Mum of four and grandmother Sabrina had the perfect skills to become a Home-Start Bradford District volunteer without even realising how skilled she was simply by being a parent and grandparent!
Sabrina’s story
In my life so far, I have been a housewife, mum and a grandma. I didn’t finish high school as I got diagnosed with a brain tumour after four years of suffering. After recovery a year later, I got married, had four children and now I am a grandma and that has been my life.
One day I popped into the Thornbury Centre to find out about the toddler group based there and volunteer training for my daughter. When I started speaking to the lady at Home-Start Bradford District about the opportunity to volunteer and support families with young children, I thought this might be something that I would actually like. She told me that parenting was a skill, which I had never thought about as you just do it.
The lovely lady told me all about their Peer Support Volunteers and the seven-week preparation course, I thought it would be something different and that it would get me out of the house and I certainly had plenty of parenting experience.
I joined the course a week later and the coordinators Linda, Lisa and Trudi were so welcoming. The other ladies in the group were very nice too but their introductions all centred around how they were mums, but also teachers, working full-time or at university. When it was my turn all I could say was that ‘I’m a housewife, mum and grandma’ and I had nothing else to add.
I felt a bit out of place. But no! Home-Start Bradford District showed me that I am so much more than that and that I have a lot to offer families. Training on a Thursday was truly the highlight of my week – I loved it! Through the training I learned so much and it made me aware of all the support services that are out there that support mums and dads. I loved all of the fun interactive activities that we did at the sessions, that made you understand how others feel in certain situations.
What I loved most was that whatever view or answer I would give, there wasn’t a right or wrong answer as it was a point of view or perspective.
On the final day of the course, we received our certificates and had photos taken. I stood up and spoke about how proud of myself I was and that I’m not just a housewife, mum and grandma – I’m a Home-Start Bradford District volunteer. I made everyone cry and I cried too!
My volunteering journey then began. I started off by supporting one family each week and now I support two. I absolutely love supporting both families. We have long chats and you can see them visibly relaxing as they offload their worries around parenting and other things to me. I see their happy faces and the relief they feel and it’s such an achievement. One of the families that I support do have a language barrier, so I have been able to find them free English classes and a mother and child toddler group. I have also been able to play with the children and support mum while she fills in forms and makes phone calls as otherwise it would have been very overwhelming for her.
The Home-Start Bradford team have always been really supportive. Every meeting I attend I’m excited because of the warm welcome and there’s so much I learn each time.
I can honestly say that my Home-Start journey has been fantastic. I can’t thank them enough.
POV: Lisa Scott, Family and Volunteer Coordinator
Within our training course, we assist volunteers to reflect on the skills and experience they will bring to families through activities which help them to identify how much they do as parents/carers and all the skills that brings.
As parents/carers we go on a journey with our children which can be rewarding and challenging at times, reflecting on these experiences helps volunteers to acknowledge they will have the empathy needed for families who can go through similar challenges. This reflection is also enlightening to our volunteers.
I feel this is a skill we don’t utilise enough as humans in our day-to-day life and it helps us to see what a fantastic job we do. This realisation really surprises our volunteers and helps builds their confidence and self-esteem.
While training Sabrina, you could really see her grow in confidence throughout the course and we could really see her strengths as a volunteer. She has gone on to give some amazing support to families helping them to achieve positive support outcomes and is really making a difference in their lives.
