FOCUS ON - HOMESTART

 Home-Start Manchester is a voluntary organisation in which volunteers offer regular support, friendship and practical help to young families under stress in their own homes, helping to prevent family crisis and breakdown and emphasising the pleasures of family life. Home-Start provides a breathing space for parents and elbow room for many professional workers who refer any family with at least one child under 5 to the scheme.

The Home-Start approach.

Home based visiting is essential to the Home-Start approach, which relies more on a realistic, flexible response and caring attitude than on a clearly defined method of working. The families visited, like the Home-Start volunteers come from a wide range of educational, cultural and financial backgrounds.

 By sharing their time and friendship, volunteers offer families an opportunity to develop new relationships, ideas and skills. This usually leads to renewed interest in the children, an improved response to their needs and greater confidence to avail themselves of other resources within their community.

 After attending an initial course of preparation, volunteers are matched with one, two or three families and visit for as long as is necessary, sometimes for a few months but often for a year or more. Visits usually occur once or twice a week but may be more often if there is a crisis.

 The approach varies according to the needs of each family and draws on the flexibility, good humour and imaginitive skills of the volunteer. Talking with the parents, playing with the children, helping in the home or accompanying the family on outings or appointments may all be offered.

 Volunteers are asked to keep brief records of their contacts with the families, for discussion with the supporting organiser, if necessary. Great emphasis is placed on confidientiality.

Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are welcomed. The only stipulation is that they have had parenting experience themselves. They need no specific qualifications, but they do need the ability to listen with understanding, to maintain confidentiality and bring with them commitment, both to the scheme and to the families they visit. Parents who have been visited often become volunteers themselves.

Training. All Home-Start volunteers attend a course of preparation before being linked with families. Most courses are held 1 day per week for 6 weeks. This preparation offers new volunteers the opportunity to gain greater knowledte, to increase their confidence and to recognise the reciprocal nature of volunteering.

 The course covers both practical and theoretical aspects including:

• The Home-Start Manchester approach -  some basic child development theories.
• The ethics of visiting people in  their own homes - an understanding of relationships.
• A knowledge of other resources in the  community. After this initial preparation, volunteers are encouraged  to attend for further informal training, to help them with specific  problems as these arise.

Home-Start Organisers and Management Committee members receive their training from Home-Start UK and are encouraged to avail themselves of other relevent training.

The above is taken from the Home-Start Manchester leaflet.

Home-Start are active in Gorton and surrounding areas and need volunteers.

If you would like further information please contact

Lucy Hall*(Gorton and Ardwick) or

Vivian Hoy (Beswick, Bradford and Openshaw)

at the Mill Street Venture Centre

Mill Street, Openshaw

Tel: 220 7777

*Lucy will be attending the Forum Open Meeting on 15^th February