“If it wasn’t for Home-Start, I don’t think my kids would have a mum…. I just remember that news conference, thinking how am I going to cope? You guys kept me going….. everything’s going to be ok, I’m going to be ok, because I have an amazing team around me, and that’s Home-Start.”
When the Crisis Came
Since the Pandemic, families in Birmingham have struggled like never before. Child poverty has risen and so have issues around mental health, domestic abuse and isolation.
Home-Start in Birmingham knows that in the aftermath of the Pandemic and the years that follow, Home-Start volunteers are going to be needed more than ever. We need to be there to pick up the pieces for those families who have reached breaking point.
Despite the Pandemic, Home-Start in Birmingham did carry on supporting families, by adapting our approach we were still able to offer emotional support over the telephone and to deliver much needed food parcels and baby items to families who were struggling.
But we know that our help is at its most effective when we can visit families in their own homes.
To do this, we need more local people to come forward and be trained as a home-visiting volunteer, visiting local families in their own homes, once a week.
If you want to find out just how impactful a Home-Start volunteer can be on parents and their children, please watch our short film- When the Crisis Came, a conversation recorded between Molly and her Home-Start volunteer, Sybille, just after Lockdown had finished.
If this conversation has inspired you to find out more about becoming a Home-Start volunteer, then please visit our Volunteer page here
We also need vital funds to train our volunteers, with more volunteers, we can support more families across Birmingham who may need our help, it is as simple as that. Your donations will go towards direct family support through one of our home-visiting volunteers. Our volunteers provide weekly visits to families who are struggling with a range of issues, such as child poverty, poor mental health, domestic abuse, parental loneliness and isolation and physical illness.
To donate and to find out more about the difference your donation will make, please visit our Support Us page.
To find out more about volunteering for Home-Start Birmingham, please contact us:
Tel: 0121 747 4631
Mobile: 07864730743
Email: volunteer@homestartbirmingham.co.uk