Home-Start is unique - the training and support for volunteers is high quality and highly valued
You just have to be there and watch people grow
What do volunteers actually do?
Our volunteers will usually visit a parent in their home once a week for a couple of hours. How they help is really down to the needs of the family. Some might need a sympathetic ear, a shoulder to cry on, someone to have a laugh with. Others may need help keeping appointments or accessing local services and 'connecting' with their local community. Our volunteers can provide an extra pair of hands to help people cope with everyday parenting situations, or practical help with activities like playing or reading stories.
Home-Start's approach is very personal and friendly and this often reassures parents that what they're going through is not unusual, that they are not alone.
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Become a Volunteer
Home-Start Portsmouth Volunteers change lives... and most of them tell us they're not DOING anything!
Lots of our families need someone to talk to and offload to because they feel isolated or lonely. You don't need any special qualifications to be a Home-Start volunteer. You just need a good appreciation of how hard it can be to be a parent when children are small.
Maybe you found being a parent hard?
Maybe somebody helped you and you want to 'give something back' by helping somebody else?
Maybe nobody helped you and you know how things are for some of our mums that are trying to do everything by themselves?
Maybe you just have 2-3 hours a week to spare and want to make a difference to someone's life, a whole family's life?
If this is you, all we ask is that you undertake a course of preparation for one day, or one evening a week for 10 weeks. This is so that you can get to know us and how Home-Start Portsmouth works and we can get to know you; this way we can make sure we send you to the family that you are most suited to help.
Once you are matched with a family and visiting them weekly, we will be on the end of the phone to support you whenever you need it and we will give you supervision every 6-8 weeks so that we can find out how things are going for you and for the family that you are visiting.
To become a volunteer or to find out more, contact us or download and complete an application form to send it to us, then we'll get in touch with you.
Volunteers' downloads
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