ps & Gs church; their vision and faith inspired the artistic, charitable and spiritual aims which underpin LSA today.

LSA’s Community Classes are for members of the local community on low incomes. Students receive high quality art education in a nurturing and inclusive environment, which enables them to develop their artistic talent, express creativity, socialise, develop skills, build confidence and have a break from the challenges of their day-to-day lives.

As a result of Covid-19, LSA’s students are now even more vulnerable. Their regular support structures have either been lost or taken online, increasing their social isolation and making it more difficult to cope.

When restrictions allow, the community art classes will therefore be more important than ever for our students.

The Micah Fund donation would fund the delivery of LSA’s community classes for one term.

Read more about Leith School of Art

New Team is a Christian charity working alongside young people who hang out on the streets of Govan, Glasgow. In normal times they build relationships through street youth work and trips, and are passionate about serving God by serving young people in Govan and supporting their social, emotional and spiritual development.

The areas of Govan that New Team target are in the 5% most deprived areas in Scotland. The young people there face complex challenges, including mental/physical health problems, addictions, kinship care, periods in residential care or breakdown in family relationships.

With support from the Micah Fund, New Team aim to transform a small shop space in the heart of Govan into a youth work space and base. The building will increase youth work opportunities, for example, through activities related to sport and creativity.

New Team estimate that over 3 years in the building they would work directly with 90 young people and their families.

The Micah Fund donation would fund the fit out of the new youth work space.

Read more about New Team

St Andrew’s Children’s Society supports vulnerable children by providing adoptive and foster care for children unable to remain with their birth families.

Many adopted and fostered children have experienced highly traumatic, confusing and complex events. To help them reflect on and process their thoughts and feelings, the charity uses a programme called Life Story Work (LSW) which draws on the power of stories.

LSW can help children to understand the events which shaped their lives, such as why they were placed for adoption or fostering. It can, in particular, help them to let go of negative thoughts and feelings, which can damage them in later life.

The Micah Fund donation would fund 10 weeks of St Andrew’s Children’s Society Life Story Work.

Read more about St Andrew’s Children’s Society

Support for people who experience or are at risk of homelessness was previously fragmented, with information held by separate organisations.

Street Support Edinburgh (SSE) is a one-stop-shop website and app that brings together information on homelessness, housing, emergency food locations and health services in one digital resource. The resource is now in 22 cities in the UK and has recently launched in Edinburgh.

Street Support has been developed with homeless people and, since its launch in 2016, has recorded more than 1.3 million views and connected homelessness organisations with individuals.

Many organisations support SSE including Crisis, Shelter, Bethany, Cyrenians, Rock Trust and Edinburgh City Mission, alongside local authorities, the Scottish Government, faith-based organisations, businesses and the NHS. The project is coordinated by researchers in the Centre for Homelessness and Inclusion Health at the University of Edinburgh.

The Micah Fund donation would fund maintenance and development of the SSE website for three months.

Read more about Street Support Edinburgh

Where the money went

Due to having a slight surplus in 2020, we were able to give 2 of our 2021 projects some of their requested funds in advance. We then were able to give them the rest from our 2021 Gift Month