My name is Nina, I currently work for Thrive at Five.
I have lived in Stoke all my life and have raised four children here, so I’m really proud to represent the area that I’m from by being a Parent Connector. Before working for Thrive at Five I worked as a Social Worker for the Children in Care Team in Stoke. I completed my degree as a mature student which was something I never thought I would achieve.
I left school with minimal qualifications, and I never imagined that higher education was for me. With the support and belief from those closest to me I completed an Access to Higher Education at a local college and gained a place at Staffordshire University to study Social Work. The day I graduated was one of the proudest moments of my life.
I have always had a desire and passion to support and empower families and use my own life experiences to connect with people.
I now get to work directly with parents and authentically form a relationship with families in my community, where I’m a trusted source of support.
Connecting families to local services
I help connect parents, carers and children in order to support children from pregnancy to 5 to thrive and develop the foundations they need for life and learning; anything from joining Parent, Baby and Toddler groups to helping them access food banks. Being a local myself, means that I have that a good awareness of what services are available, how the local landscape of services is changing and can become a familiar face in the community for parents to build up their confidence approaching me for support. What Thrive at Five are doing is creating networks, joining up provisions to make support much easier to access rather than very fragmented. The ethos of putting parents and carers at the heart of this support is something I’m really passionate about too. As a Parent Connector, you can only really know what barriers parents are facing by taking the time to form these relationships.
It is important for Parent Connectors to have character virtues and skills to help them form quality relationships with children, parents and families within the community.
These characteristics encompass being warm, open and non judgemental. The ability to use relationships to impact change is central to the role. One of my favourite mantra’s is “Connection before correction”.
I was able to support a single Dad that has attended our provisions along with his two young boys. Dad was able to discuss with me the impact of long-standing addiction which led to the boys’ mother no longer being involved in their lives. Dad had also experienced substantial addiction, however, had sought support and is currently in recovery. Due to these issues Dad and his boys are supported by Social Services. To work with Dad and form a trusting relationship where he was able to share his life story was a testament to the importance of the role of a parent connector. Dad was able to access parent, baby and toddler groups with his two young boys and be supported in his concerns about their development.
Giving all children equal opportunities to thrive
Working with people where you can validate what they’re going through with your own life experience can really help to build trust and confidence in the support you’re offering. I probably was one of the children that we would be targeting if this support was in place when I was growing up. So, when I’m advising on support that could be helpful to make sure their child is developing at a good pace, this is always coming from a compassionate and non-judgmental place. Through the struggles and experiences I’ve had, it’s made me so passionate about change and social injustice and equality for everybody. I don’t believe that there should be disparity in anybody’s opportunities. Whatever their social economic situation is, we should all be able to reach our potential no matter what environment you’ve come from.
Creating a network of support for parents, carers and children
It’s brilliant to have local centralised spaces, such as the Bentilee Family Hub, where we can invite families to learn more about local services, make support more accessible and open more Parent, Baby and Toddler groups. These groups are a fantastic place for parents and carers to get advice and children to play and learn new skills, so they feel ready to start school. These groups are a collaborative effort as well, Thrive at Five works with local schools and providers to create a network of support for families.
Before Thrive at Five helped to create this network, there was a lack of options for this kind of support and what we’ve learnt is that a lot of parents were not really leaving the house and it was having an impact on their mental health. Isolation is something that we speak a lot about in connection to COVID, but people were struggling with these challenges long before this and we have to look at the system as a whole. Living in poverty, struggling with mental health and not having the resources to care for your child are all interlinked. So, by looking at the system as a whole and creating a network of support that addresses the links between these issues, we can make a meaningful difference to families.
Helping children feel more independent and ready for school
We’ve got a mum that’s been attending sessions regularly and when she initially started coming her son wouldn’t even get his face off her shoulder. After a few months of coming to see me and attending these sessions, her son has been getting more independent in play and growing in confidence to get involved in activities with other children. This is giving his mum the space to talk to me and she has even been looking round at nurseries for him to join, reassured that he is learning the skills to cope with being independent. As a Parent Connector, it’s important for every interaction to be meaningful like this. People are opening up about deeply personal situations and they need to know you’re going to show up for them, support them when they need it and celebrate their progress. Investing that time and effort really does make a meaningful difference and I hope that we can continue to offer this support on an even bigger scale.
“Every time I've been to playgroups I've always felt welcome and part of the group by Parent Connectors. They have always talked to me and my twins; being a deaf parent I can often feel isolated but they've always made sure me and my twins were involved in things and I've always felt I could talk to them about anything.”