Please email volunteering@birmccc.org.uk using our Volunteers Application Form if you wish to volunteer with Birmingham Child Contact Centre.
Download our Volunteers Application Form
What is a Contact Centre?
The Centre provides facilities for children to meet with the parent with whom they no longer live due to family break down. The aim is to provide a warm, friendly, toy-filled neutral meeting place where contact can take place during what can be a very emotional period. The Birmingham Child Contact Centre is based at Edgbaston Community Centre 40 Woodview Drive, Birmingham B15 2HU which has good travel links from the main city transport hubs.
When is it open?
We are open every Saturday from 12.00 until 2 p.m. initially. As we become busier, an additional session between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. may be added. Families usually come for two-hour periods but some stay for longer. Volunteers need to be at the Contact Centre from 11.30 until 2.30 p.m., or 4.30 p.m. if the additional session is added.
Why is it needed?
Research consistently shows that children generally cope better with the separation of their parents if contact with both of them is maintained. Unfortunately, many children whose parents’ relationship has broken down lose contact with the non-resident parent within two years. We help the children keep in touch with both parents.
How can the Centre Help?
The Centre helps to ease initial contact at a difficult period for the families. Frequently there are court proceedings in progress to determine the amount of contact. Many parents find that they can relax a little and work better together and can make their own arrangements for further contact between their child(ren) and the visiting parent. In some situations the visiting parent may have nowhere suitable to take the child(ren). Grandparents may also use the Centre. Some families use the Centre as a drop off and collection point.
What do the volunteers do?
Volunteers keep a register of attendance, provide refreshments; help children and parents settle in and, if appropriate, help to facilitate the relationship between children and their parents. Sometimes this is necessary when the children have not seen one parent for some time. The volunteers’ main job is to see that everything runs smoothly.
Can You Help?
Please help to make our Centre a success by becoming a volunteer. Do come and see the Centre in action. It is satisfying to see children playing happily with a parent whom they otherwise wouldn’t see. Volunteers especially benefit by gaining useful experience, when embarking on careers working with children and families. It can help when applying for jobs, but above all it can provide job satisfaction in contributing to children rebuilding their relationship, with the parent whom they no longer live with.
Charities Commission No: 1174279, NACCC Candidate No 1702/2