Parent Champion

In 2013 Emma began visiting Whitmore Reans Children Centre, she had just become a new mother to her first child and experienced some very hard challenges at home, this is where she first comes into contact with various staff at the children’s centre who helped and guided her back onto the right track including accessing training and education in the centre.

Due to circumstances Emma had to move to Wednesfield with her young daughter and began to access the services at Children’s Village. During this time and after many challenges she attended and completed the Freedom Programme.

After the storm had passed and life began to settle down Emma began to gain confidence and decided to volunteer on the Freedom Programme as a helper to support other women who had experienced domestic abuse.

Emma thoroughly enjoyed this role so much she was asked to consider volunteering as a Parent Champion and she jumped at the chance. The Parent Champion project gave her the confidence to use new skills, knowledge and experiences to look at different avenues of work. On the 18th of March 2016, Emma was invited to give a speech at the Mayors Parlour on the Parent Champion Project and also on the work of children’s centres in Wolverhampton.

With all the support and guidance she has received from the Parent Champion project Emma decided to look for work and started working towards securing a job with children and families. Emma has a fire inside her to achieve, so after numerous discussions with the Parent Champion Co-ordinator Emma was supported into applying for one of the Strengthening Families Worker jobs. On the 15th of July 2016, she was successful at interview and was appointed into this full-time role.

Emma, “The harder the struggle the more glorious the triumph !”

With six children of her own, Caroline was keen to help other families get information on childcare and other local services as she was a service user of the local children centre.

Caroline was heavy pregnant whilst she volunteered at the Bingley Centre and soon found the confidence to volunteer as a Parent Champion. She found the Parent Champion training to be really helpful in gaining basic skills and information to approach parents. She also found it really useful for setting boundaries, as sometimes parents had very difficult personal problems and circumstances, but she soon learned that her role was not to try to immediately help them with everything, but refer them to the local Family Information Service as and when necessary. She chats to parents where they meet up for activities, for instance at Stay-and-Play at Bingley Children Centre and in particular in the Freedom Programme.

Caroline finds that most families know nothing about the two-year-old free childcare offer; so she explains what other general support they may be able to get and always has relevant leaflets to hand out. Caroline found that government information on the free places can sometimes be complicated - so when she was unsure of the exact criteria for an individual parent, she makes sure she refers people to the local Family Information Service or children centre.

Caroline was keen to gain employment as she had a thirst to learn and develop and be a good role model to her children, so during her pregnancy she decided to apply for a part-time Strengthening Worker Post which she successfully gained in July this year.

Caroline really enjoys her work as a Parent Champion, and even though she will have to stop for a few months to care for her newborn baby girl and prepare to start her new paid role, she still wants to carry on supporting other parents whilst being a Volunteer Parent Champion.

Caroline knows the skills and experience she has picked up as a Parent Champion will be really useful in her new job of supporting local communities to thrive. The tables have finally turned and she looks forward to helping families turn their life around, just like she has.