family

Home-Start Central Lancashire Receives Realise Boost

Realise's Sarah-Jayne Kidd (second left) and Annie Sawyer with (from left) Home-Start Central Lancashire's Kerry Molineux (Family Support Manager), Donna Hussain (Chief Executive Officer), Jorden Thompson (Family Support Coordinator), Jennifer Coupe (Office Manager) and Joanna Steed (Family Support Coordinator).

A charity which provides holistic support to struggling families across Lancashire has received a grant of £1,250 from one of the UK’s leading training providers.

Home-Start Central Lancashire offers support and guidance to families battling a range of challenges, including poverty, child behavioural pressures and parents battling addiction.

Home-Start Central Lancashire, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a charity this year, supported 1,173 families across West Lancashire, Chorley, South Ribble and Greater Preston in 2023-24.

Training provider Realise, which runs a range of courses in Lancashire including Early Years Skills Bootcamps to try and encourage new recruits into nurseries in the county, has donated £1,250 to Home-Start Central Lancashire following a vote from its learners.

Donna Hussain, CEO of Home-Start Central Lancashire, said:
“Our commitment is to provide the best possible support and guidance to families who are – for whatever reason – facing periods of difficulty.

“Amongst the services we offer are home visits, particularly for new parents who are adapting to life with a new family, while we also work in partnership with Chorley Council around the distribution of the Household Support Fund for families we can help with short-term living costs such as food and essential items.

“We accept both referrals and self-referrals and we have seen demand for our services rise dramatically since Covid.

“The money we have received from Realise is fantastic. It will help us continue to offer our services to families in need of support and we are extremely grateful for their backing, particularly heading into a busy period with Christmas around the corner.”

Realise supports more than 16,500 learners across England every year with apprenticeships and other training programmes.

Gregg Scott, CEO of Realise, said:
“We are delighted to be supporting Home-Start Central Lancashire through our Skills Bootcamps project in Lancashire.

“We had a vote for our learners in the area over which charity they wanted us to support and Home-Star Lancashire came out on top.

“Our ethos as a training provider is to create opportunities for people to enhance their employment credentials and the work Home-Start Lancashire really resonates with us as an organisation and many of the people we are supporting.”