Members' Business — S6M-14922 Karen Adam: Celebrating One Parent Families Scotland 80th Anniversary

That the Parliament congratulates One Parent Families Scotland on reaching the remarkable milestone of its 80th anniversary, and commends the charity for its unwavering dedication to empowering single parents to realise their full potential; recognises what it sees as the charity’s crucial role in offering a comprehensive range of support services, including family, employability, young parent support, welfare rights, and financial advice through its five family centres in Dundee, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow and North Lanarkshire, as well as its national lone parent helpline and digital services; acknowledges that the charity, originally established in the 1940s as the Scottish Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child, was founded with a mission to keep unmarried mothers and their children together; celebrates the charity’s extraordinary growth into an impactful organisation, employing 97 dedicated staff members, supporting over 8,000 parents, children, and young people each year, and providing what it considers to be life-changing welfare rights and financial advice that has, it understands, benefited nearly 4,000 families to date, resulting in financial gains for families exceeding £1.6 million; recognises that one in four families with children in Scotland are single-parent households, with 90% of these led by women; believes that, despite significant progress since the 1940s, gender inequality continues to fuel discrimination against many single mothers; understands the unique challenges faced by single parents combining the roles of sole carer and provider without the support of another adult, often facing a higher risk of poverty than other households; applauds the charity for its tireless advocacy for single parents at every level of government, working to create lasting solutions to what it sees as the widespread poverty that many face, and celebrates what it considers to be the remarkable resilience of single parents and the exceptional strength that they demonstrate every day in raising their families.