Home Start Wessex offers friendship, practical support, and emotional advice to families in difficulty across Dorset. The charity has helped more than 12,000 children and 4,900 families through support services that aim to grow confidence, strengthen relationships, and widen community links.
For several years, we’ve helped Home Start Wessex to improve their Kinson-based hub; from repairs and renovations, to an outdoor garden play area and essential COVID-19 support during the pandemic. Most recently, we helped provide the team with IT equipment to help train its new volunteers.
Sally Smith, Grants Partnership Manager, explains: “We’ve been going for over 28 years, and we operate across BCP, Purbeck and south and east Dorset. We recruit volunteers from different communities that train with us. They’ll do a 14-hour training course that includes safeguarding, which means they can go into people’s homes to provide one-to-one support.
“We work together with families to build on their strengths and support them, with our specialists and professionals available to meet families and tackle problems. Since the pandemic, we’ve seen community needs grow and we’ve increased our practical support, including foodbank vouchers and access to wider community support initiatives.
“Our service users increased by 63% in 2022 as demand and referrals increased, so we’ve now got drop-in groups in Boscombe and Poole, and we’ve set up a drop in for homeless people in Poole too.
“We fundraise ourselves to deliver our services, so there isn’t really money free for us to do capital projects. Talbot Village Trust first stepped in several years ago to help us, from flooring and doors to garden space and equipment – the things that really help to keep us running!”
Maria Silvia, Family Group Leader at Home Start Wessex, started as a volunteer for the service during COVID-19 while working as a Midwife. She adds: “Most families that come to us are quite vulnerable and they come from all sorts of different backgrounds. The challenge is providing non-judgemental support and a service that’s tailor-made yet also fits everybody.
“We’ve helped people from a range of different countries and being from Brazil myself, I know that people’s needs can be very different. It’s subtle work, and perhaps there’s not huge transformation straight away, but you really notice how families are more confident.
“I’m passionate about the work we do, and when I look back on how isolated, lonely, and lacking in skills that I was as a parent, if I had something like this it would be very different. Working with Home Start, I’m growing as a person too and it’s wonderful.”
May and her son Dylan first started with Home Start Wessex about a year ago. May says: “We live ten minutes up the road, and we’ve just moved to the Kinson area. I have suffered with poor mental health and anxiety and our Health Visitor introduced us to Home Start.
“Since joining Home Start, my mental health and anxiety has improved – I never used to go out, but now, I’ve been able to head out on holiday. After Dylan was born, I couldn’t take him to a play park but the team here came with me and now I feel I can go.”
“There need to be more places like this. To be honest, I don’t know what I’d have done without Home Start Wessex. I come along with Dylan, have a chat with other mums, share experiences, and I realise I’m not alone.”
