Home-Start Southern Oxfordshire

You can help us change a child’s life

Home-Start Southern Oxfordshire supports vulnerable families, who have at least one child under the age of five, across most of South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse. We're well established in the area and have supported vulnerable families continuously for 32 years.

We want to see a society in which every parent has the support they need to give their children the best possible start in life. Through our network of trained volunteers and expert staff, we provide practical and emotional support to families experiencing difficult times.

Families may be feeling overwhelmed, isolated, struggling with mental or physical ill-health, financial difficulties or trauma. These are times when it helps to have someone to turn to. Home-Start Southern Oxfordshire brings no judgement: just compassionate, confidential help, friendship and expert support.

We also run two weekly parent and baby support groups and have a highly-skilled Family Support Worker who provides 1:1 support for families with more complex needs.

Families may be referred to us by other professional bodies (with the family’s consent) or they may self-refer in order to receive support from one of our trained home-visiting volunteers, Family Support Worker or at one of our groups. This system of self-referral means that any family who thinks they need help, can approach us to request support.

Because parents choose Home-Start support, we’re able to quickly build positive relationships with the families, so they establish strong engagement with the service and build trust in the relationship with both the trained volunteer they are matched with and the charity itself. This means that success in improvement to the family’s situation is very likely.

In 2019-2020 we supported 318 families and 472 children across all our services. Over 1,274 hours of time were given by our amazing team of volunteers. Our volunteer home-visiting support is unique in the area, with no other organisation providing this type of service for families.

Everyone needs help at some time in their life, please help us to make a difference to a child’s life today.

Volunteers needed

We're always looking for more volunteers to support families across the whole of the southern area of Oxfordshire. All our volunteers are DBS checked and take a preparation course where they receive 24 hours of high-quality training, including Local Authority training in safeguarding children, domestic abuse training and an introduction to child development. They are parents, grandparents or carers, or have parenting experience themselves, and therefore are well placed to support other parents. Once trained, our volunteers are matched with a family who needs emotional or practical support. The volunteer visits the family each week for 2-3 hours to support them in the ways they need.

What your gift could provide

£5

will help us towards providing resources and essentials for the families we support.

£10

will cover one month's travel expenses for one of our Home-Visiting Volunteers.

£25

will provide one week of support for a family in need.

Fundraise for us!