The Families Matter charity was established at Cornerstone more than 25 years ago. Our aim is to transform lives by providing practical and emotional support to families in the Hythe and Waterside area. We run a variety of support groups, weekly or monthly for different groups, e.g. Parents of children with additional needs, a Women’s Wellbeing group, promoting positive emotional wellbeing and groups to support people with Dementia. In addition, we have ‘Our time’ a group which supports families coping with addiction. Alongside these, our charity runs four parenting courses throughout the year for parents whose children are struggling with angry feelings.
Our largest project, On the Right Track, is run in eight local schools, helping children move up to secondary school with less anxiety. We helped around 50 children this year by providing them with a trusted adult to talk through their anxieties in a weekly meeting at the school. We stay with the children as they move on to secondary school and do lunchtime drop ins to see how they are doing, and give further support in the secondary schools where needed through our mentoring programme.
We offer one to one support for vulnerable families, including home visits where possible. Needs vary from extra help with food parcels to complex family’s difficulties with associated behaviour problems for the children. We work in partnership with schools and Social Services to help these families with a non-judgemental listening ear and suggestions of ways to support their children and themselves and signpost them to other services.
More detailed information can be found at the Families Matter website: https://families-matter.org.uk.
For further information contact
Laura Gray, Project Manager
Telephone: 023 8020 7623
Email: laura.fm.hurc@gmail.com