Family First is a Christian charity which support families in Ipswich. Our volunteers visit parents and carers to listen, support and encourage them to reach their agreed goals. We work with all families regardless of age, race, religion or cultural background.
Our aim is for parents and carers to increase their confidence, social support networks and mental wellbeing.
Our vision is to see families that are resilient, thriving, and happy.
We have continued to see growing demand for our service, both for family mentoring and parenting courses. Changes in intervention thresholds within social care services has resulted in more families being referred or directed to our service for support. At Family First we believe stable families make strong, resilient, cohesive communities, therefore the focus of our work remains to mentor families to be self-sufficient and to move from lives of chaos to a future filled with hope.
The best people to demonstrate the impact of what we do is the parents themselves, here are some of their comments.
“Initially I was a little bit skeptical about how these ladies could help me, I was worn down and struggling to cope…I thought I needed help with housework and caring for my children but I didn’t need help with those things. I needed to find myself, my inner strength, to be helped to teach myself to cope, to make time for myself and above all the volunteer and family coordinator have been there to listen to my fears, frustrations and heartaches”.
“I have found an inner peace, acceptance if you like of the challenging life I have been given. I very much look forward to my hour with my volunteer and feel blessed that they have cared enough to help me. I am very thankful that they are just there guiding me out of my darkness.”
"My Family First volunteer filled me with hope and once I found out it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was I came on leaps and bounds. Not only were they there to chat to and offer advice. But they were a listening ear while I went through family counselling. And offered other ways I could deal with my son behaviour. I would recommend them to anyone that needs a little extra help as in 6 months my life changed around. I have more confidence to take my son places and go places alone."
Please help us continue this vital work supporting families in Ipswich. Thank you.