The Project

Our award winning project Stork Support supports over 500 families a year with baby essentials; since the pandemic we have delivered more than 10,000 packages of nappies, wipes, toiletries and formula milk to families across Manchester and Salford. We have now changed up our operating model and have opened our own hub at the Emmanuel Centre in Salford – where parents can come to collect their items as well as access support from partner services.

The Role

We are looking for a passionate, friendly and enthusiastic individual to join us on a Wednesday morning at our Salford Stork Support hub in Langworthy. We have been running the hub for a few months and have seen an increase in the number of walk-ins and families needing help, whilst accessing our Stay and Play session and the Foodbank.

Our new volunteer will be trained to work alongside the Visit from the Stork team to meet and greet our clients, have strengths-based conversations with families and be able to support and signpost parents to relevant services in the local area. The Stork Support volunteer would give out baby essentials to regular clients who have already been assessed, as well as be able to carry out relevant referral or signposting processes for new clients, and book them in for appointments with Claire (our Project officer / caseworker) as appropriate.

Ideally, our volunteer will be someone interested in doing some training around family support and may have lived experience of accessing support services as a parent or already have some professional experience. We need someone good at using excel spreadsheets and able to use google docs; we will provide a device for this.

Time commitment – up to 3.5 hours per week, ideally on a Wednesday.

This role needs an Enhanced DBS check as it involves working with children and vulnerable parents – a DBS is provided for free if you don’t have one yet.

Tasks and Duties

You will be part of a team at Salford – working alongside our Stay and Play team and Stork Store team to support clients who attend on a Wednesday morning. Using a spreadsheet and our internal referral form, you will take details of clients who drop-in and ask for help and determine if they need a new referral or if they are regulars who have already been assessed (this information will be given to you by the team).

When parents come in, you will deliver great customer service and make them feel at ease by greeting them, giving them information and sitting down to do any relevant forms, as well as giving them their baby essentials out of our cupboard. We want to offer our families as much support as possible, so you will be having strengths-based conversations with them to find out if there are any other needs that you may need to signpost for; housing issues, food insecurity, information about local groups or other services such as Early Help. You will be supported by a member of staff from VFTS who will also always be available on the phone if needed. Other tasks you may be completing would be Healthy Start application forms, Sure Start maternity grant forms, and referrals to BOOBS (breastfeeding support).

Here’s some of the tasks you will be doing;

Greeting clients
Keeping an inventory of stock
Using Google Sheets to record outcomes
Filling out Sure Start registration forms
Giving out baby essentials and supermarket vouchers
Giving out infant feeding information
Having strengths-based conversations with clients and triaging other support they might need
Signposting to relevant services
Signposting / referrals to Outreach workers
Filling in Healthy Start application forms
Giving relevant information about VFTS and Sure Start services
Great customer service
Joining in with Stay and Play session if needed / having a quiet morning
Offering peer support, empathy and a kind face!