Our Volunteer Heroes

Home-Start Better helps parents/carers cope better with the stresses of daily life. Trained volunteer peer supporters provide friendly, practical and confidential support to expectant families and families with 0-3s within the home.

Drawing on their own lived experience of parenting, these volunteers have provided:

▶ Empathy and reassurance
▶ A listening ear and a shoulder to cry on
▶ An extra pair of hands to help families cope with everyday situations
▶ Practical help with activities like playing or story time
▶ Friendly support through difficult times for as long as families need it

The Perinatal Support Service provides support and a listening ear to women who are suffering mild to moderate mental health issues during the perinatal period. The service is delivered by trained volunteer Perinatal Peer Supporters.

Volunteers received comprehensive training and ongoing supervision to enable them to support the emotional needs of women during pregnancy and up to one year after birth. As well as receiving training, this role has helped volunteers develop new skills and gain fantastic experience.

Volunteer Doulas act as a ‘professional friend’ helping women to make informed choices around their pregnancy, birth, and infant feeding choices. Volunteer Doulas also offer continuity and emotional support, and practical support as a birth partner.

They build relationships with other services and support women towards achieving positive experiences. They provide support six weeks before the baby’s birth, during labour and six weeks after the birth. For this role volunteers need to complete a 10-13 week training course and complete a ‘Volunteer Doula and Breastfeeding Portfolio’.

HENRY guides groups of parents and carers towards healthier habits for the whole family in a supportive and non-judgmental way, focusing on nutrition, eating behaviours and exercise.

HENRY Parent Champions supported families to live healthier lives. Activities included organising and running activities that help families with 0-3s to be healthier and more active. Champions also encouraged and supported parents to join a HENRY Healthy Families group programme and inspired them to sustain a healthy family lifestyle.

Champions received free training and regular support from a co-ordinator and it was also a great opportunity to meet new people and build skills.

Better Start Imagine was an enhanced book-gifting scheme, providing children with a book every month from birth to their fifth birthday. It was complemented with weekly story and rhyme time sessions and other activities held in local community venues.

Story and Rhyme Time Volunteers were asked to spare a few hours a week to help out at the story and rhyme time sessions, with training provided.

The Better Place project identifies and oversees improvements to local parks and outdoor spaces in the Better Start Bradford area with the aim of providing a healthier and happier environment for families with 0-3s. Volunteer Rangers have helped the Better Place Urban Ranger maintain play parks in the Better Start Bradford area. Tasks include:

🌲 Park inspections
🌲 Gardening, light landscaping and basic repairs
🌲 Other maintenance tasks such as sweeping paths, cleaning statues, equipment, touching up paintwork and removing graffiti
🌲 Helping out with community engagement events and office work

Our volunteer Community Board Members played a crucial role in supporting and shaping the work of the Better Start Bradford programme.

The role involved:

▶ Championing the views of expectant families and families with children aged 0-3 in the Better Start Bradford area
▶ Promoting Better Start Bradford locally and sharing our key messages
▶ Attending and contributing to meetings to ensure the effective governance of the programme
▶ Being part of the high-level decision making and monitoring of the programme, to ensure its successful delivery

Community Board Members were required to live or work in the Better Start Bradford area and have parenting experience and/or knowledge of early years services. They received regular support from the Better Start Bradford team and were provided with a range of opportunities to enhance their skills.

Better Start Bradford recruited Community Champions from 2018.

The role required local people to give a few hours a week to help the programme reach more families across the Better Start Bradford area.

It involved helping out at family events, talking to families about our range of projects, and sharing key messages, activities and resources with families with 0-3s. Regular training was given to all volunteers.

They became a fixture at all our large family events, and really threw themselves in!

The Happy Early Years (HEY!) Fund (formerly Parents in the Lead) gave parents/carers the opportunity to apply for funding of up to £2500 to develop their own initiatives for expectant parents and families with children aged 0-3 in the Better Start Bradford area.

The panel members were responsible for:

☀ Assessing applications and making funding decisions
☀ Attending and contributing to panel meetings
☀ Attending celebration events
☀ Promoting and representing Better Start Bradford locally
☀ Sharing their expertise and knowledge of the local community and area

Better Start Bradford has run hundreds of free events for families and the workforce since 2015, including street parties, family fun days, conference style events, and festive fun events in December. Events take a lot of planning and plenty of people-power to ensure they run smoothly. This volunteer role involved:

🌟 Assisting with setting up and packing up at event venues
🌟 Welcoming and directing event attendees
🌟 Helping keep facilities tidy during events
🌟 Encouraging people to take part in activities and to have fun

Volunteers had opportunities to be involved on a one-off or more regular basis. This role offered a great opportunity to gain events management experience, develop social skills and meet new people.