Home-Start Lakeland
There for parents when they need us most, because childhood can't wait
Testimonials
Family Story
When I look back over the last 12-14 months since we were fortunate enough to receive the help of our lovely Home-Start volunteer, it’s only now I see how much her help, kindness and support helped me as a person. When our volunteer first visited I had been struggling to get through each day, hoping things would get easier, hoping I would start to feel better, hoping some help would come from immediate family, feeling like a single parent, feeling isolated from my own family and not getting any support from my partner or his family.
I was completely alone morning to night, day in day out with a 3-year-old and a 9 month old and never got more than 45 minutes to an hours sleep at a time. I was exhausted, mentally, physically and emotionally. Our volunteer was the only constant in my life. She quickly became a friendly, non-judgmental ear to listen and I looked forward to her weekly calls knowing she was sure to come and wouldn’t let me down. My son loved her playfulness and my daughter who was very clingy made strange with anyone except me, but over the weeks of our volunteer’s persistent yet not forceful approach, my daughter began running to her every time she visited with books for what we called “story time with (volunteer name)”.
It did my heart good to see my daughter warm to our volunteer and to see such progress in her coming out of herself, going for a walk with our volunteer while I got the chance to do some housework or have a shower or anything I needed to do without having her on my hip for half an hour.
The biggest change that came from having our volunteer is that when my partner and his family realised I was receiving help from a complete stranger, I suddenly got overcompensated offers of help. All be it sporadic in my mind, too little too late, and only because of the shame they felt for not offering any kind of support until now.
This made me realise that under any weight of juggling two kids, completely on my own, that I had lost myself and my voice, and I began to speak up and say what I wasn’t happy with and that if things didn’t begin to change that I knew I could find help elsewhere and make changes myself. This shocked my partner into pulling his act together all because I felt that having our volunteer was almost like having someone in my corner with me, that I wasn’t on my own and that there is help out there.
Having our volunteer enabled me to find myself when I felt lost and I can honestly say that my life, my children’s lives and my relationship with my partner has 100% improved. I hope our volunteer remains part of our lives now as a friend and I will always be grateful for her.
What our supported families say:
“It is a very valuable service and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with Home Start.”
“You are lucky to have (volunteer name), she is a star.”
“The children loved her, they were always asking when she was coming.”
“Home start have always been an amazing service to us, The Twin’s group and our volunteer, her advice has been amazing and we have continued our friendship.”
“The support I have received has really helped me develop my own emotional understanding during the challenging times.”
“This service has been invaluable to both myself and my family.”
“It was brilliant, and we would like to thank you for your help and support, if we didn’t have it, we would be worse off and just couldn’t cope.”
“The children loved our volunteer, she was so kind and read stories.”
“Thank you so much, it has made a huge difference to our family”
“It is a fantastic service and it’s comforting to know there is an organisation out there to help a family or single mother take one step at a time to get back up and build their confidence again.”
“Home-Start has been an amazing lifeline to our family for a number of years now and you have never been forgotten about.”
“Looking forward to our volunteer coming to see us every week and feeling more and more confident and happy.”
“Getting organised and into a routine and taking on tasks at home or getting to an appointment.”
“Having a new person to talk to who listens so inventively and helps any way they can.”
“I would’ve been lost without them, they go above and beyond to make sure you’re doing ok and I really appreciated everything they done for me.”
“Just having another adult to talk to and guide you along with great support and advice was just brilliant, I really regained my confidence and self-esteem again.”
What Referrers say:
“There were no difficulties, it is an amazing service which benefits many families in the community.”
“A great service, very much appreciated by the public and families.”
“An invaluable service.”
“Without a doubt Home Start has been an enormous benefit to the children with the volunteer encouraging outdoor play, as well as the social and emotional development of all the children.”
“The input from Home Start is excellent.”
“My client told me this week that she looks forward to her visits from her Home Start volunteer for companionship and parenting support.”
Next: Getting Support
