Family Welfare Association (FWA) - Nottingham
Key Facts
Location
Project Criteria
Project funding
£86,731
Funding round
The Family Welfare Association (FWA) was set up in 1869 as a charity to work with vulnerable families and people. We deliver a wide range of community based programmes including:
- home and project based support to parents and their children
- community based mental health services
- financial help for families in need
- educational grants advice for disadvantaged people.
The Family Welfare Association (FWA) Nottingham Volunteer Scheme is using the Parenting Fund to coordinate a network of volunteers to support parents of children with disabilities or special needs in their parenting role. The aim is, via the individual linking of volunteers to parents, to enable parents to be better informed about their own rights and responsibilities and to be more confident and effective in advocating for their children.
Volunteers will support parents in meetings and in their contact with the many different statutory agencies who have responsibilities towards their children. Staff and volunteers will empower parents by making them aware of their rights and by providing information and training on the law. They will support parents in negotiating with agencies for services for their children and support for themselves. Central to the project is work with parents in writing their own 'story' of their child as an alternative to professional reports.
All disabilities and special needs will be included in the project such as emotional, behavioural or mental health need, learning difficulties, communication disorders, medical and physical needs, or sensory impairment. Many of the volunteers recruited will be parents of disabled children.
The project is in partnership with Nottingham Parent Partnership Services (PPS) as it is an extension of work they are already doing, funded by the LEA, in supporting parents on 'special educational needs' issues.