By Beatrice Obigbesan, CFF Administrator 

​Following the spread of Covid-19 and its declaration as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), office workers have endured a series of lockdowns, restrictions and multiple changes in the way that their work is carried out. From my personal experience, many abrupt shifts and adaptations had to made in order to create an alternative form of office life. Arguably, a unique formula or method of work had to be sought to ensure a sustainable working culture that could withstand the uncertainties of the pandemic. From being completely office-based one year ago, here's an insight into my experience. 

By Hattie Allen, CFF
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I am very fortunate to be able to support our team of fantastic young peer mentors who have been actively involved at CFF for over 6 years now. 

They really are a joy to work with and make such a difference to the service we offer to young people across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Our peer mentors are young people who have accessed our service previously due to experiencing personal difficulties with their own mental health. Whilst they attended one of our groups they demonstrated good leadership skills, empathy,  and were approachable. They were therefore invited to become part of our peer mentor team, so that they could help other young people who are experiences similar difficulties and be able to share their personal experiences of how the group programmes helped them to overcome some of their difficulties. 

Leicester charities receive funding to help give babies the best start in life
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Centre for Fun and Families and Leicester Mammas, working in partnership as ‘Starting Well Leicester’ have been selected for a three-year grant from the Government’s Health and Wellbeing Fund, to reduce health inequalities amongst new mothers and give babies across the City the best start in life.
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The £330,000 funding focuses on mothers living in Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities and deprived areas, and will provide a joined up pathway of support complementing existing statutory provision. 

By Kate Harris, CFF.

Here at CFF I have the privilege of coordinating our Teenage Parent Pathway service. We provide teen parents and teen parents to be with a number of opportunities to receive support, come together to share experiences and gain information. 

The young parents I meet are passionate about being the best parents they can be. I get an overwhelming sense from them that they want the best for their unborn babies, babies and children. They really are a joy to work with. Something however that makes me sad is a common concern they share with me and each other: feeling judged for having a baby in their teens. 

By Henry Charles, CFF Project Manager

At CFF we work extremely hard and pride ourselves on our ability to engage families (young people and parents/carers) with complex personal circumstances. Sometimes we need to provide a bit more support to enable these families to take up the offer of help and it's this way of working that sets us apart from other services.  I would like to share with you the journey of one particular family that I had the pleasure of working with in the past (prior to the Coronavirus and Government restrictions).