Waterside Parents’ Centre has continued to offer a high level of support to families living in the borough of Gravesham this year, despite being a small team and on-going funding challenges.
The year ends more optimistically as Waterside has been awarded core funding from the National Lottery Reaching Communities scheme, Trusthouse Charitable Foundation and Colyer Fergusson, up until August 2027.
We have worked hard on developing great partnerships locally, inviting organisations to participate in our agency clinic initiative and to join us for relevant training which enhances our learning through multi-agency rich discussions. We are working collaboratively with organisations to support mental health, emotional wellbeing, victims of domestic abuse and children’s development.
Waterside Parents’ Centre was chosen to be one of the new Gravesham Mayor’s charities 2024-2025
Services
99 new referrals processed during 2024
Peer Support Groups – offered with creche
- Weekly Stepping Stones group for mothers suffering with symptoms associated with Post-Natal Depression (term time only). Parents can attend this group for one year. The capacity is 8 parents at a time. This year, the group has supported 11 parents in total.
- Social and Emotional Wellbeing Group, working in partnership with MeganCIC. Having referred parents to an existing group running in Gravesend but hearing feedback that they could not attend as there was no childcare provision, we had a really positive conversation with staff at MeganCIC about the possibility of a group running at Waterside for our parents, with a creche provided. This has been a very successful partnership with the 20 parents participating. The Social and Emotional Wellbeing group is a 6 week peer support group where parents can choose 6 topics from a 12-step toolkit (Meditation, Urge Surfing, Trigger Tree, Cycle of Change, Smart Goals, Crisis Planning and Staying Safe, Healthy Boundaries, Managing Anger, Impulse and Spending, Managing Loss, Gratitude, Friends vs Acquaintances. The group has been offered 4 times this year, with 6 parents in each cohort.
- We established the Bump to Babies peer support group for parents expecting a baby. This ran fortnightly from January until July 2024, supporting 4 parents. Following the baby’s birth, the family were offered a place on our Baby Steps group. We did not continue the group due to the funding situation but now funding has been secured, we will look to offer this group again in 2025 and to promote it more widely.
Courses – offered with creche
- 2 behaviour parenting workshops (4 parents to attend both). Unfortunately, due to illness, Rosemary was not able to deliver workshops planned at the start of the year
- 6-week course learning to crochet, delivered by an ex-parent who has now become one of our volunteers (8 parents attended)
- Relate support to 3 couples
In partnership with Kent Adult Education, we offered:
- Chatter Matters (6 parents attended)
- Stepping Up to Primary (6 parents attended)
- 5-week course about Autism Awareness (5 parents attended)
- 3-week course in Children’s First Aid (4 parents attended)
- 2 parenting workshops managing children’s behaviour
Structured family sessions:
- 7 family sessions, delivered over the fortnightly timetable. Just before September, the sessions were up to full capacity (72 places). Eleven children left in September to start school.
- Weekly Baby Steps group, this has been consistently attended by 12 parents during 2024.
- Every Tuesday from January until July, we offered a weekly drop-in in St George’s Church Hall. This also served as an agency clinic where parents could receive advice whilst the children played and were supervised by volunteers. The Department for Work and Pensions, North Kent MIND, Baby Matters, Homestart, We are Beams, Kent Fire and Rescue and Adult Education all attended. .
- 10 parents accessed 12 psychotherapy support from November 2023 until July 2024. This service is funding dependant and ceased in July 2024. We hope to be able to offer again in 2025 should additional funding be secured.
- 9 parents received counselling support, again due to funding, this ceased in July. However, from November 2024, we will be offering counselling support through a student counsellor on placement.
- Our Bach Flower Remedy Therapists have supported 13 parents overall (November 2024 to November 2024)
- Parents are able to access the in-house pantry and hygiene bank when they come in for their session. This initiative has been funded with thanks to ASDA, Neighbourly and Forresters.
Events
- Our first ever Graduation ceremony was a great success too with 9 children being presented with a certificate and a book from the team at Waterside.
- Two summer meet-up’s during the school holidays, one at the Prom and the other at Woodlands park. Some older siblings came along too!
- 7 families received free tickets to a circus performance at the Mick Jagger Centre, courtesy of Circus Starr.
- Successful fundraiser open house held in November 2024 which raised nearly £800.
- Father Christmas visited us again, and children were able to meet him and receive a gift. A local sewing club made Christmas stockings and we received some gifts from the Riverview Giving Tree. We also had a nearly new sale and raffle which raised just over £300.
Staff development
- All staff and some volunteers attended the DWP Oneplusone training which was delivered in-house. This covers 3 modules (Me, You and Baby too, Arguing Better, Getting it right for children) and is an on-line platform that we can share with parents who are struggling with relationship problems.
- The team also attended Domestic Abuse Response training delivered by Oasis, again in-house. This training was also extended to local partner agencies.
- Two staff attended Karma Nirvana to increase our awareness of honour-based violence.
Volunteers:
- Three new members joined the board this year.
- Student counsellor on placement joined us in November 2024.
- Our wonderful team of volunteers continue to support a weekly family session each and are a very valued extra pair of hands.
Partnerships
- We accommodated a week’s work experience request from Meopham School and various day placements from the Health Visiting team for HV students.
- The Freedom programme has run twice this year (in April, for 10 weeks and again in September). The programme is delivered by Kent Social Services and 4 Waterside parents were offered a place on the programme. We will also be receiving a donation for the room hire in future.
- The Perinatal Mental Health Community Team continue to review the Stepping Stones caseload once every 6 weeks and the team’s Psychologist books one of the therapy rooms to meet with clients.
- The Thrive team have also met clients here.
- We remain members of the Voluntary Community Alliance and Local Children’s Partnership and attend meetings quarterly.
- We have developed some fantastic relationships with various teams at Gravesham Borough Council including Community Safety, Domestic Abuse and Housing. The Chief Executive and Communities Director have visited Waterside and been hugely supportive of the work we do.
Funding
Thanks to the National Lottery Reaching Communities grant, Trusthouse Charitable Foundation and Colyer Fergusson, Kent Reliance for new toys, ASDA and Neighbourly for keeping the pantry stocked up, Co-op for new floor mats in the playroom, Foresters for office equipment, local Rotary and Lions and B&Q community scheme for 2 new sheds.