Packs of Joy helping vulnerable families

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Funded on
01 Jun 2020

Packs of Joy will contain books, activities and essentials for vulnerable families with children under 5. They will be delivered to 80 Home-Start families across the Arun, Worthing and Adur areas.

£11,309 Raised of £11,256

75 Backers

100%

Our Delivery Report

Funded on 01 June 2020 | Delivered on 29 September 2020

£11,309

RAISED

75

BACKERS

31

DAYS TO FUND

BIGGEST PLEDGE

£5,000

From Sussex Community Foundation

£10

MOST POPULAR PLEDGE AMOUNT

250

people have visited this project!

Tesco Bags of Help Emergency Fund donated £500

Project Image

Spacehive fee substitute - #LetsPullTogether donated £312

Carl Smith

Carl Smith donated £10

Catherine Hobson donated £15

West Sussex County Council donated £2,000

More about our impact

Activity, health and leisure

The Packs of Joy delivered to our supported families' doorsteps kept the morale up of families with limited space and limited toys during lockdown and throughout the pandemic. Families were provided with activities to do together or books to read together. Siblings had new toys to play with and sometimes that provided parents with a little respite. Children had fun, used their imaginations through new play materials, produced beautiful art and craft work and held their own Sports Day at home! The children kept up their skills using crayons, taking turns, writing and colouring in readiness for going back to school.

http://www.home-startarun.org.uk/

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."

Project Owner: Home-Start Arun, Worthing & Adur The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.