A CHARITY has revealed plans to recruit an army of 100,000 volunteers to help children who needlessly go into care.
Durham-based Safe Families For Children UK, founded by philanthropist and entrepreneur Sir Peter Vardy, offers a network of helpers for families in crisis.
Today (Thursday, March 17) it announced it has passed two major milestones and plans to expand its services nationwide.
Over the last three years, the charity has helped more than 1,000 children and has recruited and trained 2,000 volunteers from its Aykley Heads headquarters.
The millionaire motor magnate set up the charity in 2013 after witnessing the success of a similar venture in Chicago, where it is credited with contributing to a 50 per cent cut in numbers of children entering the care system.
Sir Peter said: “To have helped more than 1,000 children through our network of 2,000 volunteers is fantastic, but it’s just the start for Safe Families. Our aim is to recruit 100,000 volunteers so we can help as many families and children as possible.
“We firmly believe that by intervening early, as soon as a family starts to have a problem, we can prevent the situation from escalating to such a point that a child has to go into care.”
The Vardy Foundation donated £2m to set up Safe Families, with the Department for Education providing matched funding through the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme.
It has now helped 462 families with 1,076 children, recruited 2,152 volunteers and provided 914 bed nights for youngsters.
Safe Families accepts referrals from local authorities responding to difficult family situations and aims to reduce the flow of looked-after children by ten per cent each year.
Volunteers act as host families to look after a child for anything between a couple of days and a couple of weeks; befriend, mentor and support parents and supply a wide range of goods and services.
Councils can access the service free for the first year, before being asked to make a small annual contribution towards costs.
Sir Peter added: “We’ve had some incredible successes so far. “Many people who were struggling to see a future for themselves and their children say Safe Families has turned their life around. If more local authorities, and more volunteers, come on board, we can roll out Safe Families even further to ensure children, who were once at risk of going into care, can stay with their families in a safer, happier home environment.”
Source: The Northern Echo