News

HOWARD'S WAY.... a weekly column from Michael Howard MP

10 August 2006

 

Last Wednesday I attended the 11th Annual General Meeting of Home-Start Shepway. It lacked the razzmatazz of last year’s 10th Anniversary of its founding but was the occasion for reporting further progress in the work done by one of Shepway’s most deserving and valuable charities.

The core objective of Home-Start is to help families with young children. The help is provided by volunteers, typically older mums with practical experience of all the trials and tribulations of parenthood.

During the year 2005/06 Home-Start’s 9 paid staff and 44 volunteers supported 248 families and 512 children.

A measure of what they achieve is available from the following statistics. After their involvement with Home-Start 84% of the families involved felt that they no longer has a problem with their emotional health and wellbeing, 85% no longer felt isolated and 84% no longer felt that lack of self-esteem was a problem.

In recent years Home-Start Shepway has expanded its activities including the starting of Drop-In Group at the Community Centre in Hawkinge and a new Drop-In Group in New Romney. Here, among other events, a five week Positive Parenting course was held in March.

These achievements are a tremendous credit to the staff and volunteers, inspirationally led by Scheme Manager, Lynda Burchett. But more volunteers are needed. If you think you can help (and full training is, of course, provided) phone 01303-244836.

The achievements of Home-Start seem to me to highlight a lesson of wider application. Not every problem or difficulty we face can only be solved by Government. Indeed, as we have seen in recent times, government intervention often makes things worse.

Charities and voluntary bodies have the potential to make an enormous contribution to many of the challenges our society faces, even some of the most intractable.

Home-Start Shepway is an excellent example of what can be done.