Dudley Lodge is celebrating after being awarded £379,514 in National Lottery funding to support its voluntary community support programme ‘Hurdle’.
The service delivers the essential early intervention needed to help prevent children being taken into care. Working in Coventry and the surrounding areas, they support parents who are expecting a baby and at risk of their newborn baby being removed or who have already suffered the loss of one or more children to the care system. It is designed to help disadvantaged parents understand and overcome the challenges they face and work towards a more positive and empowered future. The outreach programme based in Coventry, will use the cash to expand their reach, working with families on a voluntary basis.
The local charity was inspired to launch Hurdle following success of their pilot community-outreach project which ran from 2015-2018. The success of this programme in reducing the need for Children’s Social Care involvement with the participants demonstrated the impact and need for an ongoing service. Carly Davis (CEO Dudley Lodge) said “As a charity we are committed to tackling the widespread issue of multiple children being placed into the care system each year. We aim to innovate and develop a diverse range of interventions and expand our services to increase the number of children, young people, and parents we support. With the support of National Lottery players, Dudley Lodge can now establish Hurdle’s project model as a sustainable and ongoing part of our services.”
Hurdle offers parents befriending, peer and mentoring support in addition to supportive programmes, activities, and projects. Parents are offered up to 1 year support from a Hurdle Keyworker, who uses a relationship-based model that the charity believes is key to achieving successful outcomes. They work in partnership with parents to draw up a plan based on their goals and aspirations and help them to evaluate their progress and build on their achievements.
The funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest funder of community activity in the UK, has enabled Hurdle to offer parents a parenting group, protection group and domestic abuse programme to help benefit the safety and wellbeing of their current or future children.
Hurdle is now able to offer counselling and therapeutic interventions to increase parental confidence and self esteem. By improving parental mental health, it aims to break the cycle of trauma and interpersonal challenges that can impact on parenting capacity. Kelly Moore (Hurdle Operations Manager) says: “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to reach more families in need of our support and enable them to access desperately needed therapeutic intervention. Sadly, we know the extent of childhood trauma that is prevalent in parents whose children are involved in recurrent care proceedings and by offering targeted intervention we can now work towards breaking this cycle.”
A parent who has been working with Hurdle for 1 year said “More people need to know about Hurdle; the fabulous team, groups and support offered and how they help parents who are working hard to better themselves for their children. I have attended groups and courses and am now a strong resilient person. It’s helped me want to continue to improve myself and my life.”
