Home-Start
Wirral

Phone us: 0151 647 8369    Free Info Line: 0800 068 6338

As a parent you'll know just how tough it can sometimes be. Did you often long to have someone to confide in or just have a chat with?

Our carefully trained volunteers, who all have experience of bringing up children, give free emotional and practical help to any parent, with at least one child under five. By visiting a family in their own home and offering friendship, Home-Start volunteers represent a lifeline for many families who are finding it hard to cope.

Will I be the right sort of person to support a family?

Home-Start volunteers are all ages and from all walks of life. All that we ask of you is that you have experience of bringing up children and can spare between two and four hours a week.

What will visiting a family involve?

This varies. You could spend time with a young parent, helping to build their confidence as they adapt to life with a small baby, or share an outing with a family who finds getting out of the house difficult. The visits might involve offering an extra pair of hands to a family with several children or providing a listening ear to a mother who is suffering from postnatal illness.

Being a Home-Start volunteer means offering friendship to parents and spending time with families in a way that meets their needs.

What will I gain from being a Home-Start volunteer?

• Work can be accredited by the Open College Network
• You will be helping a family to cope with the pressures they are facing and make a real difference to the lives of parents and their children
• You will receive support and training to prepare you for all aspects of your role with Home-Start
• You will make new friends and have lots of fun
• You will develop new skills through ongoing monthly training, and have some wonderful experience to add to your CV
• Out of pocket expenses will be paid

I'm not a parent, can I still get involved?

Yes you can, we always need volunteers, parents or non-parents, who could support schemes by helping with fundraising activities, helping out with administration in the office or by joining our management committee and getting involved with the running of the scheme. For these roles you would not need to be a parent. For details please contact the office.

Thank you Janet for your excellent training course.  You have given me the confidence and the knowledge to know I am doing a good job with the family I am supporting, and any I may support in the future.  You have changed my outlook and the direction of the rest of my life.  You have given me something I can be proud of myself for.

Ali
Family Support Volunteer

The programme is useful and wide ranging, and the sessions I have attended have been very informative.  Volunteers can learn a lot from each other, particularly when trainers encourage input from the 'class' and small group discussion.

Priscilla
Family Support Volunteer

I joined a group of women, some, like myself already Home-Start volunteers and other new to Home-Start, to be trained to support mothers to breastfeed.  Thus began an intensive six weeks course led by a Breastfeeding Network Trainer, and after this course a two day UNICEF Baby Friendly course and hospital induction. I look forward with perhaps a little trepidation to supporting new mothers in hospital and at home with breastfeeding, reassured that I will be supporting every step of the way by the team and the Breast Feeding Network.

Pat
Family Support & Breastfeeding Peer Support Volunteer