Denmark

Home-Start Familiekontakten, Denmark .
Vestergade 5 2 sal.
5700 Svendborg.
Tel: +45 62 20 77 11.
E-mail kontakt@home-start.dk
Website www.home-start.dk

Home–Start Denmark
Even in the land that Hans Christian Anderson and his fairytales came from, a small country with real princes and princesses, everyday life as a parent with young children can be difficult. That is why Home–Start Denmark provides a helping hand to parents in need. We offer a family friend who can help your family with friendly support, understanding, someone parents can talk to about the challenge of being a parent and an extra set of hands.

Who can get help from Home-Start Denmark? All parents with a child under five can get this help. Parents who are isolated, lonely, families with twins or more, families with many small children, single parents, parents with post natal depression and families with special needs.

Origins
Home-start has been active in Denmark since 2003. In 2006 we set up a national office which is located in Svendborg/Fyn in the middle of Denmark. Our first local scheme, Svendborg, was set up in September 2007 and we have now established a further four schemes - one in Copenhagen, one on Bornholm, one in Albertslund and one in Nykøbing Sjælland.

Volunteers
We have people wanting to be family friends from every part of Denmark, but unfortunately no schemes to support them yet. According to the Home-Start International Principles and Practice, all Home-Start volunteers are supposed to attend a 30-hour preparation course.

How to support Home-Start Denmark?
You can help us in many different ways:
1. Be a volunteer To become a volunteer you need to have parenting experience, or have worked with children for a number of years. You will also need to complete the 30-hour course.
2. Form a local scheme To form a local scheme you will need to set up a local committee with people from the local population - people who care about children and family life for people with young children.
3. Be an ambassador If you do not have the time to be active in Home-Start you can become an ambassador. All you have to do is tell everyone you know about Home-Start and our activities.
4. Pass on a letter We have prepared a letter about our organisation and you can pass it on to people you know or meet. Look at the Danish website. www.home-start.dk
5. Donate money You can donate money to our organisation to help families with small children.
6. Be our local eyes/local contact person in your area We need people with great knowledge of their local community, people who can create a road for opening a local scheme and network.

Method and Development in Home–Start Denmark
In Denmark we are working by the method that “We shape the road while we are walking”. We also use a network philosophy. Everyone knows somebody and if we tell people about our organisation and they tell someone else, soon our organisation becomes well-known in every part of Denmark. We try to use the same philosophy in our work with getting volunteers and families.

We are currently working with many ideas for expanding Home-Start’s visibility in Denmark. These ideas include a tree where children can hang their dummies (pacifiers) when they give them up and a toy library (an idea taken from South Africa’s Home-Start scheme).With these activities we hope to show families that’s it is a natural thing for everybody to visit a Home-Start scheme.

Web site designed by Flare Imaging Ltd