home-start volunteers

[atomicdust]

hello,

does anybody have direct experience with either volunteering with Home-Start or havinng receivd help from home-start?

I've just finished the prep course and I do not know exactly what to expect...

you can discuss your experiences in general terms but remember that they do need to be very general.

Each family is unique but their situations are usually quite common. iyswim.

so mum mandy left her husband 3 years ago due to his affair with the secretary. her 4 year old son has a rare condition called alstrom syndrome. They have just moved to the area and llive in a small council flat above some very noisy shops. I have been supporting her due to her neighbours being drug addicts living in a squat so lots of noise and needles and police raids. She is isolated and frightened.

From that post anyone that recognised which area you are in could identify that mother, where she lives and who her son is.

Such a post would be a definite breach of confidentiality even though you gave no names.

you could post "i am supporting an isolated single mum of a 4 year old. He has a rare illness and they have housing issues that we are helping support her through"

from that she could be anyone.

Do you see the difference

Definitely.

hsjfdk not my intent to be controversial here....but how can the co-ordinator provide group support if the volunteers do not share info?

or maybe....we're talking to the co-ordinator privately (phone mail ) prior to the meeting, and then the co-ordinato gives very very general advices during the session?

i can not see that working...

we all signed the confidentiality agreement!, so it does not get out of the ggroup (we all live in closer areas, so would make it easier to identify families...than over the net)

not controversial at all :)
imho individual supervision beats group support hands down

well, there's quite a lot of things, wages, process, procedures which are less thn ideal in my scheme...!

in which case put in a complaint - or question appropriately why things are being done in a certain way - if things don't seem right then there should be a complaints procedure to follow.

remember though - lots of info is based on here say - you can't possibly know what salary staff are on etc as this is confidential info - so any complaint has to be based on fact.

eeeerrr, yes? and who do I put my complaint too?

to the person I'm complaining about???

That will surely lead to an even more atomic reaction than on this site...plus it will not be virtual!

You could complain to the board of trustees.

ask for a copy of the complaints procedure - this should outline the exact process to be followed.

You should be reciving individual supervision as well as the group sessions.

the group sessions are there to aid all of you in reassurance that you are all exeriencing similar worries. to help you see that whilst you may begin to struggle in teh early days when things move on it gets better.

individual supervision is for you to discuss the specifics of your families.

whilst you should have regular contact via phone and email, and your co ordinator will have a good overview from your diary sheets, you should also be having 1:1 supervision.

As for complaining, each scheme will have a manager. they are responsible for the coordinators. if that is not possible then yes the board of trustee's or indeed Homestart uk.

uhmmmm.....

i think I'll play it soft tomorrow, plan is to go to the office, have a briefing about t family (could not be done over the phone for confidentiality reasons !!!!!!! )

maybe mention a thing or 2 on the way to the family....

and I need to check but i believe we have our AGM round the end of the month...

penelope, it's the scheme manager i was talking about, who gave us the training and was quite critised by other volunteers....
so I can not complain to her???

ahh ok.

well then try and stay positive then.
the manager is not normally the one supervising you. you will have your own coordinator who you will be dealign with about your cases.

You will not very often have cause to dealwith the scheme manager.

euh...what is the scheme manager supposed to do ?

if it's not confidential????

same as any manager does. lots of admin and meetings and overseeing and training and yet more meetings and fundraising and form filling and grant applications and.....im sure you get the idea.

Well well!

I had my first visit to my family yesterday.

I first went to the office, and the co-ordinator was reading bits from the referal form. I did ask whether I could simply have a copy of the form, but that was not "the standard Home-start procedure". Anyway, I spent one hour hearing about Mummy X circunstances: single mother, 3 kids (15 years old, 6 years old, 4 years old). A bit depressed, a bit lonely, finding it hard to cope with the pressure of rearing the children.

We both went there with the co-ordinator but as soon as we arrived at the family, my co-ordinator left saying "I'll live it to you then".

Always difficult to enter somebody's house and say "we're going to be friend"...but the first impression was good, I hope on both side.

and my "script" is to help her be more involved in her kids' education; play, enjoy together...

seems simple enough???

aha!

there's is nothing identifying my family; so I've not broken the confidentiality rules.

There does seem to be a sneery undertone to the description of your first visit.

Please, please do not be the public face of a scheme you appear to resent. It will not benefit anyone.

do you really think there's only one family supported by homestart whith a mother " A bit depressed, a bit lonely, finding it hard to cope with the pressure of rearing the children." ?????????

I'm discussing the value-added Homestart brings versus how much it costs to the taxpayer

what the real benefits are, compared to those advertised

you're very patronizing....

look at MN again, lots of people discussing their life.

I do not resent volunteering and I'm all in favour of intervention at the early stages / making the good choices the easy choice and so on...

i'm just more and more surprised that the "confidentiality" claue is an easy way not to discuss direct experience (either as a family or a volunteer).