At the heart of our vision is mobilising the incredible resource that already exists within local communities.
Volunteers frequently describe their volunteering experience as "life changing".
A wealth of evidence already shows that volunteers gain:
- Satisfaction from contributing to the wellbeing of others
- Increased awareness of local community issues and available services
- Increased self-confidence, self-esteem and a sense of achievement.
Our evaluation also shows that volunteers gain:
- Personal development opportunities
- Improved knowledge of health and parenting that benefits their own families
- Work experience
- A mutually supportive group learning experience and
- Gateways into new training opportunities, qualifications and employment.
A key feature of Parents 1st programmes is employment of experienced volunteers as development workers and assistant coordinators.