It was with great excitement that we launched our first volunteer bank on May 2017, based in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. This Eastern Volunteer Bank has been well supported by the Whitehorse City Council, and was also made possible by grant funding from the Whitehorse Community Chest.
Volunteer banks enable us to recruit and train volunteers who are then able to provide hands-on help in the home to multiple birth families in need. It means we are likely to have volunteers available when a referral from a medical professional is received, and we are able to act quickly to provide families with practical help.
The inaugural volunteer training session for the volunteer bank was on 27 May 2017 and 19 women attended, who received training from a Whitehorse maternal and child health nurse, and from our personnel. These women were then ready to be placed with multiple birth families in the area to provide hands-on help in the home.
Hands-on help volunteers assist families in their home with tasks such as feeding, changing, settling or playing with babies, or assisting older children. They provide support at a time the families need it most.
