HOME-START Ealing are celebrating their 25 year anniversary.

They are a local charity that supports vulnerable families across the Borough of Ealing with children under the age of five.

They offer practical and emotional support to said families by matching them with a volunteer who visits them weekly to support them with pre-identified concerns.

Scheme Manager, Sue Porter told Nub News: "We want to provide parents with that bit of extra support to get through whatever challenges they're struggling with, be it a lack of English, knowledge of local services or with how to make time for themselves juggling a busy life with kids."

Home-Start Ealing has a team of around 30 volunteers that are overseen by two co-ordinators who will be the ones who have the initial chat with the family that has contacted them for support.

Volunteers undergo a rigorous training course that lasts around eight sessions consisting of five hours each.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic however, the training courses have been put on hold and no new volunteers have been taken on board.

"We are trying to set up an online way of doing our training courses, hopefully it'll be set up by February so that we can get the new volunteers into the fold by next Spring," added Porter.

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Home-Start Ealing used to get a fair bit of funding by Ealing Council, however in recent years this has decreased due to budget cuts, so the charity now relies entirely on its own fundraising from grants and local events.

This year they're doing a Christmas Hamper, where people can donate items to be included in the hampers that will be given out to the Home-Start families.

Home-Start Ealing are also one of the two charities partnered up with John Lewis and Waitrose this Christmas, in order to 'Give A Little Love', highlighting how small acts of kindness can make the biggest difference.