TCA’s Birch project aims to transform the support available to birth parents/families where infants/children have been removed because of child protection proceedings. The objective is to mitigate against future removals, thus reducing the number of babies/infants being received into care. The name ‘Birch’ represents Belonging, Included, Respected, Caring and Hope.

Since April 2024 our Birch Project has been running a weekly women’s group. This is a great way to get the women accessing our service to come along and meet new people, explore the community and learn new skills.

Most of our group sessions have a weekly focus which is decided on by the women. We have been working alongside the Tayside Fire and Rescue service to learn about summer safety, home safety and CPR. On the back of these sessions, we were able to go along to the fire station on two occasions and learn how their equipment works, how they respond to emergencies and we got to complete some of their training routines. The aim of this was to get the women better connected with the community and build positives relationships with emergency services.

Some of our other sessions have focused on topics such as nutrition, oral hygiene, information on smoking, cooking classes and walks around different locations that are accessible for everyone. Other times, we enjoy just having a catch up with coffee and cake.

Our group has been really successful, and a great way for the women to take control of what they would like to learn about. The group has really expanded over the last few months and we have had some great feedback about what is working well for our service users!