The Family Haven strives to help vulnerable families in the Gloucestershire area, the families we help are homeless or living in unsuitable accommodation or stuck in the poverty loop as a result of their social and economic circumstances.

Our core aims are:

To empower families to take greater responsibility for their own well-being

To broaden life experiences

To improve health, including mental health, of parents and children

To improve opportunities for pre-school children

To encourage development of new skills for parents and children

To encourage mutual support among the families

To improve parenting skills

To enable parents and children to maintain a nutritious diet.

We do this by providing a day centre where we have a registered nursery with fully qualified staff which offers nursery education, respite and crèche facilities, and one-to-one sessions for those with additional needs for the children. We also offer laundry and bathing facilities, hot midday meals for all, parenting classes, healthy eating workshops, mutual support and buddying to fight isolation, active listening and advice for the parents. Unlike other day care services, we work with the family as a whole, providing both practical and emotional support. We recognise the importance of the holistic approach to achieve our aim of improving the family’s emotional well-being. Happy, confident, relaxed parents make for happy, confident, relaxed children. We ponpenprate on building self-esteem by focusing on the positives whilst working on areas needing improvement in a non-judgemental and non-prescriptive way. We provide information, advice, advocacy, active listening, stress management, alternative therapies, and access to other agencies. We are the only organisation in Gloucestershire providing this kind of service to families.