The new edition of Family Matters - the magazine for supporters of Home-Start – is out now.

Family Matters keeps people up to date with the latest news and stories from across the Home-Start network. You can read the new edition here.

It has been striking that this year there has been a new focus on the devastating impact that loneliness has on people.

Working with parents experiencing loneliness and isolation has been a central part of Home-Start volunteers’ work for over four decades, and this edition of Family Matters features how we are now working with the British Red Cross and the Loneliness Action Group to help the focus on fighting loneliness in young parents.

Family Matters also features Shannon’s story. Shannon is a young mum who felt really isolated when she had her baby. “I didn’t really go out of the house, because I didn’t really know anybody,” she says.

Shannon was put in touch with Home-Start Kirklees who run a special group, just for young mums, each week in Dewsbury.

“If it wasn’t for Home-Start I wouldn’t be the person I am today,” she explains. “I would still be isolated. My confidence has gone through the roof. It’s amazing. I’m a completely different person to what I was before.”

Every family supported by Home-Start is unique, and volunteers adapt their support to meet the needs of the family. Hetal and Will have both been blind since childhood but it was when they had children that those new challenges meant they needed the support of Home-Start Greenwich. You can read how a Home-Start volunteer has allowed Hetal and Will to do new things with their children.

Finally, we feature some of the amazing fundraisers who have supported Home-Start UK in 2018. If you feel inspired and would like take part in a challenge event 2019, then please contact Stephanie Henderson-Barrett at [email protected].

You can read the latest copy of Family Matters here.