Home-Start Surrey – Volunteers Festival and Celebrating 50 Years of Home-Start UK

PRESS RELEASE

Date 30/05/23

Home-Start Surrey family support charity celebrates with its annual Volunteers Festival

The event ties in with National Volunteers Week (June 1-7)

A charity that supports families across Surrey is celebrating its team of dedicated volunteers by saying a big “thank you” for the support they give local parents experiencing tough times.

It is 50 years since the first Home-Start began supporting families, and now Home-Start Surrey is thanking its team of 362 trained volunteers as part of this year’s Home-Start Volunteers Festival.

The festival ties in with National Volunteers week, an annual celebration of volunteering across the UK, which takes place from June 1-7.

For Home-Start Surrey it is a chance to recognise the contribution made by their volunteers who support families in the community on issues including postnatal depression, coping with twins, bereavement, supporting a parent or child with physical disabilities, domestic abuse or financial worries.

Dawn Murphy, Manager said: “We are so very proud of our wonderful volunteers and the difference they make by supporting thousands of parents locally. This national week gives us the perfect chance to let them know how special they all are. It’s also the ideal opportunity to raise awareness for anyone else in the community who might feel inspired to join the team.

There are volunteer opportunities including at family support groups, visiting families in the community and trustee roles. If you’re a new parent who feels like Home-Start support might help you can get in touch with us. homestartsurrey.org

Alternatively, if you would like more information and think you could give a couple of hours a week to provide a family with support then Home-Start Surrey has 8 local Home-Starts with courses starting soon. Contact Gemma Whitehouse (Surrey Volunteer Recruitment Officer) at [email protected] to find out how to sign up.”

For many organisations, National Volunteers Week is a chance to showcase the range of volunteering opportunities on offer and to show people how, through volunteering, they can make a difference to a cause they are passionate about as well as boost their own personal skills.

Sally Munday, Volunteer Development Manager at Home-Start UK, said: “Being a parent has never

been easy. It can be lonely, frustrating, heartbreaking and overwhelming. For 50 years, the Home-Start network has stood alongside families when they need us most. The most incredible Volunteers are at the very heart of it all. Our Volunteer Festival and National Volunteers Week is the perfect opportunity to say thank you to our network of around 10,000 Home-Start volunteers around the country.”

Home-Start Volunteers are all trained and, if they become a home-visiting volunteer, are matched with a local family who they visit once a week for around two hours to support them in whatever ways they need.

Since it first began in Leicester in 1973, Home-Start has supported over 1.5 million children with more than 180 local Home-Starts supporting 56,000 children in 27,000 families in communities across the UK last year.

To celebrate 50 years of Home-Start UK, the charity has launched a new campaign called The Power of Little Moments, which focuses on the lifelong impact that a Home-Start volunteer makes to a family.

The campaign will run throughout 2023 and aims to make sure that Home-Start can be there for children and parents for the next 50 years, creating millions more moments for families.

ENDS

NOTE TO EDITORS

Find out how to volunteer for Home-Start: https://www.home-start.org.uk/pages/category/how-to-volunteer

Find out more about https://homestartsurrey.org/

Find out more about Volunteers’ Week: https://volunteersweek.org/

Find out about other ways to support us: https://www.home-start.org.uk/Pages/Category/support-us

For more information contact:

Gemma Whitehouse

Volunteer Recruitment Officer, Home-Start Surrey

07477001596

[email protected]

Home-Start UK is a local community network of trained volunteers and expert support helping families with young children through their challenging times. Families struggling with postnatal depression, isolation, physical health problems, bereavement and many other issues receive the support of a volunteer who will spend around two hours a week in a family’s home supporting them in the ways they need. www.home-start.org.uk