Brighten the Blues (360G-EssexCF-A427839)
Funding Organization
£2,000
Recipient Organization
Towards a Brighten the Blues project to address mental health issues
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Grant Details
| Amount Applied For | 4677 |
| Amount Awarded | 2000 |
| Award Date | 2016-11-25T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Beneficiary Location: Country Code | GB |
| Beneficiary Location: Geographic Code | E07000099 |
| Beneficiary Location: Geographic Code Type | NMD |
| Beneficiary Location: Name | North Hertfordshire |
| Grant Programme: Code | 2016/17 |
| Grant Programme: Title | Saffron Building Society Community Fund |
| Last Modified | 2021-04-29T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Planned Dates: Duration (months) | 11 |
| Planned Dates: End Date | 2017-12-31T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Planned Dates: Start Date | 2017-01-01T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Primary age group | Young Adults (19 – 25) |
| Primary beneficiary | Families |
| Primary issue | Stronger communities/Community support and development |
| Recipient Org: Charity Number | 1105385 |
| Recipient Org: Description | Home-Start Royston & South Cambridgeshire (HSRSC) provides practical and emotional support to vulnerable families with children under 9. Without our support these families are at risk of facing crisis situations that could lead to family breakdown, resulting in children being taken into care, amongst other serious consequences. Supported families suffer with diverse issues which include: • Post-Natal Depression • Depression • Anxiety • Low Self-esteem • Lack of Ability to Engage in Children’s Development • Social Isolation • Bereavement • Disability • Domestic Abuse • Family Breakdown • Children’s Behavioural Problems • Children’s Developmental Delay HSRSC is one of 238 local Home-Start schemes affiliated to the national charity Home-Start UK, which provides national operational benchmarks and quality control. HSRSC is a registered charity, independent of statutory bodies and entirely responsible for securing its own income. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES HSRSC wants to see a society in which all parents have the support they need to give their children the best possible start in life. Our objectives are to: • Reduce the pressure on families that leads to mental health difficulties • Reduce parental isolation by facilitating involvement in local groups and services • Improve outcomes for children in terms of mental and physical health, education and relationships with parents and teachers. We aim to: • Prevent these families from declining into crisis • Enable parents to develop the confidence, knowledge and skills to manage their family lives again without Home-Start support, and to access mainstream support and local community networks. MAIN ACTIVITIES Our main activities are a volunteer-led Home-Visiting Service and two specialist Family Support Groups. Most families are supported by the Home-Visiting Service, and those who are socially isolated and excluded are invited to join our Family Group(s). Home-Visiting Service: Highly-trained volunteers, who are parents themselves, visit each family every week for 2 to 3 hours – offering practical and emotional support tailored to each family’s individual needs. This unique support is non-judgemental, confidential and free. The nature of the support is tailored to the family’s individual needs from the outset, the aim being to empower the family and enable them to become independent of our help. Where possible, the volunteer uses solution-focused techniques when working with the family to encourage parents themselves to identify the changes that they would like to make and the volunteers provide guidance on how to work towards those changes. Depending on the specific need, the volunteer: • Provides regular consistent positive reassurance and feedback to parents, supporting improved self-esteem and mental heath • Engages and play with children, encouraging them to learn sharing and social skills • Enables parents to develop the confidence to successfully work through their difficulties themselves by making their own decisions and choices • Empowers parents to discover/re-discover their own abilities by modelling of parenting skills • Helps families to access local relevant and specialist services e.g. mental health outreach support, counselling, GP - accompanying and transporting when needed • Reduces social isolation by accompanying families to groups and other community-based services The support is reviewed with the family regularly, enabling the volunteer to respond to changing needs within the family, as well as planning an appropriate ending of support at the right time. Parents and volunteers develop a deeply trusting relationship, leading to powerful positive change within the distressed parent and the family as a whole: • Parents are less introspective, have improved mental health a greater sense of well-being, and are less reliant on statutory services • Families are less isolated, having developed better networks, more confidence and resilience, and more openness to opportunities • Families have improved self-esteem and stronger, more positive relationships • Children exhibit better behaviour, as a result of more positive and consistent parenting • Families develop improved coping strategies and parents become more confident. Family-Support Groups Our two specialist Family Groups support the most excluded and isolated families, each family having been invited to join the weekly term-time sessions by our coordinators and volunteers. Our Royston Family Group, based at Royston Methodist Church, has been successfully supporting these families for over 30 years, whilst Buntingford Family Group opened in April 2018. Royston Family Group is a 4-minute drive from the Saffron Building Society, Royston, who generously donated £2,000 to HSRSC in 2016 through the Essex Community Foundation. Family Group objectives are to: • Reach out and engage with the most excluded/isolated families that other agencies often find it hard to reach • Make a positive contribution to the outcomes for children described in Every Child Matters and the local Children and Young People’s plans • Provide flexible, easily accessible support, friendship and practical assistance, geared to the needs of families in the way that families want it • Foster parents’ strengths and emotional well-being for the ultimate benefit of their children • Encourage and enable families to effectively use community support services such as the local Children’s Centre, specialist services etc. • Promote confidence in effective parenting and enjoyment of family life. These objectives are achieved by providing structured and planned activities to parents and children, within a safe environment. The activities give participants an opportunity to develop vital friendships and a peer support network. They also help them alleviate: Low confidence, low self-esteem, mental health difficulties, and support parents to better manage children with challenging behaviour and/or additional needs. Family group can make a real difference to families by: • Helping them to develop improved coping strategies that make parents more confident. • Developing stronger parent/ child relationships. • Increasing community interaction and participation. • Offering consistent adult role models for parents and their children. • Helping children to become school ready. • Promoting active citizenship and making homes safe and children happier. “My daughter gets so much out of the activities she has got lovely little friends. I have also made a connection with some of the other parents as they can identify with my situation. The activities for the parents are fantastic and I feel really pampered and enormously supported.” |
| Recipient Org: Web Address | http://www.hsrsc.org.uk |