Volunteer for Home-Start
By volunteering just a few hours each week you can transform the lives of young children and their parents in your community.
Be a Home-Start volunteer
Do you have experience of looking after children 24/7 (as a mum, dad, grandparent, carer or nanny) or have you been a teacher?
Can you empathise with families with young children?
Are you looking for an ongoing volunteer role?
Can you spare 2 hours a week and commit to an online training course plus 2 half days of in-person training?
If so, we’d love to hear from you.
ITV’s 1 Million Minutes –
Become a Home-Start Volunteer
We’re proud to be part of ITV’s 1 Million Minutes campaign 2025, a national initiative encouraging people to donate their time to reduce loneliness and isolation across the UK.
Throughout December, Home-Start Arun, Worthing & Adur will be featured, helping us reach millions of viewers and inspiring more people to make a difference in their local community.
Volunteers Make a Difference
Volunteers are at the heart of everything we do. By giving your time, you can support parents facing isolation, poor mental health, disability, financial pressures, or other life challenges. Even one hour a week can be life-changing.
Introducing: The Home-Start Hour 🌟
This year, we’re launching a brand-new, flexible volunteer role – The Home-Start Hour.
The best part? It’s not a big commitment. Just one hour a week, tailored to your skills, interests, and availability.
You could use your Home-Start Hour to:
- Drop leaflets or help with local awareness campaigns
- Support fundraising activities
- Help with social media or office admin
- Go on a buggy walk with a parent and child
- Have a coffee with a parent to listen, support, and understand their needs
- Offer emotional support over a phone call
Whether you prefer hands-on practical support, helping behind the scenes, or offering a listening ear, your hour can make a real difference in a way that suits your lifestyle.
Why Volunteer With Home-Start?
By joining us, you will:
- Support families who need someone by their side
- Help reduce loneliness and isolation locally
- Make a real difference to children’s early years
- Gain training, support, and experience
- Be part of a warm, compassionate community
- Even one hour a week can change a family’s story.
Get Involved
To find out more or register your interest, contact us or fill out the volunteer application form. (opens in a new window)
Together, we can make sure no parent feels alone and every child has the best possible start in life.
Home-Start Home-Visiting Volunteer
Support families in their home and work alongside families to give compassionate and non-judgemental support, tailored to their needs. Some activities you could do with a family are reading with children, having a cuppa and chatting with a parent, sharing new play ideas and providing practical support.
Home-Start Group Volunteer
Spend an hour a week supporting a local family group. Groups help to reduce isolation for parents and provide a space for children to play, move and interact with others. It’s a fantastic opportunity for you to meet new friends, learn new skills, have fun and make a difference supporting families in your community.
Digital Volunteer
Helping your local Home-Start with digital support. This could be providing support over the phone or online to a family, helping your Home-Start with admin and social media. If you have a passion for championing family voices or want to learn new digital skills this role is for you!
Home-Start Hour
Share your skills with your local Home-Start to make a difference in your community. Are you a keen gardener who could help out at a community garden? Do you have social media skills to help with content creation? Or are you creative and could host a family workshop?
What a family support volunteer does
Our families face a variety of challenges including post-natal depression, isolation, physical and mental health issues, disability, bereavement, job losses, financial worries or relationship difficulties – all of which can have a huge impact on the wellbeing of their children.
With your knowledge and experience as a mum, dad, grandparent, carer or nanny, you could be the vital support a family needs to get them through a difficult time and make a big difference to their lives.
Our volunteers usually visit a parent in their home once a week for a couple of hours. How they help is down to the needs of the family. Some might need an empathetic ear, a shoulder to cry on, someone to have a laugh with. Others may need help keeping appointments or accessing local services and ‘connecting’ with their local community. Our volunteers can provide an extra pair of hands to help people cope with everyday parenting situations, or practical help with activities like playing or reading stories. Home-Start’s approach is very personal and friendly, and this often reassures parents that what they’re going through is not unusual, that they are not alone.
Our Services include:
Buggy Walks – getting outside to take advantage of our wonderful beach and beautiful countryside (for exercise and fresh air)
Telephone Support – for families for whom meeting up isn’t an option (with tailored accessible goals – focussed support)
Video Support – via Zoom or Microsoft Teams for those families able to connect this way
Webchat – supported by our staff
Children’s activities, Food Bank Parcels and deliveries of ‘Packs of Joy’ with lots of items to help families keep children (and parents) entertained during lockdowns
Home-Visiting – visit a family in their own home for 1-2 hours each week
Family Groups – Join other parents, supported by our team, to enjoy activities with their children
Counselling – a referral only service to support those for whom mental health issues affect their ability to parent in the way they would like.
Do you have what it takes to be a Home-Start volunteer? Are you keen to help parents and children in your community? Please download an application form to start your journey transforming lives in your area.
Volunteer stories
Volunteering can be the key to becoming and remaining happy, healthy, confident and connected. For many of our volunteers it opens up new opportunities and sets them on the path to further training and work.
Roger’s Story
Volunteering – a path to a new career “I’m very grateful for my time at Home–Start thus far and how that has informed the new role I have just been...
Sam’s STORY*
From supported to supporter, Sam’s early story is one of despair and loneliness. Strength and growing are now her key words. “Finding out you didn’t...
Lauren’s STORY*
For Lauren, volunteering with Home-Start has opened up learning and career opportunities. “I really had lost my way when I joined the Home-Start...
Training to be a Home-Start Arun, Worthing & Adur volunteer
Skills
The only real ‘qualification’ you need to become a Home-Start volunteer is experience of bringing up children – as a mum, dad, grandparent, carer, nanny or teacher.
You will be friendly and understanding and have a practical approach to problems.
You don’t judge people; you accept them for what they are and then strive to support them as they try to give their children the best possible start in life.
Training
You will receive full training on one of our preparation courses, and have an enhanced DBS check, before being carefully matched with families where your own set of experiences and skills can help the most.
Our training is designed by family practitioners and experts in the industry and covers essential information including:
- The role of a Home-Start volunteer
- Values, attitudes and inclusivity
- Confidentiality
- Safeguarding
- Listening and communication
- Meeting the needs of families and children
Benefits
Our volunteers tell us that the best thing about volunteering for Home-Start is the satisfaction they get from helping a family support their children to thrive.
Volunteers also really value the high-quality training we offer – not only when they first join us but throughout their time as a Home-Start volunteer.
We are a very friendly bunch! There are lots of opportunities to join in fun social and fundraising activities and to make new friends.
Practical Considerations
It is generally helpful to have access to a car or bike to get to families’ homes. But don’t worry if you don’t have your own transport, we would still like to hear from you as for many families find telephone support so helpful.
Volunteer testimonials
I have supported 6 Home-Start families and each one has had different needs. They have told me how much having me around has meant, but I have learnt so much from them and feel so grateful that they have trusted me.
I used to get a home start volunteer so I know what it is like to get help when you need it. As a volunteer I like that I can help other families because I’ve been there.
It’s great to feel that you have helped a family through difficult times.
Other ways to volunteer for Home-Start
Share your time and skills to help our work
If being a Home Visiting Volunteer isn’t for you, you may be able to help us in other ways. Many people have volunteered their time and skills for:
- supporting family groups & outings
- fundraising, ie at events, leaflet and collecting tin distribution
- administration work
- music, craft and storytelling
- healthy eating sessions
- digital promotion
- and so much more
You may also be able to help in ways we haven’t thought about yet.
So if you want to get involved, get in touch and let us know what you have in mind.
Join us as a Trustee to help shape the future of our work with families
Our Trustees provide essential leadership, guidance and governance from their own professional or lived experiences. They also play an important role as ambassadors for our work and can offer particular skills to the organisation (like human resources, information management or finance, for example). We welcome interest from those who can be passionate about our work with parents, children, families and the community.
Importantly, the Board of Trustees should reflect the communities in which we work. We already benefit from a variety of skills, experiences and backgrounds and now need to add to that dynamic and creative team.
The minimum commitment as a Trustee is for 6 – 8 hours each month, to attend meetings or to engage in Board discussions via email and online forums. Further opportunities to get involved are possible too, so we can be flexible to suit individual motivations to volunteer.
Become a Home-Start Volunteer Today
Home-Start’s team of trained volunteers make sure a child’s early years count. By volunteering just a few hours each week you can transform the lives of young children and their parents in your community.