Marlborough Living Jan - Feb 2020
We've got 2020 vision as we look ahead to the new year with fitness and health tips, a wedding guide, meat free recipes, an interview with chef Michael Caines and lots of home inspiration.
We've got 2020 vision as we look ahead to the new year with fitness and health tips, a wedding guide, meat free recipes, an interview with chef Michael Caines and lots of home inspiration.
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Home-Start Kennet<br />
Helping Local Families<br />
ADVERTISING FEATURE<br />
Home-Start Kennet provides vital support<br />
to families struggling to cope. Volunteers<br />
visit families weekly to give emotional<br />
and practical support and helped 98<br />
families and 198 children last year...<br />
Volunteer, Charlotte, knows only too well how Home-Start<br />
supports families, having received help herself over ten years<br />
ago. Trapped at home with two young children by depression and<br />
anxiety, Charlotte was caught in a downward spiral that could<br />
only have ended badly for her and the children.<br />
“I do feel like this charity saved my life,” she says. “I know that<br />
sounds dramatic but it is true, they saved me.<br />
“I had two older children and then got married again and had a<br />
two-year-old and a one-year-old,” she recalls. “I thought I had<br />
done it all before so it would be easy, but I got depression and<br />
anxiety and I just couldn’t cope. I wouldn’t go out, I wouldn’t<br />
socialise.<br />
“Along came my volunteer Dawn, who came for a few weeks just<br />
for a coffee and to play with my youngest. Once she got to know<br />
us, she got us going to the children’s centre.”<br />
Just getting Charlotte to the centre was an achievement, but the<br />
volunteer’s skill and patience helped her go further.<br />
Recalls Charlotte: “At first she would walk with me to the centre<br />
and after a while she’d say ‘I’ll meet you there’ and then one day<br />
she said ‘I’ll be half an hour late’, so I had to walk in on my own<br />
and it worked. I made friends and started going on my own.<br />
“At first when Dawn visited, I felt a failure, but when I realised it<br />
was doing the children good and that it was actually nice to get<br />
out and meet people, it made me feel really motivated.”<br />
Scheme Manager, Tania Rackham, says: “Volunteers visit families<br />
with young children who are struggling for a range of reasons …<br />
multiple birth, isolation, bereavement, mental health issues … it<br />
could be a single parent, families, younger or older mums, there<br />
is no typical case. Volunteer support can make a big difference,<br />
often just listening is all that is needed.”<br />
Home-Start is recruiting now for new volunteers.<br />
Contact hskadmin@homestartkennet.co.uk<br />
Can you help Local Families?<br />
We are there for parents when they need us most<br />
Home-Start helps families in and around <strong>Marlborough</strong>,<br />
Devizes, Pewsey, Tidworth, Calne and Chippenham who are<br />
struggling to cope, by giving support in the home.<br />
We’re looking for volunteers who have:<br />
✓ A friendly, positive nature<br />
✓ Great listening skills and empathy<br />
✓ Parenting skills or relevant life experience<br />
✓ Time to visit families weekly for 2-3 hours<br />
Full training provided. Next training starts March <strong>2020</strong>.<br />
Contact us to find out more.<br />
T: 01672 569457<br />
E: hskadmin@homestartkennet.co.uk<br />
W: www.homestartkennet.co.uk<br />
Home Start Kennet is committed to equality, diversity and safe recruitment.<br />
This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check. Charity number: 1106736<br />
www.marlboroughliving.co.uk | 9
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