Volunteer With Us
Do you want to volunteer?
Volunteer
At the heart of Home-Start is the belief that parents play the key role in giving their children the best start in life and that other parents have the experience and understanding to support those families
who need help.
Can You Make A Difference?
Volunteering gives you a sense of a purpose, helps you to develop new skills, helps you build on your experiences and makes a difference to the community. Our volunteers have the opportunity to develop skills and experience in working with families which they can use for career
development or further studies.
We have some great volunteering opportunities from working directly with our families to helping us with projects behind the scenes.
There are a number of different ways you can volunteer with us
Home scheme volunteer (Home visiting and community support)
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Home Visiting families and their children at their home and supporting them to access wider community services and opportunities.
- To engage families and their children under the aged of five within the context of their home via/through home visiting (once per week/ two per week depending on the needs of the parent and their children) offering befriending and practical support, guidance, and information on issues affecting the parent/s and their children. Providing elevated support to parents with challenging home circumstances and meeting the needs of their children and encouraging community engagement and increase social participation in the wider community.
- Home Visiting support offer the unique opportunity to get to know the parent/s and their children and other significant others. To get a sense of their relationships, attitudes, beliefs, and support systems. Most crucially gain an understanding of what life might be for the children and offer adequate support and establish trustworthy relationship with the parents/career. This support also offers the family the chance to establish a trustworthy relationship with the volunteer based on familiarity, trust, respect, and a sense of togetherness to achieve favourably outcomes for the family
- To encourage and support parents to access Children Centre activities and parenting programmes and other local services/ opportunities
- To support parents to register and access universal health provisions to meet their children/unborn children’s development needs – Gp, Dental, Midwifery, health visitor and Optician, nursery, Together for Two etc. To support access to primary health care provision – Health-visiting and midwifery clinics, mental & physical health, social care, and local Gp services.
- To facilitate access to wide range of information and support services for parents who are facing social exclusion / isolation.
- To work closely with the Family Support Coordinator/s and enable access to appropriate and tailored supports, agreed desired outcomes with parents /carers and support the effectiveness of parenting practice and care- giving standards.
Early Years
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- •To support children and families access Children’s Centre activities and Community Settings.
- Inform, encourage, and support families to take up Nursery Provision, Together for Two etting, child – parent activities, Health Visiting services, Stay & Play Sessions, School Readiness programs, Parenting & Welling Groups
- To support and delivery early years provision at one of our dedicated settings
- To support the delivery of stay & play sessions, programmed activities and parenting groups
Children’s Centres (Admin, Food distribution, Kitchen Assistant)
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- To offer support to staff with administrative tasks
- To assist with food preparation, cooking, customer service, and food distribution for our newly established Welcome Café.
Community and project Activities
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- To offer support and practical help with fundraising opportunities, community projects and initiatives, job club support, family trips and other activities.
- To promote the works and services of Home -Start Greenwich, contribute to planning and organizing community and cultural events.
Volunteer
All Volunteers attend a 6-week course, one day a week. This fully prepares volunteers for their role and they:
- Receive lots of support both during the preparation course and after, when they are supporting Home-Start families from a designated coordinator
- Can access additional training and social events throughout the year
- Receive out of pocket travel expenses incurred whilst volunteering for Home-Start.
- After 50 hours of volunteering, can be given a reference