Home Visiting Volunteer

Do you have two hours a week to spare?

Want to get back into work? 

Would you thrive from working directly with Children and Families in need?

When you volunteer with one of our childrens services, you will be helping the UKs most disadvantaged children & young people in the most direct way possible.

To become a volunteer with Home-Start ALL you need is a desire to help and 2 hours a week to spare and we'll give you all the training and support you need

Role description

Following a selection interview, checks and preparation training home visiting volunteers are carefully matched with a family at a time that suits them. The volunteer will visit the family each week for a couple of hours, usually in the family’s home and/or surrounding community.  How volunteers help is really down to the family – some may need someone to talk to, others may need more practical help with getting out, meal planning and cooking, playing with the children or finding out about local services. All we ask is that volunteers do not look after the children without the parent being present, do not do regular housework for the family, do not carry out intimate care or healthcare and do not take the family in their own car.

In a nutshell volunteers may:

• visit families in their own homes, where the dignity and identity of each individual can be respected and protected
• reassure families that difficulties in bringing up children are not unusual
• emphasise the positive aspects of family life and parents’ strengths and resilience
• develop a relationship with the family that is built on trust and shared understanding
• encourage parents’ strengths and emotional well-being for the ultimate benefit of their own children
• role model and guide parents to develop healthy, safe and stimulating relationships with their children
• provide practical help with managing the home and money
• provide support and guidance around parenting and child development
• safeguard children and vulnerable adults
• promote positive adult relationships
• encourage families to widen their network of relationships and to use effectively the support and services available in the community
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What skills and experience do volunteers need?

Home-Start Manchester welcomes volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. A volunteer may be a natural parent, a foster, adoptive or step parent or an older sibling who has taken on the parental role. A volunteer may not have parenting experience but lots of professional experience of working with children or families or other relevant experience.  Volunteers do not need specific qualifications, but they do need the ability to:

• Listen with understanding and apply a non-judgemental attitude
• Be able to empower people without trying to fix others’ issues, all whilst being open to peoples’ individual journeys and perspectives
• Feel comfortable being open to sharing their own life and parenting experience in a balanced and appropriate way in order to gain families’ trust
• Be patient
• Be able to use initiative but also recognise when the support of the Coordinator would be helpful
• Maintain confidentiality whilst adhering to safeguarding procedures
• Be committed to weekly visits for up to 12 months, and inform the family or Coordinator if they cannot attend a visit
• Be open and honest with the Coordinator about any worries or concerns
• Maintain boundaries with families, including non disclosure of personal contact details or social media accounts

All volunteers are carefully recruited and selected, and prepared before being matched with a family. Volunteers must commit to completing the 6 module, 3 day Course of Preparation, annual safeguarding refresher training and other additional training.

Volunteers must also commit to 6 weekly Supervision and completion of weekly diary sheets which document their visits.

All prospective volunteers must fill in an application form, provide two references and agree to an enhanced disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service, as well as attending a selection interview.

What can volunteers expect from Home-Start?

We aim to treat all volunteers with respect and undertake our responsibilities to them fairly and recognise that each offers their own unique qualities and has their own needs for support. We will ensure volunteers have:

• comprehensive and up-to-date information about Home-Start
• an individual interview with the Coordinator before commencing the Course of Preparation
• a Course of Preparation to prepare for visiting families and opportunities for on-going training to support the volunteering role
• clarity about the role and a support action plan, including who is responsible to who, and who will provide support if there are any problems
• sufficient information about the family to prepare them for visiting, including any risks and the steps taken to mitigate
• effective supervision and support for individual volunteers with the Coordinator, and regular volunteer support group meetings
• reimbursement for agreed out-of-pocket expenses
• opportunities to evaluate, comment on and contribute to the work of Home-Start
• an understanding of how to raise problems or make a complaint
• information about and access to the Board of Trustees
• opportunities to join with other volunteers for coffee mornings and drop ins