All of our families are very different and have different situations going on, and all of our volunteers are very different as well.
So it's about finding the right match for each family and each volunteer as well, which is why it's really great that there are so many different ways for volunteers to get involved in Safe Families.
There are three key volunteer roles in Safe Families: family friend, host home and resource friends.
Family Friends:
So family friends are quite literally what it says on the tin. It's about being a friend to the family. So that might be a listening ear to a dad who has just got so much on his plate at that moment in time. Or it might be taking a little 6 year old down to the park to just show them that they are so valuable and worth spending time with.
It's usually for a couple of hours on a fortnightly basis and it lasts between three and six months and it can be during the week or at the weekend, just whenever kind of works best for that family and for that volunteer as well.
The second role is the Host Homes role:
Our host homes are volunteers who will open up their homes overnight, usually kind of for a couple of nights, but sometimes it can be for a couple of weeks as well. This is not formal respite, but holding children for a short period so they don't need to go into the care system.
It might mean taking a child for a few days because her mum was rushed into hospital to have another baby and had noone else to look after her child. Or it might be a teenager who just needs a bit of space, a bit of breathing space in their lives away from home to just kind of decompress, whilst lots of professionals might be working with the family to get them to a stronger point together.
Lastly, Resource Friends:
They don't have a direct relationship with the family, but they help to resource what's kind of going on with the family and with the volunteers. They provide goods and services, it might be a bit of DIY or a bit of decluttering. It might be helping out with some gardening or it could be donating useful items like a cot or clothes or a bike, that kind of thing.