For over 20 years, local charity, Home-Start Arun, Worthing & Adur has supported local families going through tough times, such as relationship breakdowns, feeling isolated, poor mental health, low self–esteem, a parent or child's disability, multiple births, bereavement or housing/ money worries. This support service is needed more than ever whilst we are in lockdown. Parents need help now. Our aim is to help parents give their babies and young child(ren) the best possible start in life. Because childhood can't wait.
We are currently supporting families with children under 5 by using weekly telephone calls and safe online chats in place of face to face support in the home with a trained volunteer or running Groups for referred families.
Last year we supported: 178 families and transformed the lives of 395 children. Our 50 amazing volunteers connected deeply with these local families.
Parents often tell us we are their "lifeline", that without Home-Start they would have "been at breaking point" or "not been able to look after their children at all". Our annual impact report demonstrates the outcomes. We collect feedback from parents, referrers and volunteers.
Our recent impact report demonstrated that (of the parents who reported):
* 95% were more involved with their child's development
* 98% felt less isolated - and we need this to continue
* 94% said their own emotional health and wellbeing had improved.
* 97% felt more able to listen to their children and manage their behaviour
* 88% had improved self esteem
We listen, we are non -judgemental, we are empathetic and understand the challenges families face in our communities. Referrals come from health visitors, midwives, Children and Family Centres, as well as self-referrals, which have increased in the last year.
For the families we support, we are often their only direct help as thresholds for statutory services constantly increase, they do not receive help from the state. The earlies years make the biggest difference and that is why we are there for parents when they need us. "Home-Start supported me the whole way...she will never know how important she was."