The West Edinburgh Community Support Group was registered as a Scottish Charity – SC052805 in September '23 but had been in operation as an informal group since October '21 operating as Corstorphine Community Support Project with the aim of supporting families in the Corstorphine Area who were experiencing financial issues providing for their families at Christmas.
The need for a Project of this type in the Corstorphine wider area became very obvious as numbers supported by CCSP quickly grew.
The decision was taken to broaden out the purposes of the organisation to help families improve their situation rather than only helping the short-term situation of food parcels
The purposes of WECSG are the relief of poverty and the relief of those in need by:
- collecting, buying, distributing and coordinating the distribution of items such as food, household items, toys and vouchers;
- coordinating the donation of services;
- providing advice, assistance, training and advocacy and
- recruiting and coordinating volunteers to participate in the achievement of the foregoing purposes all so as to relieve pressure on those with insufficient resources to make reasonable provision for themselves and for their families and so as to help them to enable themselves to find ways to make such provision.
WECSG covers the two Council Electoral Wards of Drumbrae/Gyle and Corstorphine/ Murrayfield plus the catchment area of Hillwood Primary School.
Since its formation WECSG (and before that CCSP) has been very fortunate to receive the support of Corstorphine Chiropractic Clinic through Georgina and her staff and the generous food donations of their patients. We were extremely appreciative of the donation from Georgie when she completed the Kilomathon in April 2025.This support was invaluable to us raising the amount of money we required to supplement the in-kind donations we raise from the local community.
Corstorphine Chiropractic was also the first business to offer to host a Donation Point for the newly set up Community Food Project which officially started in January 2026. This ongoing support is an essential element of our ability to be able to establish CFP as a project to support local families throughout the year.
WECSG Activities and Projects:
- Corstorphine Christmas Support Project –
The Corstorphine Christmas Support Project has been running for 5 years. It provides emergency support to families and individuals experiencing poverty during the festive period through the provision of food and other essentials. This allows the beneficiaries to better enjoy the holiday season by mitigating the costs associated with this time of year which causes severe difficulties for many families.
CCSP 25 supported 150 families, referred by local schools and organisations, for the 2 weeks prior to Christmas providing a package containing food and other essential items plus a Christmas Gift Bag for every child under 16 years of age.
The project is very much a community led project and is managed by local people and services were delivered by 63 volunteers.
- Community Food Project
Similar to the CCSP this supports a smaller number of families at crisis points throughout the year.
- Workshop Sessions
We are developing a programme of workshops to pass on knowledge and skills to the families we support to hopefully help them improve the current situation they find themselves in.
Topics include Budget Cooking, preparing a CV, Budget Management, Benefit Awareness, volunteering opportunities to help job readiness.
- Volunteering
We always welcome new volunteers to become involved in any part of WECSG.
As a small local project, we continue to investigate ways to improve the support we offer and look forward to continuing our Partnership with Corstorphine Chiropractic Clinic on an ongoing basis
Tommy McLean
Chairperson West Edinburgh Community Support Group
West Edinburgh Community Support Group is a registered Scottish Charity SC052805
