Community Parents Service

The Community Parents service, managed by Claire Foy, provides informal but structured befriending support to vulnerable parents across Halton.

Our volunteers begin their journey with us by completing our introductory training programme which includes:

child protection, health and safety, and emotional health and wellbeing to name a few.

Following training, our volunteers – all local parents themselves – make home visits, encouraging families to share concerns and then identify potential solutions, which may be through emotional support, practical help or signposting to other appropriate agencies and information.

Our Community Parents also support parents to access services which they would not normally feel confident to do so alone, i.e. Children’s Centre groups.

We see our volunteers develop immensely throughout their time with us, especially in an increase in their confidence, self esteem, knowledge and skills.  Many go on to further education and/or employment, including Social Work degrees, paid Family Support Worker roles and Child Care qualifications.

In any one year, 60 Community Parent volunteers have been offering support to vulnerable families and their children.