The following projects provide a parent-to-parent befriending service.

Enablers is a service for the families of children and young people with special needs. A part time co-ordinator is employed by the project to select, recruit, prepare and support those parents who want to offer their time as befrienders and to match those befrienders with parents wishing to access the service.

Enablers are volunteers who are also parents, carers and family members of children with special needs. They are trained and supported to:

1. Enable
2. Natter
3. Assure
4. Befriend
5. Listen
6. Empathise
7. Respect and Support

Other parents and carers who would like to contact, or talk to someone who may have been through similar experiences through having a child or young person with special needs.

For further details contact Kathy Sandifer, Tel: 01639 631387

Home-Start believes that children need a happy, secure childhood and that parents play the key role in giving their children a good start in life and helping them achieve their full potential.

Home-Start offers support, friendship and practical help to parents with young children in local communities throughout the UK and with British Forces in Germany and Cyprus.

We recruit and train volunteers who are usually parents themselves to visit families at home. They offer informal, friendly and confidential support.

For more information, visit the Home-Start website