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
No special qualifications are necessary to become a Home-
Talking and listening can empower families to overcome their difficult situations. Volunteers are offered on-going training and support activities including specialist speakers and visits to family support services, as well as informal social gatherings.
What it takes to be a Home-Start Volunteer
- You must be a parent or have parenting experience.
- As a Home-Start volunteer you will support a family by visiting them at home for around two to three hours once a week.
- You should be able to commit at least one year of your time to Home-Start.
- You should have a non-judgmental attitude and understand about the pressures of bringing up a family.
- You will have to attend our free Volunteer Preparation Course with other new volunteers before meeting your first family.
- When visiting a family travel expenses are paid.
- You must understand that your support for families is completely confidential.
- You will have to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service check at enhanced level.
- You will meet regularly with, and be supported by, one of our co-ordinators during the time you are visiting families.
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
Anonymous B
As a volunteer you enter someone’s home, normally once per week for a couple of hours, and provide support in a number of different ways. This may...
Anonymous A
One of the main advantages of being a volunteer is that it enables you to give back to the community. The skills I learnt in my past work can still...
Ex-supported mum and current volunteer
I used to get a home start volunteer so I know what it is like to get help when you need it. When you think there is nobody else there to listen and...
Train to be a Home-Start Orkney volunteer
Our volunteers undergo a full training and assessment programme before being matched with a family or with one of our groups. Training is run throughout the year at our Kirkwall office. Volunteers will learn about health and wellbeing, child development, child protection, community projects and a number of key areas of our specific services. A programme of support and supervision, as well as ongoing developmental training, is in place throughout the year.
Volunteer testimonials
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
- administration work
- music, craft and storytelling
- healthy eating sessions
- fundraising
- 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 8 – 10 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.