Michelle’s story
Michelle started volunteering with Home-Start Suffolk in 2020 and continues to do so now. She has offered both telephone and home-visiting support to families in the Waveney area and has been awarded a High Sheriff of Suffolk award for volunteering.
“Being a parent is the hardest job in the world. As well as being the most wonderful and magical experience, it can also feel lonely, confusing and guilt ridden too! It always looks like everyone has it together and that no one else feels like you do. However quite often they are or have been in the same place.
I enjoy helping people and leaning on my own experiences to help others, ensuring they feel that they are not the only ones who have been through tough times.
One of the reasons I came to Home-Start Suffolk was because I saw so many homeless people when I was travelling in America and I wanted to make a difference close to home, so I knew I wanted to start volunteering here in Suffolk when I finished travelling.
While I was looking for a volunteering role, Home-Start Suffolk came up. I submitted my enquiry and completed my training before starting to volunteer in early 2020. I met the first family I supported in our match visit, but then Covid hit and so I provided telephone support from then on to ensure they still had someone to talk to.
The next family I supported was all over the phone. I wouldn’t even know if we were to walk past each other in the street and neither would they!
But as soon as we were allowed back into homes, I went back to offering home-visiting support.
The time I spend volunteering varies depending on travel time to the home and the needs of the family I am supporting, but is usually anything between two and four hours a week.
A home visit can be anywhere between one and three hours and sometimes I do some planning and research in my own time to find out about local clubs, groups or other services the family can be signposted to for additional support. Quite often though, if I reach out to one the Home-Start Suffolk Family Coordinators they will have that information already.
Everyone at Home-Start Suffolk is fantastic. You have a coordinator that supports us as volunteers while we are supporting each family and they regularly check in. You know they’re always there at the end of the phone or an email if you need anything.
You learn so much being a volunteer. We’re constantly being offered courses that deepen our knowledge around potential family situations and we are invited to peer support where we can meet other volunteers.
I actually still meet up for coffee with two of the people I did my volunteer training with!
It’s nice meeting different families too. The families I have supported are so different to my own friends and my children haven’t got children yet, so it’s also nice to be supporting young people.
One of the nice things about being a volunteer with Home-Start is that you can really make a difference to people and going forwards, you can move onto supporting another family knowing that you did your job in improving their lives.
The families know from the start how long they will have a volunteer working with them and they know when and why you will no longer be visiting them when you finish supporting them. There are so many different reactions, but normally families are much more confident, they are more themselves, they are not alone and they feel more empowered and confident.
You absolutely notice the difference from the day you meet the family to the day you say goodbye. Sometimes they look physically different, they’re starting to wear make-up or dressing differently or they’re sounding more confident when they’re talking to their children.
Volunteering has also made me more confident and competent. I think you spend half your life thinking you’re faking it, when actually when you speak to other people you realise you have made it through and you’re not faking it.
It has made me even more empathetic. I’m more aware of situations and that we don’t know what other people are going through. We’re all ordinary people walking down the street and seeing what goes on behind closed doors brings that home.
It’s a good feeling to know that people listen to you, trust you, befriend you. It’s a really nice feeling and quite empowering.
Not everyone has someone to lean on. Not everyone has a husband, wife, partner or family member to rely on. If you can remember those uncomfortable feelings you experienced when you had young children, if you have a few hours spare every week and you want to help people through their struggles, then you should volunteer too. You might be the only contact a family has for a long time. You can make a real difference.”