- Responding to 145 referrals
- Offering 9 small structured family sessions across a fortnightly timetable, providing support for up to 72 registered families – for 50 weeks last year! Our smaller sessions enable staff to give families their time and attention and for real friendships to form within these small groups.
- Introducing a weekly open drop-in family session for registered families in the church hall every Tuesday (term time only). Whilst parents enjoy the smaller sessions, we also recognise that some families, now feeling less anxious, would like the opportunity to meet other families who attend Waterside. This session is also an agency clinic. This year, Homestart, We are Beams, The Citizens Advice Bureau, MEGANCiC and the Gr@nd project all visited and were able to support our families where they feel most comfortable.
- We listened to parents and reinstated the Baby Steps group in January 2023 (this had not been resumed post-Covid).
A popular weekly group every Thursday afternoon for up to 15 parents. Families attend until baby is one or confidently walking, whichever comes first!. - Post-Natal Depression support group (Stepping Stones) continued to support women suffering with symptoms associated with PND, offered with a creche to enable our most vulnerable parents to attend.
- Offering 6 appointments every week for 1-2-1 intensive support via psychotherapy and counselling appointments.
- Fantastic volunteer support, from offering Bach Flower Remedy appointments to parents to supporting our sessions and creches.
- We offered training courses. Time for You and Crochet to support emotional health and wellbeing, Relationships (via Relate), Managing behaviour workshops. We are Beams delivered a workshop on sensory processing and food. Dandelion Time visited to talk more about their service supporting children’s emotional health and wellbeing.
- Our venue was used to deliver the Freedom programme for 12 weeks.
- We hosted events. The King’s Coronation was an amazing event, attended by 140 people. This was an intergenerational event, in partnership with AgeUK and Homestart and was funded by Kent Community Foundation and Gravesham Borough Council. It was a fantastic opportunity to bring together older and younger residents for an afternoon of music and traditional afternoon tea and everyone received a commemorative coronation medal. Our Halloween event was complete with creepy crawlies and reptiles which the families loved!
- We introduced a Waterside Pantry to provide emergency food and cleaning products to families in need. This was initially funded by Foresters bank and has been topped up by Neighbourly (via Sainsburys).
- Partnership working. Waterside representation on the local multi-agency groups including the Children Partnership Conversation, Local Children’s Partnership Group, Reconnect, and Domestic Abuse forum, and the Local Voluntary Alliance.
- Supporting the local community. We had 4 Student Health Visitors attend sessions as part of their induction with the local Health Visiting team and 5 work experience students from the local secondary schools.
- Our environment. We transformed the garden which was a big project, to clear around the edges which were very overgrown and also the front garden. The building now looks more welcoming from the outside and the children have a greater area to play in the back garden, which also now houses a bug hotel and water play feature. The canopy outside has also been transformed thanks to Waterside being selected for a community project with Jacksons Civil Engineering.
- Staff training. During this year, the Senior Family Support Workers completed the CPCAB Introduction to Counselling course. All staff attended Basic Safeguarding Training, First Aid Awareness Training and Fire Safety training. Two members of the team are now Designated Safeguarding Lead Trained.
Thanks to all of our funders for their support this year – including The National Lottery, Children in Need, Kent Community Foundation, Gravesham Borough Council, Foresters Bank, Neighbourly, Rotary and local people who kindly donated funds.
What’s more in 2024:
- Introducing Bump to Babies. As we have received a number of referrals for woman who are expecting, we will be extending our criteria to include pregnancy and introducing a coffee morning peer support group for expectant parents.
- Social and Emotional Wellbeing group. In partnership with MEGANCIC, we will be trialling a new group to support emotional wellbeing, offered with a creche.
- Strengthen our partnerships with key agencies, for example with We are Beams to support those families with children who are showing signs of Autism. The Freedom programme will also be running again.
- Develop our volunteer programme further. A lot of our volunteers are highly skilled (authors, primary school teachers etc) and have so much to give. In consultation with our parents, we hope to develop a volunteer programme which values the skills our volunteers and supports our families too.