MORE than 600 craft boxes have been delivered by a Wee County charity in recent weeks to help people during the coronavirus lockdown.

The Crafty Kids initiative continues to go from strength to strength at the Resilience Learning Partnership (RLP).

As reported previously, managing director Shumela Ahmed had a light-bulb idea when she decided her organisation could support local young people by delivering the craft boxes to help them keep busy.

And the project has since been expanding with the RLP looking to deliver 350 more in the coming weeks to older children, along with suicide prevention boxes for both men and women as well as items for older adults.

Moreover, Shumela has also taken on Clacks resident Jamie-Lee McMillan as a part-time employee amid the Covid-19 crisis to manage the ever-growing initiative.

At its core, the RLP works with people who have lived experience of psychological trauma and equips them with the skills they need to be able to share that directly with staff in services.

The managing director told the Advertiser: "I'm so happy [I managed to take someone on] because it's someone who was engaging in one of our projects.

"It's great to be able to bring someone in just now because I know a lot of people [bosses] are having to lay people off and make difficult decisions.

"It just goes to show what people who have lived experience [with trauma] can do with a little bit of support.

"It's all the people who were most engaged in our Hard Edges project who are helping with the boxes."

Shumela also sits on the Suicide Prevention: Lived Experience Panel ran by charity SAMH and explained how she is hoping that craft boxes for people could help at this time.

She highlighted the need as Clackmannanshire suffers from a high rate of suicides, which could be made worse with people stuck inside the house during the current lockdown.

The managing director will be meeting with the panel to brainstorm over what items will be the best for the suicide prevention boxes, they will certainly contain some do-it-yourself crafts to keep as well as a self-care booklet.

As highlighted earlier in the Advertiser, the Resilience Learning Partnership has also teamed up with Sauchie Community Group to deliver boxes in the area.

There are also ideas for boxes for older adults with Shumela and the team are inviting suggestions as to what should go into them.

Anyone with any ideas can email info@resiliencelearningpartnership.co.uk or call 01259 404 119.