FAMILIES in Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire who have lost loved ones through murder or culpable homicide will be offered help in a specialist new service.
Support for Families Bereaved by Crime will be delivered by the charity Victim Support Scotland and will aim to ease the heartbreak and distress suffered by bereaved relatives who will be given support and information during the criminal justice process.
Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Humza Yousaf, launched the service and said it was vital to ensure victims’ interests are at the heart of the criminal justice system and that it is fair and efficient for all.
The need to tackle the service provision gap in Scotland was highlighted in a report to the Scottish Government in 2017 by the Moira Fund, whose founder is Bea Jones, mother of Moira Jones who was murdered in Queens Park in Glasgow in 2008.
As a result, Victim Support Scotland was awarded £1.2million over three years until the end of March 2021 by the Scottish Government to establish this new service.
The service is free and family members can access the service via a Police Scotland Family Liaison Officer and other support partners.
Although the service is only available to immediate family, wider family members and friends can still access Victim Support Scotland’s other support services by self-referral.
Bea said: “I am pleased about the launch of the new service. I’m pleased for the sake of those traumatised Scottish families who need it now and those who will need it in the future.”
Victim Support Renfrewshire is based at The Wynd Centre in Paisley and can be reached on 0141 887 0328.
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