A total of 8 Family Hubs are now operating across the city, offering 'one stop shops' where families and parents to be can get advice and guidance on a range of matters to support them through pregnancy and beyond, including birth registrations, infant feeding, stay and play sessions, mental health and wellbeing, health visiting support and parenting classes.
They support families with children to the age of 18, or 25 for young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and also provide a wide range of other services including help and advice on benefits and welfare rights, getting into work, relationship building and adult education.
However, the 8 physical buildings are only part of the city’s wider Family Hub network. Just as important are the ‘spokes’ in the form of voluntary, community and faith organisations that reach deep into local communities. The priority is now to build on existing relationships with these organisations and develop new ones, whether they work with people from one particular neighbourhood, from several neighbourhoods, or from right across the city.
The City of Wolverhampton Council is holding a workshop on Monday 26 February, 2024, and is inviting voluntary, community and faith organisations which want to link to, work with, and be part of, the Family Hub network in the city.
It will be an opportunity to find out more about how the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme is developing, help identify gaps in the type of provision on offer as well as opportunities to increase capacity for delivering the current offer, and further develop an environment in which the work of voluntary, community and faith organisations can be recognised, valued and supported to flourish.
Organisations will also be able to find out about free training that their volunteers and employees, as well as get more details about the Family Hubs small grant scheme. For more information, please visit eventbrite.
Councillor Chris Burden, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “Our Family Hubs are places where children, young people and their families can go when they need support. Professionals are on hand to provide a wide range of information and advice, and help people get support from different services in their local area.
"We want the help and support that we can offer to be as wide reaching as possible, and that's why we want to work with Wolverhampton's fantastic voluntary, community and faith organisations so that we can create an extensive network that covers the whole of Wolverhampton.
"If you want to get involved and be part of our Family Hub network, please join the workshop later this month."
Wolverhampton was one of 75 areas in England to have benefitted from a share of investment totalling £300 million from the Government’s Family Hubs and Start for Life programme to create 8 new Family Hubs across the city.
