About this opportunity
A home-visiting volunteer provides support for a family in the family's own home, usually spending a couple of hours once a week with the parents and their children.
You work with each family to help them in the way they need most. This may be with practical tasks such as escaping from the house, getting to appointments or helping get organised; offering advice and sharing experiences; or supporting parents through emotional issues. By sharing your time and friendship in this way, our volunteers offer families an opportunity to build their confidence, develop new skills and enjoy family life.
Volunteers are carefully matched to a family with young children and the aim is to build the confidence and independence of the family by:-
- Visiting the families in their own home.
- Offering support, friendship and practical help.
- Reassuring the families that difficulties in bringing up children are not uncommon.
- Emphasising the positive aspects of family life.
- Providing a regular, reliable presence in the family.
- Drawing on their own experience of parenting to encourage parents to build on their own strengths and emotional well-being which will ultimately benefit their own children.
- Encouraging families to widen their network of relationships and to utilise, effectively, the support and services available to them within their local community.
