Wednesday 29 May 2013

How With Kids Can Help


At With Kids, we wanted to reinforce the vital importance of the work we do for families in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.

With Kids is based in the East End of Glasgow and in South West Edinburgh which have some of the highest levels of poverty in Scotland and the UK.

Although the facts and figures may seem bleak, not all families will have the same issues. Living in or near an area of high poverty can affect you directly or indirectly through crime, lack of amenities, poor educational facilities etc.

As well as this, the sheer volume of families who may need help means that sometimes children and families might not get the support they need; a parent struggling with a child with a learning difficulty or emotional issue might not know where to turn, a parent who's a former addict may be afraid to ask for help in case social services intervene.

How We Can Help You

All families, regardless of background find that they have difficulties from time to time and too often parent's may not be aware of available support or the best action to take. With Kids aims to fill that gap and to provide flexible support that is suited to the needs of children and parents.

Breaking Down the Facts and Figures

In some postcode areas in the east end of Glasgow, 60% of children live in workless households, almost 50% of adults of working age are on incapacity benefit and life expectancy can be as low as 54. - Glasgow Herald.

Over 90,000 children in Scotland live in severe poverty - of these:
  • 72% of children parents’ are not in work
  • 66% of children are in families claiming income support, job seekers allowance and incapacity benefit,
  • 45% of mother’s of children have no educational qualification,
  • 1 in 2 children live in single parent families,
  • 10% of children are from an ethnic minority, compared to 2.6% not in poverty,
  • 41% of children live in families with a disabled adult, compared to 17% of children not in poverty. - Living Below the Radar:Measuring Severe Child Poverty in the UK - Save the Children
Poorer children are five times more likely to regularly miss school. - BBC News

To find out how we can help you, give us a call on 0141 550 5770 or you can contact us on Facebook and Twitter.

The actual cost of running With Kids is some £320,000 per year. That means we must raise around £27,000 each month just to keep the doors open. 

If you'd like to make a donation to With Kids you can do so HERE

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Thursday 16 May 2013

Samatha's Training Update...

Welcome to Samantha's blog, where you can find out how her training is coming along in the lead up to the Virgin Triathlon on Saturday 27th July! We've been following her closely to see how she's been getting on and below you can read the next step in her training journey...

Arghhh Clips!!!! Ok so in the crazy world of road biking, for the competitive amongst us, it becomes necessary to attach your shoes to the pedals in order to gain as much power as you can.

I have to say out of everything I have ever attached myself to (which more recently includes a windsurf sail using a hook) this is by far the strangest and most unnatural thing I've ever done! My feet are attached to the pedals! I'm attached to the bike! Attached!! Clipped in!!! Oddly these special pedals are called 'clipless pedals'?

So from now on every time I come to a stop, I have to twist my foot and pop it off the pedal so I can put my foot down on to the ground. Should I by chance forget this, or time it wrong, I will fall over attached to the bike... Attached!!! So nothing like this picture at all actually.



I researched online and decided to go with Look Keo CroMo max 2, my friend Anna works with Free Flow Bikes in Scotland and she looked after me! I also purchased quite a bit of Lycra and padded shorts. That involved a lot of research too...never thought I'd see the day where I'm googling Lycra and viewing people modelling bum padding, but life can take you in all sorts of directions and I'm secretly loving this new found passion. I'm even happy to admit to buying cream which you rub into the shorts before you put them on... It's to avoid chafing... I haven't had any issues with chafing incidentally, just FYI!!! Prevention is key!

So I planned my first 'clipless' cycle in Richmond park with my friend Sam (he has done more than a few triathlons)! It was my first outing in the clips, so I picked up the bike jumped on and had an absolute nightmare at a set of traffic lights with a double decker bus on a hill.

If you take anything from this please let it be that you try out clipping and unclipping in the safety of your home or against a wall before you ride off into the sunshine. However, I am still here to tell the tale and it now feels quite natural.

I'm no show off though and although I'm clipping in and out fairly well there are folks that keep themselves clipped in at traffic lights and bounce around to stay balanced... I think this has the potential to end in a disaster and it looks way more effort than its worth!!! I admit this takes skill so these people must have been practising it indoors for hours at a time and that's taking it all way too far... plus the clipping noise is cool!!! Just in case I do fall, I found this hilarious cartoon cycling tips website. There's a video on falling and also on how to blow your nose and spit the 'correct way'... Love it!

This weekend it was a friend's birthday, yes that meant no training. So yesterday it was back on the bike at 7am, it's day 2 and the weather has held up! Last night I did my first kinda 'brick session' running 5km straight after my cycle home. These are to get my legs used to the quick change in movement... painful! I completed it in 28mins on the treadmill at speeds 10.5kmph and 12.5kmph intervals. (Treadmills give you slower times than running outside by the way, it's an ongoing mystery?) Tomorrow morning I want to do a run straight after my cycle into work, maybe along the River Thames. I'll take pictures! x

To make a donation to Samantha and her good cause, please click on her JUST GIVE PAGE.
To find out more about With Kids and to hear the latest from Samantha, remember to follow us on Facebook and Twitter or you can visit our website.

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Tuesday 7 May 2013

And so it begins...


Last month we introduced you to one of our fantastic fundraisers, Samantha, who's taking part in the Virgin Triathlon on Saturday 27th July and all proceeds are being kindly donated to With Kids. As promised, here is an update on her progress. 

With only 12 weeks to go until her sprint triathlon begins, you can read how she's preparing for the big event below...

Hey peeps! I'm sorry for the lack of updates but now it's exactly 12 weeks until my sprint triathlon and training has properly started, so let the updates commence!

For those who are not triathlon experts (including me as this is my first one) a sprint triathlon includes a 750m outdoor swim, a 20km bike ride and then a 5km run. I was running quite a bit last year, although winter halted that and I used to swim in swimming pools when I was young but not sure thats going to help...

Cycling is quite a new discipline for me and as it's the longest part in the sprint, it's a good starting point. Work is pretty hectic so I'm trying to fit training around my busy schedule. My plan is a bit loose, I cycle lots, as quickly as I can and then go for immediate 3km runs when I get the chance. 

Down the line I'll need to find an outdoor swimming pool and hopefully get a time of under 130mins for the Virgin Active Sprint Triathlon. Maybe I shouldn't have typed out a time but I've got to have a goal otherwise what's to aim for?

I've been cycling around 36km every day, which is my daily work commute, and of course grabbing a shower each side! So its a routine of two cycles and two showers every day at the moment. I bought a second hand road bike; it's black and yellow as you can see (that's the girl in me)!



I want to get a good time in the sprint triathlon and my mountain bike wasn't going to get me there, it's too heavy and clunky. So I'm officially a road cyclist now, lycra'd up to the max. The bike is super light and I'm learning lots of stuff like my tires should be at 120... whatever that means, carbon is cool and I'm even managing to attach my chain back on when it pops off. Eh yes, need to get that checked but I'm so in love with my bike that I cant bring myself to part with it for the two days the shop would need to repair it. 

However don't be fooled by my 'jargon', I was a bit (very) shaky on it the first few times and going down hills is still not as enjoyable as I know it will be but its much smoother than the mountain bike and now I'm more stable, I'm really enjoying it.

To be honest, I am a little sad I have to practice swimming and running, but I will, of course! Well I'll have to because you can't cycle through water.

In order to get better, I thought I should note a few times so I can gauge improvements. My cycling is where I'm focussing on right now so as a starter for 10.... Once around Richmond park (11km), which is my weekend training spot, currently takes 24minutes. There is one large hill which would burn the hind legs off a Tyrannosaurus Rex but I'm hoping I'll get this down to 20minutes.

My 5km run at the moment is taking 28minutes, this is not me running immediately after a 20km bike ride and I don't have a clue what my swim time is... I'm confident?!

To make a donation to Samantha and her good cause, please click on her JUST GIVE PAGE.

Remember to keep up to date with what's going on at With Kids by following us on Facebook and Twitter

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Friday 3 May 2013

Bank Holiday Activities

With the May bank holidays approaching, you might be worried about what you can do with the kids to keep them entertained without stretching your funds.

However, there's loads of fun and exciting things you can do with the family in and around Glasgow.

 We've pulled together some ideas so you won't be stuck for things to do! If you can think of any other fun and free activities that you and your family will be taking part in over the holidays then please share them with us!

Below we have listed some fun activities:
Remember you don't have to spend a lot to have fun; here's a fun list of 101 things to do with your child. Let us know how far down the list you get.

We hope you have a great Bank Holiday weekend and here's hoping the sun comes out to play!

Make sure you follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with what's happening at With Kids.

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