Home-Start Guildford

Home-visiting volunteers come from many different backgrounds and vary in age but all are either parents themselves or have parenting experience and are carefully selected for their friendliness and understanding. They provide informal, friendly emotional support and practical help to families. 

All our home visiting volunteers attend a preparation course, undergo an enhanced DBS check and provide two references before being matched with a family who they will visit once a week, for approximately 2-3 hours.

Volunteers take their own individual skills and experience to the families they visit. Talking and listening can empower families to overcome their difficult situations. Visits might include holding the baby while mum has a shower, playing with twin toddlers while mum has a sleep, taking parents shopping and showing them how to budget, being a listening ear to relieve isolation, modelling positive parenting and play.

Volunteers are offered on-going training and support activities including specialist speakers, as well as informal social gatherings.

What we offer you:

• An ongoing commitment to help volunteers fulfil their roles to the best of their ability
• Comprehensive and up-to-date information about Home-Start
• Individual interview with one of our co-ordinators before commencing training
• Free initial training before you commence as a home-visiting volunteer
• Opportunities for regular ongoing training
• Appropriate support and supervision, both individually and at volunteer support group meetings
• A thorough matching service when matching volunteers to new families 
• Re-imbursement of travel expenses
• Annual volunteer social events 

What we ask from you:

• To be familiar and committed to the Home-Start ethos
• To attend the preparation course, ongoing training and individual / group support meetings
• To reliably visit and support at least one family on a regular basis (minimum 2-3 hours per week), for a period of at least one year
• To keep and return Home-Start records promptly 
• To abide by Home-Start guidelines on confidentially
• To complete annual safeguarding training and to annually sign the Code of Conduct
• To be aware of and work within Home-Start's guidelines on Child Protection
• To understand and implement Home-Start's polices on Equal Opportunities and Health & Safety
• To ensure your car is adequately insured, if transporting families

If you would like to find out more, to make an enquiry, please fill in an application and someone will be in touch with you. 

"There for parents when they need us most, because childhood can't wait"

Parents Supporting Other Parents - a simple idea that really works!

Home-Start Guildford has been supporting local families across the Guildford Borough for over 25 years. 

We're a non-judgemental organisations that helps local parents who are struggling, for any reason. Some of those reasons may include; multiple births, mental health, an abusive partner, isolation, mental or physical handicap, or the pressure that loss of employment brings to a family.

What we do

Our charity provides a preventative service that aims to support families who are struggling by offering regular volunteer support to parents with at least one child under the age of 5, usually referred to us by Health Visitors.

We provide one-to-one support for parents:
Our volunteers visit the family’s home for a couple of hours every week.  They tailor-make their support to the needs of the parents and children. Volunteers are very committed and will keep visiting until the youngest child turns five or starts school, or until the parents feel they can stand on their own two feet.  Parents and volunteers often develop a deeply trusting relationship which can lead to powerful change within the family.

We also run two family groups for referred families, one in the Pirbright Community Centre and the other in the Guildford Family Group, Hazel Avenue.

Our values

• We offer families choice
• We work in partnership - with each other, with families and with other agencies
• We work in a spirit of openness, encouragement and enjoyment
• We are flexible and responsive to the needs of families

Volunteering Opportunities 

There are several ways that you can help in a voluntary capacity:

• by supporting a family as a Home-Visiting Volunteer
• by helping at one of our Family Groups
• by joining the Trustee Board
• by becoming a Friend of Home-Start Guildford
• by supporting us as a Digital / Office Volunteer

Please see the volunteer roles listed for more detail.