Peer Support Groups are essential to encourage recruitment and retention of foster carers, adoptive parents and supporting lodgings host. Support Groups have three main purposes:
- Finding homes – where there are Support Groups, individuals are more likely to consider F/A/SL as they can access a local support network
- Strengthens church communities – where Support Groups are based within a church, it can open opportunities to engage with the wider church community and about the need of children in care and draws together the church community to support those caring
- Support network – facilitating Support Groups enables Home for Good & Safe Families to communicate we offer local and practical support through a support network. The Enquiry & Family Care team frequently signpost enquirers to a local Support Group.
Support Groups on the database is the central place to add, search and update groups.
The following guideline outlines how to add a group, what details to input and how to keep the group up to date. These guidelines should be read alongside the Support Group Guidance when starting a new group.
Step 1: ADDING A NEW GROUP
On the database, choose > Supporters, then > Peer Support Groups
On the right-hand side, click the icon to add a new group.
Add the Name - ordinarily the name of the city/town ie Brighton or the name of a church ie Gateway Church. There’s no need to add ‘Brighton Support Group’ or ‘Gateway Church Support Group’ to reduce the text on the overview page.
Then add the Street, City and Postcode. Select the Region and Area. Ensuring the Region and Area is correct is essential for filtering and reporting purposes. If an area does not exist, you can contact Zendesk.
EMAIL ADDRESS
Each group should have their own Home for Good email address. See the guidance document here. For example, the email address will look similar to brighton@local.homeforgood.org.uk. If a group does not have an email address, please follow the steps to set one up. Please do not add a volunteer’s personal email address into this section.
STATUS
Select the status for the group. For all groups running regularly, choose Active. If the group is scheduled to start, choose Pending. If the group is no longer active, choose Inactive.
The primary venue helps to know where the Support Group is primarily being hosted. Often groups will meet in several places throughout the year or host a BBQ in the park during the summer, for example. Please select the primary venue (where the group most frequently meets), either Home, Church, Community (ie Café) or Online.
Once complete, select > Add Support Group
Step 2: ADD DETAILS
Once the initial details are saved, select the group you have created to add further details.
You can now add > Lead Volunteer(s). You can only select volunteers who are Peer Support Volunteers. You can add more than one lead volunteer.
If there are other volunteers involved, you can add these in > Other volunteer(s).
Then add > Assigned Church. Begin to type in the church and you will see all churches available. All Support Groups are encouraged to be connected with a church as Support Groups strengthens church communities, raise awareness of the need for F/A/SL and can open opportunities for deeper engagement. There are some groups that operate independently.
# OF HOUSEHOLDS SUPPORTED & CHILDREN IN HOUSEHOLDS
Please reach out to the Lead Volunteer to ask how many households attend the group and how many children benefit from this. You can still add the Support Group onto the database if you don’t have this information straight away.
Gathering details of how many households (or individuals) in a Support Group is incredibly valuable information to capture and report on how many people access support from groups.
Adding the number of fostered or adopted children in those households allows us to understand how many children and young people in homes are benefiting from Support Groups.
LAST REVIEW DATE
It is recommended to update the Support Group attendance every six months. When making changes to volunteers, venue, frequency or attendance, select the Last Review Date then click > Update.
AREA OF FOCUS
There is an option to select the Area Of Focus for the group. Most groups are inclusive of anyone exploring or already offering F/A/SL, however some groups do have a focus area.
If there is a male only or female only, please include this in the Group Name. For example, Brighton (Men’s Group). There are very few groups like this so there is no need to specify this in the Area Of Focus.
Step 3: CONTACT NOTES
There is an option to add contact notes to each Support Group. This may include emails sent to the lead volunteer(s), any changes to the group, events the group is running or any other correspondence. Adding contact notes is essential to capture any communication or updates to the Support Group in case the group is handed over to another staff member.
Step 4: CHECK ALL DETAILS
Once you have added all the details to the group, double check to see if these are correct and up to date. When you have added an Assigned Church and added Volunteers, this will also show on the church and volunteer record. You can check the assigned church and volunteers to ensure this is linked accurately.
Finally, check the overview page to ensure the group details are correct and can be easily understood by other staff members who may be viewing groups or signposting.