Health The Parenting Network opens Baby Bank at The Fratton Bridge Centre as demand continues to rise By Joe Williams Published 7th Aug 2024, 11:21 BST Comment Watch more of our videos on Shots! and live on Freeview channel 276 Visit Shots! now A community organisation has set up a base in the heart of Portsmouth as demand for its services and support continues to rise. Matt Foster, CEO of The Parenting Network, told The News of the impact opening in The Bridge Centre has had on their services and for the community. | Sarah Standing The Parenting Network has been based in The Fratton Bridge Centre for a couple of months but they have recently opened a Baby Bank next door as it continues to search for ways to support families.
The charitable organisation has been welcomed to the shopping centre by Portsmouth City Council as part of its plans to fill empty units and rejuvenate the area. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues.
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. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Notice and Terms of Service apply. Read More The Fratton Bridge Centre developments "massively exceeding expectations" as units start to fill The Bridge Centre in Fratton welcomes new tenants as Portsmouth City Council's refurbishment plans progress Portsmouth News newsletters - sign up for FREE to get email updates straight to your inbox A number of programmes are run by the charity to help families in the area, including stay and play, baby massages, a dad’s group, and one for young mums that supports teen parents.
For CEO and founder, Matt Foster, it was a great opportunity to set up a base in the heart of the city where its services are needed. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He said: “With this space we are now able to provide our own dedicated space here in Fratton thanks to Portsmouth City Counci l. We can now provide the services in our own bespoke venue that can either be a child friendly space, family or adult space.
“We do stay and play groups here but we also do perinatal mental health groups, and we have other organisations such as The Breastfeeding Network who provide services and just this morning we had speech and language session in here.” The variety of services that The Parenting Network provides, combined with its staffs knowledge of services available in the area, has proven integral in its new home. The new publicly accessible base is leading to more families reaching out for help and it is now recruiting for a community engagement officer to be on hand at The Bridge Centre to solely help families that are seeking support.
Matt said: “We are very aware that families coming to us, particularly given the cost of living crisis, may not have engaged with support services before and they may not know where to turn. With us being so visible now we are aware that we could be someone's first port of call so we really want to make sure that somebody is there that can help them and is aware of all the services available. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad “That’s not just with ourselves but services from other organisation like the Fratton Together Pantry and Home-Start .
We can work as a partnership to make sure families are getting everything they need. We are very proud and privileged to be at the heart of all of that.” While it has only been in the units in the Fratton shopping centre for a short while, Matt is already seeing a big difference in terms of the amount of people approaching them.
He said: “Having this place has made a big impact already, the amount of interactions we are having, the amount of knocks on the door and people turning up to our groups demonstrate that. This place is is packed out every time we do something. We are having to put on more events, more groups, as more people come to us for help.
“Last year we engaged with about 8,000 families and we are going to easily exceed that this year, a lot of that is down to the fact that we are more accessible and visible now in The Bridge Centre. Matt has also noticed that there is a huge variety of people that are looking for support, from all types backgrounds and situations. He said: “There is no particular type of family that we are seeing, Portsmouth is known for having many areas of poverty and deprivation.
What we are experiencing now after years of austerity, cost of living rises, covid, is affecting everyone including dual income families. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad “We have heard the stories of teachers and nurses having to use food banks. There is now more food banks in this country than there are McDonalds.
That tells you the state of where we are at with things.” The latest figures on the UK Parliament website shows the Trussell Trust , a charity which operates a network of food banks, distributes food from 1,699 locations, while there are at least 1,172 additional independent food banks in the UK. The McDonald’s website states it has approximately 1,300 restaurants operating in the UK.
The most recent development for The Parenting Network in The Bridge Centre is the opening of the Baby Bank in the unit next door. This further expands the support it can provide families and adds another string to its bow. The Parenting Network have opened a Baby Bank at The Fratton Bridge Centre.
Vicky Chapter, fundraising manager, Terri Canning, families project co-ordinator and Matt Foster, CEO of The Parenting Network, stand next to the donations made to The Baby Bank. | Sarah Standing Matt said: “We are bringing organisations together such as breastfeeding, speech and language, health visitors, midwives, to all work in one space together to provide a service for families. Combine that with the Baby Bank, which is so needed, what we have here in Portsmouth is very special and the families are responding to that very well.
” The Baby Bank has proven to be vital even though it is in its early days. The services takes donations of baby clothes and equipment and distributes them out to people that have been referred to them. Matt said: “The Baby Bank is experiencing an ever growing increase for demand, we are having between 100 and 140 referrals every month.
There are many items for safety reasons that we have to provide brand new, such as mattresses and electrical items, so we have to fundraise to provide them. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad “There is a constant need for The Baby Bank to be fed with grants and funds. Given the fact that the need is always growing it is a big problem to have.
” While the Baby Bank operates on a referral system, Matt is keen to emphasise it is there to help any families in need. He said “Referrals to The Baby Bank can come from the Citizens Advice Bureau , HIVE , GP’s, health workers, even teachers, somebody from a church and any professional can put in a referral to us. “What we do say though, is if you are a family in need, knock on the door and talk to us, we will never turn a family away.
” To find out more about The Parenting Network and the services it provides, information can be found on its website , including how to donate. Watch the video embedded in this article for the full interview. Continue Reading Related topics: Portsmouth City Council Food banks People babies Trussell Trust Comment Comment Guidelines National World encourages reader discussion on our stories.
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