Newsletter: Home-Start North West , Rucstall Community Centre,

Holbein Close, , Hampshire, RG21 3QN. Tel: 01256 325793 Company No.: 5604443, Registered charity no. 1112233 Date: January 2021 Issue no: 16

C ommunity Newsletter…. ….

It wouldn’t be right to start off this Newlsetter without At the beginning of December, we were very thanking everyone who has helped throughout the excited to learn we had been chosen as one of build up to Christmas with donations of toys/gifts/food two charities nationwide to be part of the John hampers , to give our supported families the best Lewis/Waitrose “Give a Little Love” Campaign! Christmas possible. Sadly this year the impact of the pandemic has led to more of our families experiencing finanical difficulties and the donations have helped them greatly in being able to re-direct their money into purchasing other family necessities during the Christmas period.

https://homestart-nwhampshire.org.uk/give-a-little-love/

Our local John Lewis/Waitrose Partners quickly got in touch with us and we were blown Thank You to:- away by their generosity and enthusiasm in wanting to help as much as they could to make Christmas special for our families! Partners & Customers donated toys/gifts for parents and wrote uplifting messages on the “Give a Little  Julie Shepherd-Community Champion @Tesco Love” Hearts for our families. Amazingly, John . Lewis were still collecting for us up to the 23rd  The Congregations at both St. Stephens December which meant we were able to Church, & Church deliver presents before Christmas Day to families who had just been referred to us!  The Brain Tumour Charity – who donated 80 Beauty Gift Boxes which were wrapped up and We were delighted to post on our Social Media given as Christmas Presents to all our special story-time sessions read by John

supported Mums. Lewis/Waitrose Partners, who were very brave  Toy donations from many wonderful people in agreeing to record a video of themselves who contacted the office asking if they could reading a tea-time story over 4 days, leading up to Christmas Eve with “The Night before buy presents for our families. Christmas”  Besom Charity for Food Hampers

 And to our Amazing Volunteers who gave up their precious time in December to wrap & deliver Christmas Presents.

Web: www.homestart-nwhampshire.org.uk/ schemeNEWS Issue 15 E. mail: [email protected] Phone: 01256 325793 Page 1

Christmas Present Feedback from some of our

families:-

“When my baby was born, I'd been furloughed due to working in the hospitality industry and Home-Start put together some bits for my baby. They've also provided me with some gifts that I have been able to use for Xmas for my children as I am on a very low income. Thank you Home- Start”

“A big thank you to all of you at Home-start. I'm so very very grateful for the Christmas presents. It's such a big help this year with a financial struggle the last few months with income changing and few having to buy more expensive brands of shopping with our normal stuff not in stock so this has been such a help. Thank you very much”

Bethan organising “Operation “Just wanted to say thank you for the little package this

Christmas Present Drop-off!” morning, it was a lovely gesture and made me tear up a bit!

Merry Christmas to you all”  U p to Christmas Eve, Presents were

delivered to 171 Children & 90 “Thank you so much for today and the Xmas gifts for the Parents via HSNWH “Elf Special children. What you guys do is amazing and I can’t thank you Delivery” aka Volunteers & enough for all the support you give me and the family” Staff!

Office update:-

During the 3rd Lockdown the office remains open and Office update:- Groups Christmas Party we are still accepting new Referrals. Until restrictions

2020! are lifted the support we are currently able to offer are All our supported families were invited to inviting families to take part in regular Zoom Groups join us for a special Christmas Zoom and matching with Volunteers for 1-1 telephone/zoom session held on the 16th December 2020. calls. Lizzie Lock from “Boogie Mites” A A~AVVVVV facilitated the free session, In addition to supporting families the staff team are everyone thoroughly enjoyed currently busy delivering food hampers kindly donated the singing, dancing and had by St. Stephens Church-see photo below! fun using home made instruments. January is always a It was a great opportunity for everyone to hard month financially lose themselves in the activity for a little for some families but this year more of our while forgetting the outside world. families have been hit hard by the Pandemic In fact, families attending from Dads Club enjoyed Boogie Mites so much that a 15 and being able to offer a food hamper is truly minute rhyme time has now been added to their weekly session! amazing & much appreciated!

Are you interested in a volunteer role with us? Our next Course is due to start Spring 2021 Come & join our team of Volunteers. We are looking for:-

-Home Visiting volunteers BECAUSE CHILDHOOD

-Family Group helpers CAN’T WAIT! -Trustees -Fundraising Volunteers

Web: www.homestart-nwhampshire.org.uk/ schemeNEWS Issue 15 E.mail: [email protected] Phone: 01256 325793 Page 2

Birth of Dads Club!

This new group came into being during an initial visit that Claire was undertaking with a family when it became apparent there was a real need to support Dads in the Community, subsequently the 1st Dads club session took place last October! Dads Club runs currently via Zoom on a Wednesday afternoon at 1:30pm -2:30pm, hosted by Claire & new Volunteer Mark Holley. Mark brings his wealth of experience of being a Dad & Grandad to share at the sessions but has also started to host a regular short fun quiz!

This is what Alex – father of twin girls, says about the Club:-

“Dads Club has provided a fantastic way for me to connect with other Dads who are in similar circumstances and can relate to the challenges of being a Dad in the position of main child carer in the family.

The regular support, especially through the covid pandemic when physical contact has been so

restricted, has been really helpful and the video calls as a group have provided plenty of

entertainment for my twins and I during their first year! I’m very grateful to have had the support of the home start team and their volunteers, especially with Dads Club as I find it much easier to relate Joolsthrough ended a Dad by- specificsaying thatgroup families compared have to“blown the normal us away, groups they that have are a predominantlylot more resilience mums. that we give them credit for and we remind them when they stumble how far they have come in their journey. The I think the challenges you face as a Dad are different to those Pandemic has made HSNWH stronger and enabled us to become a better service!” Jools thanked faced by Mums, so to have a safe space to talk about these with everyone who has supported HSNWH during the last year and more recently through the pandemic. other Dads has been really helpful during my first year into

parenthood.

I would recommend the Dads Club run by Home Start to any Dads

who want to build a network of people who can relate to how you

may be feeling, and who can help answer any questions you might

have! I hope in the future I’ll have the opportunity to help other new

fathers who are faced with some of the challenges I’m currently

facing, as sometimes simply knowing that you’re not the only one

is enough to give you a boost and help you through the day.”

Thank you Alex for your feedback and for sharing your wonderful photo of your family.

Volunteer News!

Our Annual Volunteer Celebration was held on Tuesday 17th November 2020 via Zoom. We were delighted that so many volunteers were able to join us for the celebration which included partaking of a cream tea delivered by the staff team to everyone before the event.

Just wanted to acknowledge Bethan & Not even a Pandemic stopped us Katy’s baking of 50 scones each for the

celebrating the work our Volunteers Cream Teas-Thank you! do!

Web: www.homestart -nwhampshire.org.uk/ schemeNEWS Issue 15 E.mail: [email protected] Phone: 01256 325793 Page 3 Long Service Awards & New Volunteer Trustee News:- Certificates were sneakily included in the

Cream Tea Bags which Jools handed out We also welcome new trustees:-

virtually to our Long Service Volunteers and Jane Drew & Lauren English to the Board and welcomed our “new” volunteers. Welcome Back Patricia Fox to the post of Treasurer!

Jools surprised Gill McMillan with the

Volunteer of the Year Award. Gill was Fundraising:- nominated for the award by both a family she is currently working with and previously A big thank you to Sue Bailey ex Staff member who supported families. The nominations focused during the month of December donated all monies on her kind and caring manner and the way received in selling her home-made festive face masks she made them feel like they were working to Home-Start. She raised a massive £487! together to achieve something. Gill gets involved in all aspects of volunteering with Home-Start although the pandemic has made some of these tricky, including volunteer drop in, group support, helping in the office and the dreaded paperwork! The money Sue raised will go towards purchasing Gill McMillan – much needed necessities for families who may be Volunteer of the Year finding things a bit tougher after Christmas added with 2020! coping with the on-going pandemic. Gill very kindly asked her hubby to take a Volunteer Toni Allen postponed her 130km walking photo of her with the fundraiser until next year and is now walking Camino newly re-named after Portuguese to Santiago de Compostella in northern our Patron “Judith Spain in May 2021 for HSNWH. You can donate on Darmady” Volunteer of her Just Giving Page:– the Year Award! https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/toni-allen1

We welcome to our HSNWH Volunteer If, like Toni, you would like to raise money for HSNWH, family: Ann Anderson, Vanessa Bearne, we are always looking at different ideas for fundraising Hannah Leppard, Mark Holley, Julie Rebettes, and would welcome any suggestions/help. Sophie Davy, Emma Rampton, Nicola James, Steve Bushell, Racquel Cubberley & Paula THANK YOU! Cooper. Number Crunching Save the Date:-

AGM – 2021 TBC Active home Visiting/Group

42 Volunteers as of 25th January 2021

Dates for your diary: - Children supported since

1st April 2020-25th 205 January 2021 Ramble –Postponed until Spring/Summer 2021

Requests for support

received since 1st April 43 2020-25th January 2021

Web: www.homestart-nwhampshire.org.uk/ schemeNEWS Issue 15 E.mail: [email protected] Phone: 01256 325793 Page 4