Press Releases
Local Home-Start charity to help young single mum on her way to becoming a social worker.
ISSUED: 16th June 2011
On Tuesday 21st June, Home-Start Stockland Green & Erdington will feature on Channel 4's 'Fairy Job Mother' (broadcast at 9pm).
The programme, challenges an employment expert, to get the unemployed back into work.
Young mum Tammy, wants to become a social worker. With no hands- on experience, she could not get on to the course she applied for.
She also suffered from lack of confidence and low self esteem.
The Fairy Job Mother team recognized that offering Tammy some volunteering experience may put her on the right track to employment. They contacted Home-Start, because they have over 16,000 volunteers working with families across the UK.
Home-Start recruits and trains volunteers to offer emotional and practical support to families who are struggling to cope. Support is confidential and non-judgmental, taking place in the family’s own home. Home-Start supports parents for as long as they need it; as they grow in confidence, strengthen their relationships with their children and widen their links in the community.
Support can be needed for a number of reasons, including poverty, isolation, mental health, illness, lone parenting, multiple births and supporting families where a child is subject to a child protection plan.
As well as wanting to help families, some volunteers will use their Home-Start training as a stepping stone into higher education or to enhance future career prospects.
Julie Garbett, regional consultant for Home-Start in Birmingham said: “Home-Start is all about empowering people; both our volunteers and the families that we support. Training Tammy as a volunteer, will help provide her with the hands on experience that she needs for her chosen career path. We also hope that by completing our training course, Tammy will grow in confidence, as both a parent, and as someone who can help support other families who are struggling to cope.”
There are nine Home-Starts across Birmingham. In the last year alone, over 400 volunteers have supported more than 1,200 families and almost 3,000 children. Home-Start volunteers offer emotional and practical support to families in their own homes and at family support groups too.
To find out more about Home-Start, or how to volunteer, please visit the national website, www.home-start.org.uk or call our free phone number 0800 068 63 68
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Notes to Editor
Home-Start is the UK’s leading family support charity. We recruit and train volunteers to support parents, in their own homes, with at least one child under the age of five. Our home visiting work is unique in the UK. The charity was set up in 1973 and now has 334 Home-Starts supporting nearly 35,000 families and almost 73,000 children each year. Almost 16,500 volunteers visit families in their own homes – parents supporting other parents in a variety of situations including isolation, bereavement, multiple births, illness or disability.
Contact details:
Jo McLeish, Press and PR Officer, Home-Start UK
Tel: 0116 2587933
Email: jmcleish@home-start.org.uk
Website: www.home-start.org.uk
