Growbaby
Growbaby provides a baby essentials bank for families on low incomes in Swindon. They were awarded a £15,000 Community Grant over three years, towards a new Family Support Worker to enable them to extend their help to families struggling with poverty and isolation. Project Lead Carys Nurcombe-Pike explains how our core funding for this new role will make a real difference:
“Our group grew out of the Pattern Church’s Covid response. We were delivering food parcels to isolated households and we found so many families desperately needed nappies, wipes and baby essentials as well. After doing some research, and realising this support wasn’t provided elsewhere, we contacted the national Growbaby network and launched in September 2021.
“We are open each Wednesday to parents who can just come along without any referral. They can get a pack of nappies, a tin of formula, three outfits and three items of toiletries each. All of this is kindly provided through donations.
“Since we began demand for our support has grown. In 2022 we provided 1,897 packages but by the end of last year that had grown to 2,993. We had to introduce an afternoon session to cope with the number of people waiting outside each week.
“Providing free nappies, toiletries, clothes, a cup of tea and a biscuit and a chat is one thing, but many families need support in other areas of their lives – whether that is schooling, housing, mental health challenges or financial concerns – that previously we have not been in a position to help with.
“For lots of them there is so much more going on and we are just scratching the surface but there are some wonderful organisations across our town who focus on those things. Our Family Support Worker will be able to signpost people, help them apply for a school when their English is limited, be that person on the end of the phone chasing up housing issues or introduce them to a charity that can help.
“We also work with many families living in hotels and short-term accommodation and in some cases Growbaby is the only social interaction children have outside the family. For some, severe anxiety has prevented parents from accessing the help available from other agencies by themselves so this role will make an enormous difference to those most vulnerable families.
“Maybe I was slightly naive in the beginning, I didn’t think we would see the wide range of people we have. We see mums who are on maternity leave and are unable to cover the bills, we see families where two parents are working and they are still struggling to afford the essentials for their baby, it’s really shocking.
“I had someone recently who said ‘I’ve never been this person, I’ve never needed to ask for this help, but here I am. It’s so unexpected.’ We just work hard to say, ‘This is what we’re here for, it’s not a problem, we’ll help you however we can’. We don’t want any of the unnecessary stigma or shame that can be associated with coming along.
“Many of those families attending have become a support network for each other. It makes me quite emotional when I see it happening. I’ll see two people starting to chat and I’ll think ‘Oh, they’re talking this week, they didn’t even know each other two weeks ago’. It’s so wonderful to see a friendship grow and develop as having someone you can talk to makes such a difference.”
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