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Home Start

Home-Start is informal and friendly support for families with young children providing a lifeline to thousands of parents and children in over 340 communities across the UK.  We are now pleased that Home-Start is in the community of Blaenau Gwent.

Support is provided free, confidential and non-judgemental.  In fact, almost 25% of families refer themselves to Home-Start - which speaks for itself. The service helps to increase the confidence and independance of families by:

• Visting families intheir own homes to offer support, friendship and practical assistance.
• Reassuring parents that their childcare problems are not unusual or unique.
• Encouraging parents' strengths and emotional well-belling for the ultimate benefit of their children.
• Trying to get the fun back into family life.

Our volunteers, who have experience themselves, can offer:

• Precious time for listening and talking.
• Help with the children.
• A break for parents.
• Practical help and reassurance.
• A chance to meet other parents in the same boat.
• Support to use local services and resources.

Parents ask for help through Home-Start for various reasons, some of which include:

• They may feel isolated in their community, have no family nearby and be struggling to make friends.
• They may be finding it hard to cope because of their own or their child's physical or mental illness.
• They may have been hit hard by the death of a loved one.
• They may be really struggling with emotional and physical demands of having twins or triplets - perhaps born into an already established family.