Become a volunteer

Do you have a little time you wish to offer to your fellow people? Do you recognise that many families with young children find it hard to cope and you want to share your experience as a parent to help them? Do you want yourself to learn new things, to develop and to find yourself within a network of people who think like you?

 

If so, Home-Start is an ideal service for you!

Home-Start volunteers:

 

• Are carefully selected for their friendly attitude and understanding and are trained by the service as regards their role as volunteers.

• Are linked by the programme coordinator to a specific family that they visit each week for 2-3 hours for as long as required (usually up to 6 months).

• The support they provide to the family is from parent to parent and is based on parity, trust building, sharing experiences, empowering parents and supporting them emotionally and practically. Volunteers care about the families and adapt their approach, realistically, to their needs without following a strictly defined working method (see case studies of support).

 

Volunteers are trained and guided in their work by a professional.

 

 

At Home-Start, a volunteer does not do an ancillary work. The Home-Start volunteer is the core and soul of the service!

 

 

Who can become a Home-Start volunteer?

• Individuals, men and women, of different origin, different educational level and different ages.

• People with parenting experience or people who took part in 24-hour childcare due to a profession or other circumstances.

• People with the following skills:

  • with the ability to "listen" to others,  not to judge them and not to indicate to them what to do

  • positive, with energy, polite, warm people

  • patient, resistant, flexible people

  • reliable people, particularly concerning their commitments and the family visits programme

  • understanding the need for confidentiality concerning the family they support

 

If someone does not have parenting skills or does not want to become a volunteer in a family, there are many other volunteer roles where they can help eg. the raising of resources, the promotion of the service, the organization of events and other.

 

 

The parenting experience of volunteers is the special "asset" of Home-Start.

 

The volunteer, offering to others, offers at the same time a lot to himself: knowledge, a greater understanding of the needs of families, evolving as a person and as a parent, cultivating his/her skills and professional qualifications.   

 

Read the experience of a Home-Start volunteer.