Perinatal Support Volunteer at Home-Start Croydon in London

Please note: this is an unpaid, volunteer role and all work will be located within the London borough of Croydon.

Do you want to make a difference to the lives of families in Croydon while sharing your skills and knowledge of parenthood? While volunteering with Home-Start you will help your community, meet new people, learn new skills, and have fun along the way.

Our Perinatal Support Volunteers provide one-to-one support to parents during pregnancy and up to nine months after the birth. These parents either have mental health issues or are at risk of developing them.

As a Perinatal Support Volunteer you will visit these families once a week (usually Monday - Friday, during working hours) for 2-3 hours, providing emotional support and practical help in their home or local community. The type of support you provide to parents may include:

• An empathetic and non-judgmental listening ear
• Support to prepare for parenthood
• Support to build confidence in parenting skills
• Support to develop a positive relationship with their infant
• Support to establish daily and weekly routines
• Support to take time for self-care
• Support to manage the things that are causing stress
• Support to access relevant services
• Support to access local green spaces
• Support to make connections with other parents

No special qualifications are necessary to become a Perinatal Support Volunteer, but Home-Start volunteers are usually either parents or grandparents themselves, or people with experience of young children and family life. We particularly welcome volunteers with lived experience of perinatal mental health challenges.

We also ask that our volunteers are:

• available for telephone supervision every 6 weeks
• able to commit to the role for at least 6 months
• prepared to complete our training course plus some additional training sessions throughout the year
• prepared to undergo an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring check (DBS) and provide 2 referees

Home-Start Croydon will pay authorised expenses for this role.

This role would suit people looking to enhance their skills in work with families and babies or perinatal mental health, as well as people who have some spare time to give and who would like to help parents who are struggling during the early days of parenthood.

Other volunteer roles at Home-Start Croydon include Family Support volunteers (working with families with children 0-4 years) and Group Volunteers (helping to run stay and play groups across the borough). For more information on these, please visit our website at www.croydon-homestart.co.uk

Job Type: Volunteer

Work Location: In person