We have taken the children on an outing as part of our ‘Being part of community life’.

They have had so much fun following the signs and clues on the Gruffalo trail at Queens Wood Park.

They’ve listened to the story in Preschool and the Caterpillar room and now they’ve met him and all his friends.

We’ve also talked about the trees and the leaves changing colour in the Autumn season.

We could not have gone without the wonderful Community Transport, who are such an important part of the community of Bromyard, we need to say a big thank you to them too.

For the past month the Early Years Department and Oscar’s Café have been getting children and parents involved to help create some of the many poppies that you will have seen on display in and around Bromyard.

In Early Years the children have created paintings for display at the Hope Family Centre as well as in St Peter’s Church and understand the importance of Remembrance Sunday and the value of the sacrifices that were made and the lives were given.

On Remembrance Day Rachel Cross (Early Years Manager) and Netti Evans (Café Manager) took part in the parade through Bromyard to the church to lay a wreath on behalf of the Hope Family Centre with some added purple poppies made by families at Oscar’s Café.

All of us at the Hope Family Centre are proud and honoured to have been part of this special occasion.

Thank you to all the children, parents/carers and staff that have been involved.

On Thursday we welcomed Bill Wiggin, MP and the Mayor and Mayoress of Bromyard to the Centre. At the meeting the management team delivered a short presentation outlining the services and activities on offer. The award of a new Children’s Centre contract and the Centre’s participation in the Royal British Legion Bromyard’s “Everyone Remembered” were also on the agenda; pictured above with Sarah Eardley (CEO at the HOPE Centre) are Bill Wiggin, MP, Cllr Roger Page, Mayor of Bromyard with the Mayoress, Claire Davies, holding some of the poppies that have been made at Oscar’s Café.

The MP and Mayor and Mayoress are very supportive of the essential services and support offered by the Centre to the local community and the role it plays locally. The Mayor acknowledged the importance of the presence of the centre in Bromyard and the variety of different services on offer.

A recent publication from the LGA, Local Government Association, highlighted that in Herefordshire the number of Child Protection Plans increased by 88% compared with last year.  The early intervention and support services that centres like Hope for Children & their Families offer are a trusted and known resource situated locally.  This makes them able to seamlessly provide services quickly and easily thereby helping to avoid escalation to more costly interventions from statutory services.

This month we’d like to welcome Natasha Brining and Aaron Willoughby to our Admin team.  Natasha brings her organisational, administrative skills from her previous role as an events organiser to the team and we look forward to hopefully using some of them for events of our own! Aaron joins us from a role as Data administrator and Adult Skills tutor with Learning Box in Hereford and we hope to be using his skill and experience with our social media and monitoring.  They will work with Anna Beddows, who manages the team, and Mandy Williams who have been with Hope for a combination of over 20 years.  A great combination!