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We regularly recruit and train volunteers, who are usually parents or grandparents themselves, to visit our families in their homes, once a week for 2-3 hours, and offer them informal, friendly and confidential support.
Our dedicated volunteers are carefully matched to one family who they get to know, sometimes over many months. They provide a listening and empathetic ear and, if necessary, a shoulder to cry on. Through regular contact our volunteers develop caring and supportive relationships appropriate to the individual family’s needs, built on trust, reliability and confidentiality.
Regular home-visiting makes a real difference to the parents and their children’s lives. We see the parents learn new skills and grow in confidence, which has a measurable impact on the children’s physical, mental and emotional development.
To see what our volunteers and families have to say about us go to our Home-Start Stories and Testimonials.
Early Intervention and Prevention
Our emphasis is on supporting families at an early stage to ensure the support we offer has the best possible impact on children. The importance of supporting families, to give their children the opportunities they need to thrive and develop in the earliest years, identifying and addressing problems early, is one of the strongest themes of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) Children’s Plan and we support this.
Diversity and Inclusion
We want to ensure that all parents are aware of what we can offer and feelconfident in our approach. We want to ensure we reach those who are socially disadvantaged or those who do not find it easy to ask for help or access services for themselves or their children. We want to learn what works best for them and how we can shape our service to meet their needs
Quality
We will ensure we have a continuous process of self-assessment and review, in every part of our work to ensure we continue to improve, develop and offer the highest quality service to families.
Sustainability
We want to make sure Home-Start is here for parents and children now and in the future.
