Helping Children SHINE to School and Beyond – Working with Children of All Ages From Toddlers to Teens.
Home Start
SUPPORTING PARENTS WITH CHILDREN AGED 0-5 THROUGH OUR MANAGING ANXIETY AND WORKING THROUGH WORRIES AND FEARS SIX-WEEK COURSE.
This course was delivered to small groups of 5-10 parents via weekly 1-hour online Zoom sessions. We offered these to new groups every half term over 2 years.
Supporting Wellbeing
Home-Start is a Nationwide charity supporting families with children aged five and under. They assign trained volunteers to visit families in their homes to offer practical help and emotional support for a variety of challenges, such as parental mental health issues, financial difficulties, isolation, and disability. They also help parents in the community through weekly group meet-ups and training, building confidence, and developing the skills to nurture their children, giving them the best possible start in life.
They had seen an increase in parents struggling with anxiety, particularly since lockdown and wanted to gain a greater understanding to be able to offer the appropriate support.
Before the start of the course, all attendees were asked to complete a well-being questionnaire. This contained 15 questions about their anxiety, how it impacts their day-to-day life, ability to socialise, enjoy things, confidence, general happiness and contentment as well as overall wellbeing. They were asked to score each question from 1-5, with 1 indicating “none of the time” and five indicating “all of the time.
We also provided staff training and monthly drop-in meetings for staff and volunteers to ask any questions they had.
Measuring outcomes
After the course, all attendees are asked to complete the same well-being questionnaire again. There was a marked improvement across all questionnaires, ranging from 9 to 17. The main areas of improvement were reduced feelings of anxiety, worries and fear. Improved ability to manage anxiety, worries and fears. Increased confidence, feeling happier, more content and wanting to socialise and do things more.
Helping families
Staff reported feeling much more informed and equipped to support families and help reduce their overwhelming feelings.
The feedback from families was incredibly positive. They mentioned how much they enjoyed the program and the many ways they had benefited from the tools provided.
Here’s just some of the feedback received and how the families feel that this course has benefited them:
“Last night he slept in his bed until seven this morning! I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the tools you gave us. Thank you!”
“I took my son out on his bike on my own for the first time. I could never have done that before this course!”
“I feel calm and can say how I feel. The little things don’t bother me anymore. I’m far less angry now. I think behind my anger and frustration was actually anxiety and overwhelm. I would 1000% recommend this to others! This has been life-changing”
“I feel so much happier and have realised that self-care is an everyday thing for your mind, body and everything! It makes a huge difference!”