Costessey and cake: caring for vulnerable children and families 🍰

Season's Greetings Seekers! 🎄

Welcome to our last long read of 2023.

Traditionally this is the time of year when we start to think about coming together as families. For some it will be idyllic, for others it will be stressful - and for many it will be somewhere in between.

But what of those who don't have the support of extended families to rely on? Who is looking out for them?

I first came across Home-Start Norfolk as a passing item in a council agenda earlier in the year and a headline about a charity facing funding cuts.

Words on a screen.

But beneath those words I wondered who those families were and the people trying to help them?

Today's long read is from Jacqui Burgoyne, who set about finding out (while getting lost on the way).

As you'll discover, Jacqui's story took time to pull together - not least because the team behind Norfolk Home-Start was being run ragged both delivering the service and coping with funding cuts, to have the head space to sit down and talk.

And yet despite that, while it's been a tough 12 months, their work was recently recognised both with a King's Award for Volunteering and additional funds to help them continue.

So their year ahead is not without hope, and isn't that what we all need at this time of year?

Happy Christmas everyone - see you again in 2024

Shaun