Family support
If you are a parent, a family member, or friend of a family, please look below for information on how we can help.
Forms of Support: Home-Visiting
Our Home-Visitor support is a befriending service for parents. They are volunteers who have parenting experience and can relate to many of the issues our families are going through. Our volunteers are fully trained and are carefully matched with families in order to ensure families are receiving the right volunteer to support their specific needs. Typically, Home-Visiting Volunteers will visit the family home once a week or call families to have a chat.
Volunteers offer practical advice and support working alongside the parents to improve family life.
Forms of Support: Family Support Worker
A Family Support Worker is specially qualified to help families who need support rapidly and of a more experienced level than a volunteer could perhaps give. This service tends to last 6-12 weeks max.
Typically, the Family Support Worker will visit families for 2 hours a week to help identify and address a range of complex issues.
The aim is to eventually help match families with a Home Visiting Volunteer and/or match them with a family group to continue their progress.
Sleep counselling is a new addition to our service. One to one support is available depending on capacity.
Forms of Support: Family groups and drop-ins
Not all of our support and work happens in the family home. When that’s not right for a family, or where we are helping to address isolation, loneliness, confidence, improve relationships or create wider network connections, our groups are often a great way to get the help you need in the right environment. It is possible to receive support in a variety of different ways tailor to the individual family.
Drop-in groups are available for families with a child under 5 years. Whether or not they are a supported family.
Family Groups
We offer two family groups in Denny and Falkirk.
Our groups meet at the same time and place every week outside of school holidays.
Please see our social pages and projects for more information.
Drop-in groups and Walking groups
We offer drop-in groups in Falkirk, Grangemouth, Bo’ness and Denny.
Please see our social pages and projects for more information.
Our groups are themed, we design a number of activities to support the developmental needs of our children and promote the nurturing of relationships and bonding between parent and child. This often includes craft activities, messy play, role play, outdoors, cooking, storytelling, movement, music and mindfulness.
Baby Massage
This is a new additions to our service this year.
Baby massage runs for 4 sessions to promote parent/child bonding and wellbeing.
Please see our social pages and projects for more information.
During the school holidays we run Family Fun Days and Events.
Testimonials
Since joining Home-start and coming into the groups every Tuesday, I have found lots of new people.
No matter how I am feeling I always get up and go to group, my boy absolutely loves it and has changed so much over the last year.
As parents we don’t always take time for self care, I know I’m definitely guilty of that. My goals this week (inspired from group encouragement for self care focus) were watching Outlander and organising my new home.
Its been stressing me out not having the little man’s room sorted yet, so I’m sending the other half out with the wee one and organising the wee one’s bedroom.
That may not exactly sound like self care but it is. I’ve been doing a lot of self reflection in the past few months since my mum passed and its helped me realise a lot of things so I’m going to be brutally honest here because Home-Start have been more of a family than my so called biological family.
When getting telephone service ‘I am leaving this conversation happy, knowing that I have this support.’
I have been a part of Home-Start since 2018. Started with my daughter and finishing up with my son. Being a part has been amazing, not only for me but my kids. All the staff are friendly and so helpful. They have helped us out a lot. (You’s are way too generous!!!) We enjoy coming to the groups and also the fundays, where I can bring my oldest. Getting to the groups has helped me make friends and be more sociable. I have made a lot of new friends.
Volunteer S has been an invaluable asset to me in helping me to keep my life moving forward. After the trauma I suffered, I have struggled to trust people again, but S has helped me build up my trust little by little. She has helped me with some of the emotional and physical tasks of rebuilding my life.
The mountain of things to do often feels overwhelming but with S coming over to help for an hour it has made it manageable to work through. Just having her support has helped me to continue to live my life.
Without her support I would be struggling to raise 3 children and move forward with my life, and I wouldn’t be able to see a future for myself or the kids.
I would like to extend a big thank you to all involved at Home Start Falkirk for their hard work, passion and commitment.
Further advice and support
You can find useful advice on your own wellbeing from the charity Mind and from the Scottish Association for Mental Health.
OK Rehab specialises in support for addiction treatment. This treatment is available via both inpatient and outpatient treatment providers. They also work with clinics that are able to facilitate treatment taking place in your own home, who are able to provide professional intervention and home detoxification. To find out more about their services, click here.
There is helpful information and sources of help on the Parent Club website, including how to talk to your children about what is happening.
Information on the closure of schools and childcare options can be found directly at the Scottish Government site here. Local Authorities are also a good source of information Find your Local Authority here.
Advice about work, sickness and benefits can be found on the UK Government website.
If you are facing financial difficulties, a number of sources can help out, including local authorities and Citizens Advice Bureau. We may also be able to help with essentials such as bus passes or food banks, so if you need our help to apply to another source or you think we can help you, remember to get in touch with us.
The Scottish Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline remains available 24/7. If you need advice and help, you can find it here.
We would also like to draw your attention to the increasing reports or fraud, where people are being encouraged to share their personal information via text, phone and email from those pretending to be officials responding to the crisis. Others have had visitors to their home. Please take care of yourself, your family and your personal information. You can find advice here from Police Scotland.
