High Sheriff of West Sussex visits Home-Start

High Sheriff of West Sussex visits Home-Start

by | Oct 22, 2025 | Events, Family Group, Front Page, News

High Sheriff of West Sussex, Dr Tim Fooks, visited Home-Start Chichester & District families at local group

Home-Start Chichester & District were delighted to welcome Dr Tim Fooks to their Chichester family group session where he took the time to chat with parents and children.

Families took the opportunity to describe how important they found the practical and emotional support they received from the group, some travelling over an hour by public transport to access the support.  Dr Fooks enjoyed the outside play, engaging with the children and hearing about the challenges some families face.

Dr Fooks remarked, “the relationships pre-school children form within their own families and with others create the building blocks for almost all their future relationships.  With the wise and expert support of Home-Start Chichester & District, the children who attend this Family Group, are already playing and interacting with others in a wonderfully positive way while their parents are able to ‘re-charge their batteries’.  For these parents, Home-Start provides them with a community within which they know that they matter, where they feel connected and where they will be missed if they are not there.  As such, I can totally understand why these families are so grateful to be able to attend the group at Home-Start Chichester & District – it is a treasure trove of care”.

A young woman holds a smiling baby
A smile woman does face painting
Four smiling women
people on wheeled riders
September 2026 – Newsletter

September 2026 – Newsletter

by | Sep 9, 2025 | Events, News, Uncategorized

Summer of Fun!

We’ve had an incredibly busy summer with our families, providing a range of opportunities for them to experience new things, a chance to learn and to build friendships and confidence.

Thanks to the support of the team at Chichester Harbour Conservancy, our families enjoyed a Solar Boat Trip, spotting the range of incredible wildlife and checking them off on their quiz sheet. For some children it was the first time they’d seen a real boat let alone go on one!

We were also able to take our families on two trips to the Harbour Tot’s educational workshop, they were able to experience nature close up and learn about the natural world around them. Along with our traditional family picnics which we held in Chichester and Midhurst, we were also welcomed by Chichester Forest School for a morning of Wild Play. Getting up close with nature, building things out of twigs, running, jumping and climbing!

What’s new?

Our next Volunteer Preparation course started in the first week of September where we have welcomed 8 new volunteers who will undertake 7 weeks of training. The volunteers are trained by our Manager, Lois Rowlands, with thought provoking, interactive and enjoyable sessions: one volunteer described it as ‘life-changing’. The training encourages the volunteers to think deeply about other people’s situations and the helping relationship they’re about to embark upon. Our dedicated volunteers are the lifeblood of Home-Start Chichester & District, and we are so thankful to them.

We were delighted to reinstate our Baby Group in Chichester, a dedicated family session for first time parents and those with a child under 1 years old. We know how stressful those early months can be and the specific needs of new babies, the group provides a chance for building confidence and friendships as well as focused chat around baby development.

With autumn on the horizon we are preparing for our ‘Annual Review—Together with Families’ event on 9th October where we’ll join with partners, funders, local authorities and our volunteers to look back at our work over the previous year and make plans for the future or Home-Start Chichester & District. If you haven’t yet received your invite but would like to attend then please get in touch, we welcome the chance to share our story with as many people as possible; email sue@home-startchichester.org.uk for full details.

We look forward to sharing our Annual Review report and our next newsletter with you later in the year. In the meantime, thank you to all our supporters, we couldn’t help vulnerable families in Chichester District to thrive without you.

September 2026 – Newsletter

Trip to Beaky’s Forest!

by | May 23, 2025 | Events, Family Group, Front Page

Home-Start families enjoyed a wonderful trip to Dell Quay to explore Beaky’s forest on the 15th of May 2025.

The event was kindly funded by the Chichester Harbour Conservancy Education Centre. This connection is well established, and we have been fortunate enough to be supported by them for the last four years.

The families enjoyed a lovely, guided walk along the sea wall which led to a ‘secret’ area which is just perfect for exploring. The children had fun searching for painted rocks and pond-dipping, finished off with some singing.

Jane and Mary from the Harbour Conservancy are so knowledgeable about the local area and were able to talk with parents and children and answer any questions they had.

Along with Home-Start Chichester & District staff, we were joined by 4 of our amazing volunteers who supported the families throughout and some provided much needed transport for families.

A great day was had by all, and we hope to return in the Autumn!
Home-Start Christmas 2024

Home-Start Christmas 2024

by | Jan 7, 2025 | Events, Family Support, News

We had a wonderful Christmas here at Home-Start Chichester, thanks to the support of four incredible local organisations; Openreach, Dunelm, Waitrose & Partners and V2 Radio.

Their support, generosity and kindness meant that we were able to give all of the children we support a really special Christmas gift, and hold two fabulous Christmas family parties. 

Jason and his team at Openreach collected donations from colleagues to buy an incredible range of thoughtful presents that staff and volunteers wrapped for each of the children.

The Dunelm store in Chichester ran a ‘Giving Tree’ so that customers could donate the wishes of the children on the tree. So many lovely gifts were bought by the customers of Dunelm – managers James and Vicky were please to present all the gifts which filled up two trolleys!

Waitrose & Partners in Chichester generously donated towards the costs of the party food at our Christmas parties, which meant that all of the children and their parents had something tasty to eat. Waitrose also donated a raffle prize for every family at the parties.

 

The team at V2 Radio collected an amazing array of gifts for children, which meant that all of the children attending the family Christmas parties were given something specially chosen for them

Visit to Rogate Pumpkin Patch

by | Nov 21, 2024 | Events, Family Group, Family Support, Front Page

We were delighted to take our families from the North of Chichester District to Rogate Pumpkin Patch in October for a fun-filled day out.

The transport was kindly funded by Community Transport Sussex. Special thanks to Rogate Pumpkin Patch for offering free entry and a pumpkin to take home for every family.

The families were collected from Midhurst and taken by minibus to the Pumpkin Patch. Many of the families that getting to the Rogate Pumpkin Patch more difficult. The families had a wonderful time exploring all of the activities, enjoying the outdoors and making lasting memories for the children. We all sat together for a lovely snack time afterwards.

The impact of the trip was huge, with feedback from the parents suggesting that, for some, this would not have been possible without the support and generosity of our funders.

What parents said about the trip:

‘I was hoping that my little girl would fall asleep on the way home, but she was still so excited after the trip!’

‘Without Home-Start’s support, I would have been too anxious to do this alone.’

‘We feel confident to try this again with our older daughter now.’

Welcome to Five New Volunteers!

Welcome to Five New Volunteers!

by | Jun 14, 2024 | Events, Front Page, Volunteering

We are really pleased to welcome five new fabulous volunteers to our incredible volunteer team.

The volunteers have completed a 7-week preparation course, which aimed to introduce them to Home-Start and the way in which we work with families to support them in their parenting. The volunteers will now be matched with family or support at one of our five Family Groups.

We invited all our existing volunteers to join us for a celebration lunch at Dell Quay Sailing Club..The weather was lovely (which makes a change for this June) and so we were able to eat outside. After lunch, we completed our annual safeguarding update. We gave all our volunteers – old and new – a geranium as a token of our thanks.

We are so grateful for the support, dedication, kindness and time that our volunteers give to Home-Start. It’s a unique volunteering opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of the families which they support.

Thank you!

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