Shropshire charity loses Lottery funding

Home-Start Shropshire has had a three-year lottery grant but Carol Brown told a meeting of Shrewsbury Town Council that it will not get a new tranche of funding.

She was making an application to the council’s finance committee which agreed to give a grant of £1,750.

She said: “We are coming to the end of our three-year lottery grant and had applied for another grant. But we have just been told we are not going to get one.

“We had a meeting of trustees today to discuss how to move forward.”

Councillors were told that the grant would be used for the Something More project to give support for families who suffer from mental ill health, low confidence or low self-esteem.

“We would like to identify the key families to whom the programme could make its biggest impact.”

“Without lottery money we will have to retract somewhat until we can build up some funding.” The Something More project saw all the charity staff and six volunteers trained to deliver the support.

“Mental health can prevent people from being the family, parent or caregiver they want to be.

"Often the impact of poor mental ill health affects children’s development due to being unable to access experiences, social activity, early education or groups.

“Working one-to-one with families helps them to access community events, attend recreational activities such as swimming, the town park and library activities.”

Home-Start currently has 65 countywide volunteers and three part-time co-ordinators.

It can provide a family with the necessary support they may need to ensure their children get a good start in life.

It offers various forms of help.

Most commonly a carefully matched volunteer visits the family at home and aids the family as required for up to two hours a week.

Some of the families use this time to be able to talk to another adult, have assistance with practical tasks, or are enabled to get to a medical appointment. Some families seek advice from another parent.