CAMDEN, U.K. - Feb. 11, 2021 - Home-Start Camden & Islington, the grass-roots charity that supports and empowers parents with children under five struggling to cope, is calling for donations through its website to provide first-need help to families whose disadvantage has been deeply worsened by the COVID-19 crisis in the UK. Home-Start usually matches trained volunteers with a family to best meet the family's needs, who then visit families in their home and provide non-judgmental, peer-to-peer, practical and emotional support. The COVID-19 crisis and national lockdown has halted the charity's face-to-face activities although it continues to support through phone and video calls. The charity and its volunteers are now actively seeking donations to provide families with food vouchers, better housing, laptops and equipment for children not able to attend school this year, as well as mental health and domestic abuse support.

The COVID-19 pandemic and multiple lockdowns have deepened the gap between inequalities in the UK, and worsened child poverty and in-work poverty, trapping families in the cycle of poverty, with little help from the government. Families struck by the crisis rely on the support of national and local charities, and Home-Start Camden & Islington is making sure to provide families with children under the age of five with confidential, compassionate and totally responsive support.

"Families, especially those with children under five and already marginalised in society, are in need now more than ever before" says Kevin Kibble, Chief Executive at Home-Start Camden & Islington. "Our professional staff and volunteers are working tirelessly to provide both advice and practical support wherever needed, but more and more families are being referred to us for emergency help and increasingly help with food supplies."

Home-Start Camden & Islington is urgently providing food vouchers to families in need, to help relieve the food poverty crisis locally, and is accepting money donations through single or monthly payments. The charity is also calling for individuals to donate tech equipment such as laptops and tablets, for children being home-schooled during the COVID-19 crisis, in vulnerable families who don't have access to technology.

To support Home-Start Camden & Islington and contribute to the charity's mission by making a monthly or single donation please visit the website here (https://homestartcamdenandislington.org.uk/supporting-us/). For more information about Home-Start Camden & Islington, please visit www.homestartcamdenandislington.org.uk

Contact
Jennifer Hakim
jennifer@darepr.com