A VITAL service on the Isle of Wight which works with families impacted by separation or divorce is looking for a business to step in and help fund them in the long term.
Tidal Family Support, based in Ryde, is the only enhanced national-accredited child contact centre on the Isle of Wight.
Before the multi-award-winning service launched in 2017, families would have to travel Portsmouth for support.
A team of seven, all its staff volunteer some of their hours, and the service also has a board of trustees made up of six individuals from across the business community.
The service is not government funded in any way, and that is the main challenge for centre manager Melanie Lewis and her colleagues.
“We predominantly support families where there has been separation,” said Melanie, who is also a foundation school governor at Oakfield Primary School.
“But often with that separation comes domestic abuse, and drug and alcohol misuse, and we do breathalyse and drug test our parents when court directed or required to do so.
“It’s a tough job, but very rewarding, and we’ve had lots of successes.
“We offer a wrap around support and look at budgeting, finance, healthy eating plans, access to dental; it’s absolutely needs-led.”
Anyone looking to get help from the service can make a self-referral, or if they are under any other organisation, they can get a recommendation.
“I also go into schools on the Island, doing support work and presentations about online safety, social media, bullying,” said Melanie.
“It’s helped to identify to schools where children’s families are struggling and haven’t been able to ask for help.
“We have respect in the room and it’s really good.”
Melanie has a background in childcare and education and moved to the Island six years ago.
“An opportunity came up to volunteer and it’s grown and evolved and here I am,” said Melanie.
“I’ve been centre manager for just over 18 months, and I absolutely love it.
“When we look at case studies and reflect on where we are now, we have children actually being able to have sleepovers with parents who less than a year ago had a drug and alcohol dependency.
You can follow Isle of Wight charity Tidal Family Support on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
“We work with them and give them the tools in their toolbox to help them.
“We are currently working with 87 families, and I’ve personally reached out to more than 1,000 children on the Island now.
“We’re the cheapest child-contact centre in the UK, as far as we are aware, and by a long way.
“The next centre to us – their referral fee is £175, ours is £50.
“The difference is, they get support from their local authority whereas we don’t.
“We have been pushing but the problem is our demographic on the Island.
“Because we are an aging population, and our children’s numbers are falling, the money goes into adult health and social care as opposed to children; that’s my understanding of the figures.
“The Isle of Wight Council do support us where they can, but their pockets are not deep, and they are limited in what they can do.
“We are looking for a business that can either sponsor certain events or help fund other things.
“The WI have been fantastic and sponsored our leaflets, and Vectis Business Link has sponsored activities for the children.
“We’ve had a lot of business and organisations chip in, but they are very low-level, and we’re looking for someone who can support us in the long term on a big project.
“£10,000 would be incredible; we’re really pushing to be able to take all our families out again at Christmas.
“We’re also after some people who can organise a bake sale, or a bingo night, and become friends of Tidal; as many as we can get.
“We had a family who 18 months ago was on fully-supervised contact, and we managed to progress them to supported contact, community contact, and now mum and dad are communicating again and that child is now having sleepovers and has been introduced to their siblings.
“Another looked-after family – mum actually has her children back.
“We did reunification work with her, she did all the parenting courses, and she went from being an alcoholic to a recovering alcoholic to someone who hasn’t had a drink at all for 12 months.
“We keep in contact, and some of our families still like to check in every now and again to let us know how they are getting on.
“It’s diverse, at times frustrating, complicated – there’s a lot of red tape and you have to be brave and strong to do the job – but it’s incredibly rewarding.”
The service is back-to-back winners at the South England Prestige Awards and have just been awarded a not-for-profit international acquisition award for best family-focused charity in the UK.
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