Hearts' official charity vows to grow in next year

HEARTS' official charity has vowed to grow stronger as it announced its plans for the next 12 months,

2015:Soufian El Hassnaoui and Arnaud Djoum launch the Big Hearts Kinship Care Programme at Tyncastle.

Big Hearts Community Trust yesterday hosted its annual general meeting at Tynecastle Stadium.

General manager Caryn Kerr said the charity wanted to expand its kinship care programme.

It also wants to boost its “Football Memories” scheme and said more volunteers had signed up.

Big Hearts will also launch a major volunteer recruitment programme amongst Hearts supporters said its plans would be helped with a cash grant from the Big Lottery Fund.

The AGM heard that Jim Panton had stepped down as chairman and would be replaced by Scottish Association for Mental Health chief executive Billy Watson.

Ms Kerr said: “It has been a fantastic 2016 for Big Hearts.

“The challenge for us now is to identify a clear model which we can use to identify need and this is key as we look to offer a new strand of support in 2017.”