SERVICE DETAILS
KEY FACTS
- Supporting parents in difficult situations to improve outcomes for their children and their family
- Family mentors work with families with children at risk of neglect or harm
Family Mentors is an effective programme, proven to reduce the number of children at risk of going into care. By preventing and de-escalating issues, our volunteers help struggling families to turn things around.
Volunteers, recruited from the local community, come from diverse backgrounds and receive extensive training. They act as trusted mentors, providing consistent emotional and practical support to families in their homes every week for six months. Volunteers tailor their support to the unique needs of each family, building on strengths and promoting resilience.
Support is overseen by our professional volunteer managers, who are embedded within the local authority’s children’s services team. This ensures that interventions are seamlessly coordinated and flexible, adding value to professionally delivered services. We provide the vital practical and emotional support to create brighter futures.
The projects recruit, train and match volunteers to mentor and support families with complex needs, such as alcohol or substance misuse, mental health and emotional well being and where children are at risk of significant harm through neglect. Volunteers make weekly visits to the families building up a strong relationship with the parent/s, listening to their problems and offering practical help.
Run in partnership with Council Social Service teams to target families most in need of support, our volunteers help keep families together and reduce the number of children on child protection plans and child in need plans. By improving parenting skills, reducing isolation and improving the quality of family life the reliance on social care services is also reduced.
They act as trusted mentors, providing consistent emotional and practical support to families in their homes every week for six months. Volunteers tailor their support to the unique needs of each family, building on strengths and promoting resilience.
VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES RUN BY THIS PROJECT...
Volunteers Supporting Families in Edinburgh offers practical and emotional support to families across the South East and South West localities of Edinburgh, empowering them to face a range of life challenges.
We recruit, train and match dedicated, local volunteers to help families every step of the way, spending 1-1 time together on a personalised set of goals chosen by the family, for the family.
Our volunteers are locally based people with an understanding of the challenges that families are facing. Aged 18+, each volunteer brings different life experiences and skills that they can use to help the family they are matched to, offering support on a weekly basis, usually for 6-9 months at a time that suits everyone. They build a strong relationship based on trust and mutual respect, acting as a friendly face who listens and cares about the family. All volunteers are interviewed, trained to the highest standards and undergo disclosure checks before being matched with a family.
The volunteers must have an interest in helping people – both parents and children. Full training is provided, so it’s not necessary to have previous experience working with families. Often, our volunteers find that their own life experience helps them offer support to families.
VOLUNTEER REQUIREMENTS
- Aged over 18 years old
- Able and willing to commit to visiting the family once every week, for a minimum of 6 months
- Willing to provide references and complete a PVG (criminal record) check, paid for by Volunteering Matters
- Be dedicated and patient, not be disappointed if there are no big changes straight away.
- Be caring and friendly, and most importantly, be a good listener
- Have an interest in helping people, both parents and children
WHAT WE PROVIDE
As well as the sense of achievement that comes through supporting a family, our volunteers will have the opportunity to learn and develop new skills, attend social events with other volunteers and enhance their employability. Certificates are provided upon completion of induction training and at the end of the commitment, with project staff happy to provide references for future studies or employment.
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR SERVICE OR IF YOU’D LIKE TO VOLUNTEER, CALL 07377 692 427 or email us at arlaine.barbour@volunteeringmatters.org.uk.
