Parentline Plus North East
Key Facts
Location
Project Criteria
Project funding
£99,904
Funding round
Parentline Plus provides a free 24 hour confidential helpline to parents staffed by trained volunteers. We offer information and support and the chance to talk through the issues facing parents. In our eleven local offices we run outreach sessions and parenting course and workshops. We were formed in 1999 from the merger of three long established charities and a number of small local charities.
Our Newcastle Parenting Fund project will work closely with a range of partners to build on what is already available locally.
We want to:
- Provide more support services for parents currently less well served.
- Work in the poorest parts of the city, notably the East and West end, targeting hard to reach families, particularly fathers, single parents, BME groups and parents with children with ADHD.
- Encourage collaboration across agencies in the city to produce a seamless service for parents.
- Contribute to the formation, development and work of children's centres in Newcastle
We are using the grant to pump prime our work with local agencies to develop a long-term strategy for parents. There are three parts to the project:
Part 1. Parent workshops
In partnership with other agencies we will provide workshops and courses tailor made for each parents' group we work with. Working with over 400 parents we will deliver 100 course and workshop modules. They will be aimed at:
- fathers - single, resident and non-resident fathers
- parents of older children with challenging behaviours
- black minority ethnicparents and parents where English is their 2nd language - this work will be with refugees and asylum seekers and BME residents in the West End of Newcastle
- parents of children with mental health problems - We will work in collaboration with the CAMHS team to deliver this service
- parents of children with ADHD - this will build on work already undertaken and we will be working with two projects in the City
- young parents - We will be working with young parents in all four projects
Course participants will be recruited through our partner agencies and through outreach work.
Part 2. Outreach work
Our outreach worker, paid for by the Parenting Fund, will encourage participation in the courses and workshops and enable parents to form local parent support groups. Her/his specific brief will be to work with hard to reach groups. Innovative ways of working with parents will be used such as Parents Listening Post, (signposting parents to other services), drop-in sessions and surgeries.
Part 3. Telephone support
Intensive telephone support, aimed at more isolated parents, will be offered to 14 people weekly for an average of eight weeks. For parents in crisis we can offer longer-term support. Clients will be identified by the partner agencies. This is a new and very popular service for Parentline Plus.