Home Start Wandsworth
Home Start Wandsworth gives life-changing support to more than 100 disadvantaged local families every year. Bringing up children is hard, but when poor mental or physical health, disability, poverty, domestic abuse or isolation are added into the mix, families can struggle to cope. Practical and emotional support for such families in the crucial early years of childhood is vital to ensure that parents can give their children the best possible start in life. Oneto-one home visiting by trained volunteers is at the heart of what Home-Start does, but they also offer group activities and day trips in the holidays to reduce isolation and help families connect with each other. The bonds that families form with staff, volunteers and each other are transformative and lead to powerful and lasting change. St Lukes congregation donates toys at Christmas. The Revd Elisabeth Morse our previous vicar is a volunteer, and some members of the congregation are in training.
New Bridge
New Bridge tackles loneliness and isolation in prisons. It trains volunteers and organises a befriending service which involves volunteers writing letters and visiting their allocated prisoner. In prison prisoners often have little or no contact outside and hence often feel hopeless and friendless and feel pessimistic about their future and often very anxious about their release when a large number of them have lost relationships, housing and feel out of touch with developments whilst they have been in prison. New Bridge befriending help give prisoners hope and helps them feel valued and appreciated as human beings whatever they have done. A number of St Luke’s congregation are or have been volunteers. https://www.newbridgefoundation.org.uk/
Springfield Community Flat
Springfield Community Flat is embedded into a an extremely disadvantaged estate in Lambeth, this small charity is able to respond quickly and flexibly to the needs of the people it supports. It works for social justice at both macro and micro levels because of widening social and health inequalities. Apart from many ad hoc initiatives it runs:
Early Years Sessional Care and Responsive crèche, Breakfast Club and After School Clubs plus a Senior Citizens Lunch Club which are important areas where support is needed.
Several of its volunteers are people from the estate who were helped by the Community flat when they themselves were children. https://www.springfieldcommunityflat.com/
Siyakhanya (We shine together)
The work of Siyakhanya is based in the rural area of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa, where there is widespread drought and destitution. Siyakhanya has raised funds to enable partner ACAT to run three further community led Youth Basic Life Skills courses, which aim to address the vulnerability of young people in KwaZulu-Natal: the region faces a youth development crisis, marked by high unemployment (45.5%), poverty, and limited education & skills training. Rural areas offer few economic opportunities, leading to drug abuse, crime, human trafficking, and high HIV & AIDS rates.
Teenage pregnancies are alarmingly high. In a context where so many young people are discouraged and turn to sex, substance abuse and crime, the courses aim to provide information and guidance for wise decisions and to give hope. So, the emphasis is on HIV and sexual and reproductive health, careers guidance, and gender-based violence and abuse, as well as introducing the Bible and what it says about keys to life. This year Siyakhanya hopes to fund an Integrated Livelihoods Programme. This is an approach developed by ACAT from decades of experience in “grass roots” based community development.
Through a structure of trained area committee members and community volunteers, members of a community mobilise themselves into groups of 5 (G5s) to provide mutual support in new income-generating activities. Skills are transferred to the G5 by representative attendance on training courses, and from the committee members and volunteers, through workshops, home visits and local meetings, many on “sector-specific” topics such as fruit trees or livestock. ILPalso promotes Savings and Loans Groups which enable members to gain access to capital needed to start their businesses. Amanda Arthurton is donations secretary.