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Our Story:
Growbaby
is a project of Kingston Vineyard; in 2003 we were talking to
various people about a service that might be useful in the
Borough of Kingston for families from within the Borough. We
came to the conclusion that providing good quality baby clothes
and equipment for free was something we could do very easily and
very well, so the concept of
Growbaby was born. The more we thought about it the
more we realised how stressful and expensive raising children
can be. It may be a single parent family managing on their own,
or grandparents or even a married couple. We decided that
Growbaby could
potentially become a useful resource for families, not only by
providing clothes and equipment, but also offering services such
as parenting talks.
Fairly
quickly it became apparent that we needed to find a permanent
home for
Growbaby. In
August of this year we finally signed a three year lease on a
two storey shop front, no 38 Surbiton Road, Kingston upon
Thames. With a home for
Growbaby
we will be able to allow people to make their own choices, which
we feel is very important, but we would also like to provide a
drop-in centre with coffee facilities, play area and access to
relevant and significant information such as 'back to college'
support. We would also like to be able to put on parenting
classes, dietary advice and life skills courses to name but a
few of our ideas. We would love for it to become a place where
those that choose to access
Growbaby can feel comfortable, enabled, and loved.
The
intention is to have the ground floor as a drop in point for the
Growbaby families (and
anyone else who wishes) so we plan to have a small kitchenette
area, a play area and a social area. This will enable us to
welcome people, put on courses and give those who choose to
access the project a focal point. The basement is split into
two rooms and we intend to turn one into the Growbaby storage
and the smaller one into a kid’s room. We can then have a place
for our teenagers to hang out and a place where we can look
after the children if the parents are undertaking a course
upstairs.
Over the
years that
Growbaby
has been going we have helped a huge number of families. Many
of them have needed “one off” help, but we have many more
families who we have been helping over the whole period of time.
It may have been providing a stairgate for a family with a
toddler to providing everything for a new mum. We have worked
with mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends, social services,
health care workers, the police and neighbours. One of our mums
is even on her fourth child. We estimate that we are currently
serving around 600 families each year. As you can imagine this
is a huge job for the Growbaby team and many miles have been
clocked up in the time we have been going. Often a call will
come in for a family who have left their home with literally
nothing and
Growbaby
can help. Sometimes the calls are urgent, sometimes less so.
Because we do not have a referral system to
Growbaby
and anybody can
contact us, our calls come from far and wide. It has been our
privilege and joy to serve this community.
For the
last few years
Growbaby
has also linked with the children and staff at Epsom College
who have held a Christmas toy service. In 2010 this allowed us
to provide 650 presents for families in the Borough of Kingston.
So what
next…. on Monday 26th September the Hub (the name we
have given the centre) will be launching,
Growbaby
will finally
have its new home. This has been made possible by the generous
donation of time by many local tradespersons, a brand new
kitchen from Howden’s and gifts from people who support and are
interested in
Growbaby
this includes such things such as blinds for the windows,
shelving, furniture and appliances.
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