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We Exist To Improve The Lives of Parents And Their Children
At the heart of our organisation is a dedicated team of amazing volunteers who provide vital practical and emotional weekly support to families in their own homes. For families in more pressing need, we can provide intensive family support through our dedicated Family Support Workers who work with mums, dads and children respectively.
Alongside our amazing volunteers, we also run support groups and throughout the year facilitate family outings which enable families to share experience which otherwise may not be possible.
We are continually renewing and adapting our services to meet changing needs, and everything we do is to give children the best possible start in life.
Our Approach
Our service aims to enable parents through informal, non-judgmental, and confidential support designed to equip them with the skills and confidence to give their children the best possible start in life and help them to achieve their full potential.
We recruit and train volunteers with parenting experience who visit local families once a week, for a minimum of 2-3 hours, to provide parents and children with emotional and practical support with daily life.
We work with families across the South of Glasgow who are struggling to cope with balancing the challenges of parenthood with sometimes extremely difficult personal circumstances. We want all families to have access to the resources which will make everyday life less stressful and more enjoyable. Most of all, we want children to have the best possible start in life.
We understand that each family is unique, which is why our approach does not follow a pre-defined format and timescale. We talk to families to understand what they need and design support which is best suited to their individual requirements. We believe that families should have access to support until they feel ready and confident enough to take their next steps unaided. Throughout a family’s time with us, their needs are regularly reviewed, and support is adjusted as required.
We work closely in partnership with a multitude of local organisations ranging from neighboring charities to statutory health professionals including Health Visitors, Nursing Staff, Social Workers and GPs, housing providers, faith groups and everyone in between. What we all have in common is the desire to improve the lives of families in our community.
Home-Start Glasgow South has worked tirelessly to support local families in the South of Glasgow for the past 21 years and is now the largest of 32 independent Home-Start schemes in Scotland, and one of the largest 269 schemes across the whole of the United Kingdom.
How We Work
Our aim is to provide a personalised support service for families. Whether a family approaches us independently or is referred to us, each is treated with the same level of compassion, confidentiality and respect.
We work with families facing a range of issues such as mental health challenges, post-natal depression, domestic abuse, substance issues, learning difficulties or those struggling to cope as young or single parents, and anyone with young children needing a little support.
Each family has the chance to tell us what they need so we can set goals and agree on a personalised support plan that will help them. We feel that it is important that the parents can tell us how they feel – we work together to make things better. Our support is designed to combat different needs in different ways and can be tailored to support any situation. For example, some benefit from a home visiting volunteer, while others require groups to best meet the family’s requirements.
Families are visited regularly by our Family Support Coordinators to talk about how they feel the support is helping, and it is adjusted if required.
