Hiya
used to be the local organiser for HomoeStart
Firstly, the interview: trust me, however worried you are, the Organiser will be ten times more hopeful that you will be good! All it is is to check you know about home start, that you're friendly and as much as anything that the address you gave on your application is really yours,a nd you're not a weirdo trying to get access to children. They WANT you to succeed; they also want a wide variety of people to be volunteers, becasue people are matched as much on personal;ity as much as anything else.
The neediness of the famillies vary widely. You can specify if there are some thinsg you can't deal with in your famillies, but mainly the famillies are bang on the same as everyone else but have had a bit of bad luck: a death in the family, an ill child, PND.
You wouldn't be expected to act as a nanny or anything else, and your role is to make Mum / Dad feel 'normal' and sometimes help them build a social network of their own. nine times out of ten it is about drinking coffee and chatting! Other times it can involve going shopping with a Mum who lacks the confidence to get out on her own, maybe taking a family to a toddler group. What you do is negotiated between yourself and the family, within boundaries.
the training vourse is superb (I ahd to do it as well) and prepares you for most things, plus you get the back up of an Organiser who is usually permanently welded to their mobile, and regular support meetings etc.
I would say go along to the training and see how you like it.