Home-Start Banbury, Bicester
& Chipping Norton
There for parents when they need us most... Because childhood can't wait
Volunteering for Us
Volunteer with families in Banbury, Bicester and Chipping Norton
Get involved with HSBBCN
Parenting young children is a joy, but comes with its challenges. Everyone can benefit from a little help, friendship and support in these early years. At Home-Start Banbury, Bicester & Chipping Norton, we believe every parent and child deserves to enjoy these earliest years.
The best people to support parents with this are others who have had parenting experience. Our home-visiting service is delivered by trained and supervised volunteers, who provide tailored emotional and practical support to families with at least one child under the age of 5 years.
Would you like to make a difference to the lives of local families living in your community?
We are always looking to recruit new home-visiting volunteers to support families in Banbury, Bicester or Chipping Norton.
Our team of trained volunteers make sure that a child’s early years count. By volunteering just a few hours each week, you can transform the lives of young children and their parents in your community. Our volunteers offer support, friendship and practical help to families to help give their children the best start in life. You work with each family to help them in the way they need most. This may be with practical tasks such as escaping from the house, getting to appointments or helping get organised; offering suggestions and signposting; or supporting parents through emotional issues.
No formal qualifications are required but you will need to be parent or have parenting experience.
Home-visiting is a weekly commitment (we understand holidays and other unexpected occasions will come up) for 2-3 hours a week.
We pay out-of-pocket expenses (e.g. mileage, bus tickets, parking).
Volunteer Preparation Course
Before being matched to a family, all volunteers must attend a preparation course. This runs over 8 weeks (one day a week during school hours). This is an opportunity to get to know our two staff Organisers as well as meeting other new volunteers. It is a supportive, informal environment and there is no expectation you will come in knowing everything!
This course will build your confidence in delivering home-visiting support, and you’ll be further supported throughout your time with us with ongoing supervision and training.
Topics discussed on the preparation course include:
- The Role of the Home-Start Volunteer
- Confidentiality and Boundaries
- Safeguarding
- Mental Health
- Domestic Abuse
- Movement Play
Volunteers help by…
- Offering emotional support to parents
- Playing with children, reading books, having fun together
- Providing practical help – with budgeting, shopping, cooking and getting to appointments
- Encouraging parents to get out and about – to family groups and other community groups
- Signposting families to other external specialist services
Home-Start supports families until they have the confidence that they can manage family life without our support. Home-Start Volunteers are valued by families and make an incredible difference to their lives.
Would you like to join us?
If you are interested we would love to hear from you! Please contact us for more information. Alternatively, please complete our volunteer application form and return it to info@home-startbanbury.org.uk and one of our Organisers will be in touch.
Would like to help, but not enough time?
If you don’t feel you can commit to several hours every week, we are always looking for other volunteers to help with supporting our drop-in sessions maybe once a month or helping our fundraising efforts. We would still like to hear from you, so please contact us for more information.
Volunteering News
The section below shows our latest news on Volunteering at Home-Start Banbury, Bicester and Chipping Norton. Click on the image (if present), title or the ‘Read more’ link for more information.
A warm welcome to our new volunteers!
CONGRATULATIONS to our newly trained home-visiting volunteers! 7 wonderful new volunteers completed their volunteer preparation course today and were presented their certificates by our Chair of Trustees, Nick Case, followed by a celebration lunch with some of our...
HSBBCN ‘Excellent’ at Family Support
We recently achieved an 'Excellent' outcome for our Family Support self-assessments from the Home-Start UK Quality Team. This is tremendous news, and we wear this quality badge with pride. This achievement is a true testament to the dedication of our exceptional...
8 new volunteers have completed the preparation course
We're celebrating another 8 new volunteers completing the volunteer preparation course this week. Our volunteers have really enjoyed the course and getting to know each other and are excited about being paired with a family. Throughout the course our volunteers have...
Next: Volunteer Story
