Home-Start provides preventative programs to support parents and children by providing help at an early stage.

They are looking for more volunteers to provide support to young families in the area.

At the moment they have 30 families on the books, but more on a waiting list.

The help is available to families with at least one child under the age of five.

There could be a variety of reasons why the family needs assistance: it might be their first child, they may have twins or triplets or there might be another child with a disability.

Every family is different.

Home-Start co-ordinator Louise Pilon said a lot of families were now isolated.

“There is no extended family support for whatever reason,” she said.

“Mothers need that support. They could be a single parent or the father works long hours.

“Offering support helps to prevent families going towards crisis as well as preventing depression and all the consequences of loneliness and isolation.”

Volunteers need to have had children of their own and must be able to spend time with the family for two hours a week.

It can be short term or long-term; it is dependent on the needs of the family.

The family are not the only ones to gain from the help; the volunteers also take something away.

Barbara Parker, a volunteer for more than four years, retired to the Highlands and felt she wanted to give service to the community.

Mrs Parker said she feels like she is being a help to a family.

“I also like relating to the children and the response you get from them,” she said.

The volunteers are not a baby-sitting or house-cleaning service. They offer emotional and practical support.

Home-Start co-ordinator Cleo Lowden said sometimes mothers just needed an extra set of hands or someone to talk to.

“So a volunteer might help amuse some of the children, read to them, play with them,” she said.

“You have families who say they want someone who could be a grandparent to their child because their parents are deceased or they live far away.

“Others need someone to just watch the three-year-old and the two-year-old while they hang out the washing.”

Volunteers have a 10-week training course and are matched to a family.

For more information on becoming a volunteer contact 4861 4030.