Home-Start offers free support, friendship and practical help to families with at least one child under five who may be undergoing pressures such as loneliness and isolation, depression or several pre-school children without the support of family and friends. Families are visited regularly in their own homes by volunteers who all have experience of parenting.

We help families to build on their existing strengths and fulfil their potential by enabling them to manage difficulties arising from the range of issues listed above.  These difficulties, if not alleviated, can escalate into crisis situations that might inhibit healthy child development, adversely affect parents’ mental health, and ultimately lead to family breakdown. 

Our trained volunteers visit a family for 2-3 hours a week for an average of 9-12 months. Their support has a number of positive impacts, including: reducing feelings of isolation, both through their own interaction with the family and by facilitating and enabling engagement with others; increasing the confidence of vulnerable and isolated parents to widen their support network, including access to statutory support services; enabling parents to spend more quality time with their children and better interact with them; giving parents a break from the ongoing pressures of parenthood and giving them time to deal with other issues; easing pressure for family members who support parents or children with illness or disability; and providing positive parenting role models. 

Our support ultimately helps parents to grow in confidence, enhance their parenting skills and strengthen their relationships with their children such that they are better able to provide them with opportunities for happier relationships, healthy childhood development and improved life chances