Many Home-Starts across the country run groups for families in their area.

These provide a space for parents to gather, meet and talk, and create their own local support network.

Home-Start groups are mostly parent and toddler groups.  But there are also more targeted groups to meet the needs of people in local communities.  These include:

• breast feeding support
• post natal illness groups for mothers and for fathers
• dad's groups
• help for asylum seekers and refugees
• teenage parents' support groups
• and many others

Families who do not want to accept the support of a home visiting volunteer may come to one of our groups.  After a while there, building their trust in the way we work, they feel able to ask for more personal support at home.

Very isolated parents who don't have the confidence to meet others, may well take the first steps to building links into their own communities after our home visiting volunteers take them to a Home-Start group.

Once I was on the road to recovery my volunteer accompanied me to the Home-Start group where I was able to meet other families with small children, make new friends and get back on my feet.

An army wife with young children and a severe spinal condition. Her back operation was scheduled
when her husband was on active service in Afghanistan.