As we look back over the past year, everyone at Home-Start Newark extends a huge, heartfelt thank you to the Severn Trent Community Fund for their generous grant of £20,000. With the funding period having now concluded at the end of June, we want to celebrate the remarkable impact this grant achieved for vulnerable families across our community.

At Home-Start, we believe that the family unit is essential to a child’s wellbeing. However, parenting can be incredibly challenging, particularly for those facing obstacles like poverty, social isolation, and mental health issues. Thanks to Severn Trent's financial backing, we were able to stand directly alongside parents with young children when they needed us most.

The Lasting Impact of the Grant

This £20,000 grant enabled us to:

• Deliver Tailored Support: Oversee vital casework, ensuring vulnerable families were carefully matched with trained, compassionate parent volunteers.
• Tackle Key Challenges: Provide consistent home-visiting care addressing critical local needs, including parental mental health (affecting 63% of our families) and severe social isolation (affecting 60%).
• Recruit and Train Volunteers: Lead proactive recruitment drives and deliver Volunteer Preparation Courses, maintaining a strong volunteer network in Newark and Sherwood, including isolated communities like Ollerton, Boughton, and Bilsthorpe.
• Evaluate and Improve: Track family outcomes to ensure our support successfully fostered stronger family bonds, improved mental wellbeing, and enhanced child development.

A Legacy of Local Good

Severn Trent’s support did so much more than fund a staff role, it created a lasting ripple effect across our community, empowering parents to build long-term confidence and resilience to give their young children the best possible start in life.

Although this grant period has come to an end, the positive changes built within these families will last for years to come. Thank you, Severn Trent, for believing in our mission and making a vital difference to parents and children in Newark and Sherwood!