Around 200 families from some of Birmingham’s most deprived areas will receive help and support thanks to a grant to the Home-Start Birmingham Tameside charity.

The £15,000 grant will allow the charity to support local parents and children who are experiencing a range of difficulties, including poverty, poor mental health, isolation and domestic abuse.

Home-Start is one of Birmingham’s leading family support charities. By recruiting and training local volunteers, (who are often parents themselves or have parenting experience), they offer emotional and practical support to families in their own homes, through a network of local volunteers.

There are many reasons why local families turn to Home-Start for support, including poverty, poor mental health, domestic abuse and isolation. And the aftermath of the Pandemic, and the Cost-of-Living crisis, has seen a significant rise in families turning to Home-Start.

Home-Start’s work will be concentrated in some of the most deprived parts of the city including Hodge Hill, which is in the top 10 per cent of the national Indices of Multiple Deprivation. A full 75 per cent of the people they help are lone-parent families with few if any family members living nearby.