HELP is at hand for young Vale families who are struggling to cope with the pressures of domestic life.

Today the charity Home-Start, which has had an organiser covering the Evesham and Pershore area for nearly three years, will open its own office in Port Street, Evesham. The new facility will provide a permanent base, and volunteers are hoping to expand on their drop-in service for families in a secure environment.

Heather Willcocks, Evesham and Pershore organiser, said: "Home-Start offers friendship and a listening ear as well as practical help and support to families with at least one child under five. With the new office, we are just going to be that much more accessible and will be able to offer a more flexible service."

In the Vale, the charity's 24 volunteers are currently helping 71 families with a total of 126 children. All the volunteers are required to attend Home-Start's 10-week training course, which builds on parenting skills. Heather will then make sure the right volunteer is sent out to help the right family.

Heather said: "We need people from a whole range of backgrounds because our work is about matching the right volunteer to the right family. We need a range of volunteers because families come in all shapes and sizes. We encourage men and women to volunteer but we have not got any men at the moment and this is important. There are single families that are headed by men who also need our help and support."

Liz Ellis from Evesham is the mother of 17-month-old twin boys, Connor and Nathan, and her family is one of many in the area to have benefited from Home-Start. A volunteer from the charity has helped her family since the beginning of the year after she found out about their work through a friend.

Liz said: "My volunteer Tricia comes every Tuesday for a couple of hours - we have only known her since January but she is not a volunteer any more, she is part of the family. It is nice to know that if things have gone wrong she is there for me, and I know at the back of my mind she is there for support."

The mother of two, whose husband works full-time, had found it difficult to cope with the twins alone as she had no real family network in the area. She added: "It is not easy to get out if you are on your own with two small children, and without Tricia I would be stuck in the old days. I would urge anyone who feels they can spare a few hours to become a volunteer - it really does make a difference."

Heather echoed Liz's appeal for more people to donate some of their free time to help Home-Start continue its worthwhile work. She said: "The level of work we have got in Evesham and Pershore is such that we really need more volunteers."

The next volunteer training course begins on May 12. More information is available by calling Heather on 01386 49476 or Home-Start's Worcester office on 01905 29377.