WIBG

Home Start North-West Hampshire

Home-Start North-West Hampshire was set up in 2004 , guided and supported by the national organisation, Home-Start UK. Home-Start works in partnership with statutory and voluntary organisations locally to help parents build better lives for their children.

Parent volunteers offer support and friendship to other parents through home visiting, via family and specialist groups and through social events. Families needs support for many reasons: perhaps they are struggling to cope with postnatal illness, a child's disability, family breakdown, or bereavement or maybe they feel isolated and unable to connect with their local community. Whatever the reason, Home-Start provides non-judgemental, practical and emotional support and helps build the family's confidence and ability to cope. The service is inclusive, providing there is a child under 5. This means the charity can reach local families who would not fit the criteria for other local service provisions.

Locally, the charity are in the process of starting up more support groups as well as a young parents groups, as the number of teenage pregnancies in Basingstoke is well above the national average. They are also setting up a group to support fathers whose partners are suffering from severe postnatal depression.