Hello
I’m Lynette and I head up Oak Grove Community Church family support service. Darren and I have two grown up children, very close in age, and our son Ryan has Asperger syndrome. Although I love both of my children very much I found parenting to be quite a challenge. We had amazing support from our family and our church family but having a child with a disability made life at times really hard and at times it was difficult to get parenting right! I‘m telling you our story, or if you like God’s story for my life, as it is my own experience that drives my passion to help families that find themselves in challenging situations for whatever reason, many of whom do not have the great support we had. Parenting is hard as well as enjoyable so here at Oak Grove we want to support local parent/carers in a number of ways.
Kids Matter is a free friendly group for anyone with children aged 0-10years. The groups are always small, relaxed and informal, led by a facilitator who is a parent themselves. We have refreshments and fun too! We discuss how to build strong families and how to love our children well including how to look after yourselves, and how to play, listen well, set boundaries and put good routines in place. There are six main sessions that are easily accessible and one of the other great outcomes are the friendships that are formed. We normally run these in a local venue with a creche running alongside and we can run the programme online too.
Babies Matter is for expecting mums and dads or those with babies under 9 months of age. The programme aims to enhance parent-infant attachment and bonding, strengthen the couple/ parenting team, promote parental mental health and well-being, which in turn will help encourage positive infant mental health. There are six main sessions and your babies can come along too! These are also in small, friendly groups and it is a great place to build new friendships.
Renew Wellbeing is a space for any parent/carer who is feeling isolated/lonely/has low emotional health (and little ones under the age of 5) to come and just be. A place where it is ok not to be ok. We have a warm welcome, tea and toast, some simple craft activities for parents and toddlers, and some toys for the little ones. There are activities and games that you can choose to do or not, or you could bring your own craft/hobby to do. You can sit and chat with other parents too. We have a quiet space for prayer/meditation or you can just take some time for you. It is a drop in between 9.30am -12noon every Tuesday in term time.