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HOME START

Home-Start North Lincolnshire offers support, friendship & practical help to parents with young children in the local community via its unique home-visiting service. The Outreach office covers the rural parts of the county and has been based in Barton since 1996. Volunteers (usually parents themselves) are recruited and trained to befriend families who have at least one child under 5, visiting them at home, offering them informal, friendly & confidential support. Home-Start believes that children need a happy and secure childhood and that parents play the key role in giving their children a good start in life and helping them achieve their full potential. To help give children the best possible start in life, Home-Start supports parents as they grow in confidence, strengthen their relationships with their children and widen their links with the local community. As well as the age-old problems that have always confronted children and parents like illness, disability, bereavement, relationship breakdown and loneliness, Home-Start increasingly supports teenage mothers, single fathers and those affected by poverty, abuse, violence, drugs and social isolation. The stress of coping with their problems can prevent even the most committed and loving parents from giving their children the start in life they deserve. To Home-Start, every family is special and respond to each family’s needs through a combination of home-visiting support and social events. Many children under 5 have a difficult start in life because their families are under pressure. Every child deserves the best possible start - to be loved, to play, to learn and to grow in confidence. When this happens in a happy, secure family, a child’s health, schooling and life prospects all improve. Put simply, what Home-Start does works and it affects us all.

The special relationship between a family and their Home-Start volunteer - which has none of the barriers that sometimes exist between families and professional agencies - is highly valued and goes a long way to de-stigmatising the support. Home-Start support is not directive and is tailored to the needs of each individual family, provided in their own home at a time to suit them. Young families in rural areas can also face the additional pressure of isolation - a single mum struggling to cope alone with little or no support from family and friends, teenage mums may spend the vast majority of their time alone while friends are at school, college or work, a mother with several young children living in an isolated rural community without transport and no family nearby is cut off both physically and emotionally.

Volunteers are prepared for home-visiting by undergoing a training course (known as a prep course) which lasts approximately 30 hours and is run at the Barton office usually one morning or afternoon a week for ten weeks. The course is accredited but the accreditation is optional - volunteers are equally welcome with or without the qualification. Because of the large area covered (the whole of North Lincolnshire except Scunthorpe and the Isle of Axholme which are serviced by our parent office in Scunthorpe), the Outreach office is keen to encourage prospective volunteers from the rural community - the Eastern Parishes and the Low Villages - as well as residents of the larger towns like Brigg and Barton - those who can understand the difficulties of young families living in rural areas. Once the prep course has been completed, volunteers can give as much or as little time as they can manage to support families - anything from a couple of hours a week. Although not essential, because of the rural aspect of many families, it would help if volunteers had access to a car, as public transport is not always available. Initially, new volunteers can support one family only but, as they gain experience and if they have the time and the inclination, they can be linked with more than one family. This is entirely up to the individual. Ongoing training is available, travelling expenses are paid and, if prospective volunteers are on benefits, these are not affected. Volunteers come from all walks of life from parents whose children have just started school to ‘empty nesters’ and grandparents, all ages and both sexes - but they all have one thing in common - a desire to help others. The only real ‘qualification’ is that they have to be a parent or have parenting experience, perhaps as a step-parent or carer for siblings. Volunteers are the kind of people the families supported would choose themselves to be a friend. So, friendliness and a caring attitude are essential as well as an understanding of the pressures of parenting.

For more information please contact Joy Hill (Outreach Co-ordinator) or Lynne Oliver (Outreach Administrator) at 75 Fleetgate, Barton
or telephone 01652 634160
email: homestartnlor@btconnect.com

Home-Start North Lincolnshire is an equal opportunities employer
Registered in England & Wales under company number 5159532, Registered charity number 1105529