What We Do

Home-Start's informal and friendly support for families with young children provides a lifeline to thousands of parents and children in over 337 communities across the UK and with forces families in Germany and Cyprus.

Our support is free, confidential and non-judgemental. In fact, almost 25% of families refer themselves to Home-Start - which speaks for itself. We help to increase the confidence and independence of families by:

• Visiting families in their own homes to offer support, friendship and practical assistance
• Reassuring parents that their childcare problems are not unusual or unique
• Encouraging parents' strengths and emotional well-being for the ultimate benefit of their children
• Trying to get the fun back into family life

Our volunteers, who have parenting experience themselves, can offer:

• Precious time for listening and talking
• Help with the children
• A break for parents
• Practical help and reassurance
• A chance to meet other parents in the same boat
• Support to use local services and resources
• Parents ask for Home-Start's help for all sorts of reasons:
  • They may feel isolated in their community, have no family nearby and be struggling to make friends
  • They may be finding it hard to cope because of their own or a child's physical or mental illness
  • They may have been hit hard by the death of a loved one
  • They may be really struggling the with emotional and physical demands of having twins or triplets - perhaps born into an already large family

Our sister organisation, Home-Start International, was founded in 1998 to provide similar informal, friendly, family support across the world.