Volunteer Family Connect: Can a volunteer home visiting program improve the wellbeing and social connectedness of vulnerable families, and improve health and wellbeing outcomes for the volunteers who deliver the service?

Families who experience social isolation and poor parenting skills, and who are assigned to the intervention group, will receive a volunteer home visiting service. This service matches experienced members of the community (volunteers) with the families, and supports them to form local connections, understand child development, and learn appropriate parenting skills. Program Coordinators Program Coordinators are responsible for matching families with volunteers. They are employed by the service organisations: Save the Children Australia, Karitane, and The Benevolent Society. One Program Coordinator supervises a maximum of 30 volunteers. Program Coordinators deliver volunteer training, and provide face-to-face supervision sessions with volunteers at least once every 3 months to discuss their own wellbeing and support needs, along with how they might best support the family. Program Coordinators typically hold University level qualifications in Psychology or Social Work, and are experienced in providing training and supporting a team. Volunteer Training All new volunteers must complete 30 hours of core, pre-service training prior to being matched with a family. Core modules include: *Introduction and overview *Organisation/ OHS overview *Boundaries and self-care *Communicating and engaging with others *Cultural awareness *Child development *Mental Wellbeing *Home and Child Safety *Supporting parents *Diversity in families *Community Resources Organisations can include optional training modules in pre-service training (as long as the core modules are completed). Inclusion of optional modules may be based on a number of factors (e.g., characteristics of families in the service area; context- or area-specific needs) and provides some flexibility and opportunity for tailoring of the pre-service training. Optional modules include topics like: *Breastfeeding *Supporting play *Sleeping and settling *Infectious disease and immunisation Guidelines for information and material to be presented and exercises to be included in the training has been developed in collaboration with senior researchers from Macquarie University and Western Sydney University. Each of the three organisations makes decisions, based on the guidelines provided, around the specific details of how the training will be administered based on the discretion of their program coordinators. Ongoing or in-service training should be provided to all volunteers. No less than six in-service training sessions are held each year. Training is conducted in small groups of 6-10 volunteers. Training for new volunteers takes place on a quarterly basis, and ongoing training occurs at least twice per year. A training framework document and manual can be provided on request. Visits Weekly 2 hour visits take place at a time negotiated between the family and the volunteer. Volunteers are provided with a list of topics they might discuss, however they are not required to cover every topic. What is covered in influenced by their planning sessions as part of their supervisory sessions with the Program Coordinator, and also in response to what is requested by the family. Families are visited from 6 to 18 months depending on their level of need. Topics discussed are noted at the end of each visit on a Visit Record Sheet which is returned to the Program Coordinator to support their monitoring of the families.