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Hope
for the Children
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The Hope for the Children Foundation is a fully tax deductible charity. ARBN 091 472 712. |
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| THE NEED |
Many families today are isolated in their community and live far from relatives and friends, so many are unsupported and find it hard to cope when problems arise, especially when they have a new baby. Through their experience and training, the volunteers can help parents to cope better and gain greater joy from the early years of the new baby's life, enriching the family experience for all its members |
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| Volunteers also help families to access any other services they may require, such as professional medical services, through referral by the co-ordinator or by giving advice on social community services which may be helpful to a family. | |||||
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| FAMILY SUPPORT |
The main role of volunteers in visiting families is to provide friendship, support, information about parenting skills, also help with access to child care, education, health and social services. The aim of the volunteers is to support families with new babies, to limit the amount of stress they often suffer, by giving them commonsense advice on the everyday issues and problems arising when new babies come into the family. The volunteers draw from their own experiences and coping skills, also what they learn from the training course, to help parents into their new role and to manage any potential problems. |
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| THE SERVICE |
The Community Family Network service is delivered by trained volunteers who have enjoyed bringing up their own children and wish to help other parents find the same joy from this experience. The volunteers are drawn from the local community, and will visit the homes of families who are referred to the service through the maternity hospital, GP or other source. The visits are on a weekly basis, starting after the volunteer has undergone a training course and had personal guidance from the service co-ordinator. The Community Family Networks are also part of a broader research project with three similar services, proving the effectiveness of such programs in keeping families healthy, preventing the damaging consequences to individuals - and great cost to society! - incurred when families become stressed past their endurance and parents can no longer cope. Early results from the evaluation are very positive. |
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HOW YOU CAN HELP? |
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