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Who can be a Home-Start volunteer?
Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are welcome, both men and women, just as long as they have had a full-time parenting
experience themselves. We don't ask for qualifications, just a commitment to the family you would be visiting.
It helps too if you have a sensitive and caring attitude towards others, if you are non-judgemental and if you are happy
working with people of any gender, family status, sexual identity, ethnic origin, culture or religion, or with people who
may have a disability.
How do I apply?
If you would like to apply, or if you would like more
information without committing yourself in any way, please either call us on 01707 708606 or simply complete and submit the
form below.
What happens after I've applied?
A co-ordinator visits everyone who
wants to be a volunteer, takes up references and does a police check on their background.
All Home-Start
volunteers attend a 10-week course of preparation (1 day a week) to increase their knowledge and skills. Topics covered include
listening skills, child protection procedures, confidentiality and boundaries.
Once a volunteer has
been approved, he or she is carefully matched with a family, and the co-ordinator introduces them. The co-ordinator keeps
in regular contact with the family and the volunteer, and reviews the support given. Our aim is to prepare the family so they
will eventually be able to cope without our support, but there is no time limit for this.
If a volunteer
is still visiting when the youngest child reaches the age of five, the situation is carefully reviewed and a plan is put in
place so that the support can be terminated.
When a volunteer stops visiting a family, the co-ordinator will match
them with another family in need.
Volunteering with Home-Start's not scary
The training's
first class.... don't be wary!
We all help each other
And support one another
Home-Start.... Welwyn
Hatfield.... with Kerry!
What will I get out of being a Home-Start volunteer?
Most of all you
will gain the enormous satisfaction of helping a family cope with the pressures they are facing, and of making a real difference
to the lives of parents and their children. You will also develop new skills and gain some good experience. You
will receive training to prepare you for all the aspects of your role with Home-Start, and on-going support once you start
visiting families. And you will make new friends at Home-Start - and we're sure you'll have lots of fun
on the way.
Come and Join us
The Home-Start volunteers' song
- can be sung to the tune of Oh My Darling, Clementine.
Come and join us, come and join us,
Come and join us at Home-Start. We are all now very friendly And we'll give you a good start.
Don't
be nervous, don't be nervous,
Don't be nervous, just relax. Enjoy the training,
which is brilliant, And we'll give you a good start.
Meet your family, meet your family,
Meet your family at last... Can be nervous and exciting But we'll give
you a good start.
It's rewarding, it's
rewarding,
It's rewarding through and through. Minor hiccups can
be ironed out Cos we give you a good start.
Come and join us, come and join us,
Come and join us
at Home-Start. We are all now very friendly And we'll give
you a good start. Back to top.
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