Home-Start Bracknell Forest offers support, friendship and practical help to parents with young children across the whole of Bracknell Forest Borough. Our support is free, confidential and friendly, with fully checked and specialist trained volunteers visiting a family for 2-3 hours each week. In addition, we run Family Groups during term time, with helpful and knowledgeable staff and volunteers on hand to support both parents and children.

Why the community needs us

We support families with young children through challenges such as relationship breakdown, isolation, mental health struggles, multiple birth, coping with illness, disability and feelings of exhaustion, as well as difficulty coping with children’s learning and developmental needs. 

We provide practical and emotional support to families when they need it most, either through the support of a home-visiting volunteer, or by supporting them to attend our Family Groups. Our volunteers help out with activities such as attending appointments, providing a listening ear or an extra pair of hands, like allowing the caregiver to get on with the housework or to get their children out to the park.

Our impact on the community

Home-Start volunteers help families by reducing isolation, allowing parents to 'offload', helping them to access other services such as dentists and toddler groups and signposting them to other agencies with specialist areas of support. Our support increases parent and child mental and physical health, confidence, socialisation, as well as school and back to work readiness.
Our volunteers also enhance their own skills and experience through their role and many who want to, go on to gain paid work with children, in social care careers, or in a wide variety of other roles.