Home-Start Warrington was founded in 1999 and has supported over 2000 local families in the years since. We aim to prevent family crisis and improve the life chances of children in vulnerable families by building resilience and confidence and by helping families provide a nurturing family environment. We provide non-judgmental early help support to parents with children under 5 who are struggling with the challenges of bringing up young children. Our ethos of ‘just one parent helping another’ makes us accessible and acceptable to families that other services struggle to reach. 

We recruit and train local parent volunteers and then match them with a family whom they visit in the family home for three hours every week. Our volunteers provide practical support, companionship and emotional support, and a connection to their community. They tailor their support to the needs of each individual family and continue offering until the parents have the confidence and skills to manage without support. Parents and volunteers often develop a deeply trusting relationship which can lead to powerful change within the family. Our Coordinators look after a caseload of volunteers and families and provide support with more complex issues such as help with benefits, or helping families access food banks or get basic goods. 

We have built on this core model of support over the last two years in order to respond to increased isolation and rising levels of family stress. We now also offer group support three times per week, with two parent and children groups and a choir for mums, as well as dedicated support for new dads through our Dads Matter project.