Awarding funds thanks to players of
People's Postcode Lottery
Postcode Dream Fund
House for Healing will be used to change the way children provide evidence in criminal cases and how they are supported throughout the process.
This project will build Britain's first alternative space to an adult court for children, providing a trauma-free way to gather children's evidence and will support them to recover from their court experiences. The House for Healing will be a centre where child victims and witnesses are interviewed and medically examined whilst receiving full support services under one roof in a child-friendly environment.
Every year 12,600 children in Scotland require special support to give evidence in court. It is hoped that House for Healing, which will be based in the west of Scotland, will become the catalyst for revolutionising British justice so that all children are supported to give their best evidence and begin to heal from their experiences.
House for Healing will look and feel like a family home, a safe and welcoming space where children can share their story and will also ensure that it minimizes the number of different professionals they need to talk to. The charities involved believe that the House for Healing will enable the children who use this space to start putting their experiences behind them and allow them to recover.