More and more families are struggling to make ends meet and it is affecting family life. Home-Start West Berkshire is at the frontline witnessing the impact that financial hardship has on all the members of the family. People struggling with the soaring cost of living are cutting back on food and car journeys to save money. According to a BBC-commissioned survey, 56% had bought fewer groceries, and the same proportion had skipped meals. This is what we are seeing in homes across West Berkshire, families make impossible decisions about buying food or having electricity or gas.
Living in poverty, even for a short period of time, can have a dramatic effect on a child’s life path and cause a wide range of long-term issues. These can include financial illiteracy, poor mental and physical health, repercussions from a lack of formal education, child pregnancy and parenthood at a young age and involvement in risk taking behaviours such as substance misuse. Our Preventing Family Poverty project was designed to support families in three key areas: maximizing family income, supporting parental relationships and better child development through volunteer support and role modelling. The need for our project has increased due to the cost-of-living crisis with an increase of 39% on the previous year. Families eligible for free school meals in the project has also increased from 61% to 70% showing a greater number of families living on the breadline with an income of less than £7,400.
The project has reached it’s third year and the evidence from the recent evaluation is clear, life improves for families’ experiencing financial hardship when supported by Home-Start West Berkshire volunteers. Each family has been supported to ensure they are on the right in- and out-of-work benefits, maximising their income where possible. Debt support and budgeting has been an important factor in this project with 100% of families offered assistance in this area. 67% of families have been referred to appropriate support services. You can read our full evaluation report here.
For more information about this or any other Home-Start West Berkshire projects please contact the office at office@home-startwb.org.uk