On Wednesday 1st November, Home-Start celebrated 50 years of supporting families with an online event hosted by TV presenter and patron of Home-Start Norfolk, Trisha Goodard.

Home-Start staff, families, and volunteers from the past and present came together to celebrate alongside our supporters and corporate partners. The online event was also attended by friends from across the globe, as far-reaching as Brazil and Japan.

The event began with Trisha welcoming David Harrison, the son of Home-Start founder Margaret Harrison who shared memories and finished by saying, “My mum would be proud of you all.”

Attendees were also able to drop in on Home-Start Horizon’s celebration event taking place in Leicester, the city where Home-Start began in 1973.

As the celebrations continued, we heard touching and powerful stories from Home-Start colleagues, volunteers, and supported parents, as well as Home-Start children who are now adults with their own stories to share. Their experiences were both heartwarming and emotional.

If you missed the event you can watch it here: 

 

Trisha Goodard expressed how much she had learned from Home-Start before ending with a positive note reflecting that “Each time a wonderful Home-Start volunteer engages with a family, it’s like that first drop in a puddle, the ripples go out and out and creating change for the future.”

Home-Start UK chief executive, Peter Grigg, closed the event by sharing a moving quote from Margaret Harrison’s book Hooray! Here Comes Tuesday:

“A touch of human kindness and a sense of hope can lead irrevocably to greater personal wellbeing, it can rekindle that twinkle in the eye, a spring in the step, and the sound of laughter. A Home-Start Volunteer backed up by the Home-Start community can lead to a cycle of people helping each other again with ever widening circle of friendship. Together let’s continue to share the magic and our humanity with families.”

Since supporting the first family in Leicester in 1973, over the last 50 years, Home-Start has grown across the UK and around the world. Home-Start's approach to working with families demonstrated the power of little moments of support, and the lifelong impact it has on children, families, and communities.

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