Family Friends News - 2009

Parents, children and staff from Family Friends enjoyed a beautiful sunny day in Windsor Great Park, coming together to celebrate parenting week and raise money to support the work of Families Friends. 30 adults and children enjoyed a 4.5 mile walk around Windsor Great Park, with children and their parents completing activity sheets to learn more about the environment. After the walk the families enjoyed cakes and refreshments at the Lawn’s Children’s Centre where Family Friends will be moving to very soon!

The Family Friends team is very excited about moving to these new premises as it will provide us with more space to support families and the valuable work that we do!

Family Friends is a local charity which supports families experiencing difficulties, who live in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, where there is at least one child aged 0 – 13 years.

Once again Family Friends was fortunate in being able to hold a stall at the 2009 Lion’s Club Duck Derby. Family Friends staff and volunteers were able to speak to families about the kind of support we can offer them as well as provide fun and games with an opportunity to win some cool prizes. Thank you to all of the staff and volunteers who set up and ran the stall! It was a lovely day, despite the early downpour!

Over the last 6 months, Family Friends has been part of a RBWM multi-agency forum that has been able to pilot the first group for children and women who have witnessed domestic abuse. The programs vision is to:

• To end domestic abuse and lessen the effect on children exposed to domestic abuse
• Through intervention at the child’s level, help children to begin to heal by providing them with the opportunity to attend groups
• To engage and support mothers to validate, inform and support their children’s healing
• To address the intergenerational effects of violence and to impact the values and beliefs that enable violence, power and control to occur in families, the community and society as a whole

5 children and their mothers have participated in this twelve week program) and at the end of the program, evaluations will be taking place. For more information on this program, please contact Family Friends

BB’s in Maidenhead raffled the huge chocolate cup and saucer, of which Family Friends were the proud recipients of the proceeds - £180. Our lovely mascot Freda was out and about in Maidenhead Town centre to give out balloons to the children and leaflets to the parents. Thank you BB’s for your support!