A CHARITY helping vulnerable Hampshire families is celebrating after a £123,000 windfall.

Home-Start Meon Valley has received the grant from the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities scheme.

The charity, founded in 1998, now hopes to assist up to 70 families a year in the Meon Valley.

It provides friendly advice and practical support to parents with children under five who need a helping hand.

The charity has trained a network of more than 30 volunteers offering one-to-one support.

They are especially keen to help certain groups – teenage mothers for instance – in need of support.

Along with coping with the new arrival, the charity aims to enable parents to fulfil their potential. This might include taking adult education courses or classes to improve self-confidence.

Families can put themselves forward for help, or be referred by community groups or public bodies such as the NHS.

The charity relies on grants, including money from Hampshire County and Winchester City Councils, but the lottery cash will enable it to expand.

Tracy Micklethwaite, the charity’s senior co-ordinator, said: “Home-Start Meon Valley is absolutely delighted to have been awarded this Big Lottery Fund grant.

“It will allow our organisation to enhance and increase our early intervention and support service to reach up to 70 families a year and fulfil the current local need.

“The grant will enable us to recruit and train more volunteers from the local community to then offer one-to-one support within the home or in support groups and enable parents to give their children the best possible start in life.”

She added: “By supporting more families at home where life begins, we can help strengthen the family unit, increase parental confidence and help them to develop coping strategies.

“Children will feel more secure, happy, and a stable childhood will enable them to achieve their full potential.”

Fiona Dempsie, regional head of the Big Lottery Fund, said: “We are delighted to be able to fund this innovative and worthwhile project that will provide much needed support for teenage mums and single parent families with young children.”

She added: “This project is an excellent example of how the Reaching Communities programme continues to make a real difference.”

BLOB Home-Start Meon Valley will receive an extra boost thanks to the Wickham Beer Festival Held last Saturday (September 11) at Wickham Community Centre, where the charity is based, the event raised money for several good causes.

The others were the 1st Wickham Scouts, Pancreatic Cancer UK, Wickham First Responders and The Wickham Community Association.

Organisers are now counting how much the event raised.