The first years of any child’s life can shape their future. Getting the right start can prevent school attendance problems, substance abuse, unemployment, illness and even early death.
Home-Start
Home-Start recruits and provides accredited training for local volunteers to help families with young children who are experiencing difficulties. Volunteers and staff support families on weekly basis as they learn to cope, improve their confidence and build better lives for their children.
Volunteers are often parents themselves and are supported by the staff team to increase their employability, skills and confidence. Home-Start provides a stepping stone for further education/training and employment for the volunteers and families.
Home-Start also run structured family groups and activities to promote play and positive parenting. They offer activities for parents and children to develop skills and provide opportunities to take part in wider community activities.
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Each family has a comprehensive assessment to identify needs and strengths and an individual family support plan is made.
Wrexham Council provide funding to help support some of the services run by Home-Start. These include informal parent support groups, 1:1 intensive parenting support and parenting programs.
These services aim to help reduce the number of children affected by ACEs in their childhood.
What are ACEs?
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are stressful events occurring in childhood which can include:
- domestic violence
- parental abandonment through separation or divorce
- a parent with a mental health condition
- being the victim of abuse (sexual, physical, and/or emotional)
- being the victim of neglect (physical and emotional)
- a member of the household being in prison
- growing up in a household where there are adults experiencing alcohol or drug problems
Evidence shows children who experience stressful and poor quality childhoods are more likely to develop health-harming and anti-social behaviours, more likely to perform poorly in school, more likely to be involved in crime and ultimately less likely to be a productive member of society.
More information about Home-Start can be found here.
Further information about ACEs and their effects on children can be found here.
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