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Community Mothers Programme,
Tilbury Health Centre

We are a group of volunteers called Community Mothers. We are a support network for parents with young families in the area of Thurrock in Essex. We provide, as one parent to another, a confidential monthly home visiting programme using cartoons on all aspects of child development, supporting parents and raising self esteem.

During the course of our work we identified a need through the use of the cartoons, to introduce opportunities for parents to learn basic skills. We were successful in obtaining a joint bid with the local Adult Education College to fund a new project involving basic skills training for the Community Mothers. We will be using the laptops to work with parents on a one to one basis in their homes, encouraging and supporting them in taking the first steps in learning basic skills and seeking further education opportunities.

At the moment we are undergoing training to become basic skills tutors with the use of laptops. We would like to share with you some of the comments we have already received from parents expressing a need for this project.

Julie, a Community Mother, shared her own inexperience with one of the mums she was visiting of not being able to read until she was 11 years old. The mum then confided in Julie, "I am glad you told me you couldn’t read, I can’t either". Julie asked the mum how she copes with day to day basic needs. The mum said that she cannot go out without her mother accompanying her. The outcome of this was that this mum would feel more comfortable and willing to initially take up the project with Julie in her own home, until she has found the confidence to join a group.

The use of laptops with this project will be invaluable. Community Mum, Karen, visited a mother who was attending a ‘Brush up your English’ class. She had no support from her family and she used to show her work to Karen when she visited. Karen encouraged and supported her to carry on with the course and the mum is keen to learn more skills with the laptop, which Karen will undertake.

Di visited a mum who was already attending a basic skills course. The mum said to her "I want to learn to read so I can read a bedtime story to my little girl".

As a group we feel this project will not only benefit the families we visit, but also ourselves. By learning how to use a laptop, it will add to our skills which we can then pass on and learn together with the families we visit.

These are some examples of some of the cartoon sheets we have developed, which we share with parents during home visits as a way of triggering discussion and sharing information in a non-threatening way.

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