ABOUT US

HOME-START was introduced in Denmark in 2002 by Mrs. Lone Møller, an innovative Danish social worker. In the beginning Lone travelled around Denmark matching families with volunteers recruited in the neighborhood. The need for this wonderful voluntary support was obvious, and HOME-START Denmark was officially founded in 2006. HOME-START Denmark is organized with a national board, a national secretariat, and local schemes throughout Denmark.

Danish HOME-START schemes are legally and financially independent units with a voluntary board, at least one employed coordinator, and several home-visiting volunteers. All but one, our local schemes are funded by their local municipality, often supplemented by public grants, private funds, and profits from HOME-START thrift stores.

The local boards have the overall and formal responsibility for the operations and development of the schemes. Hence, the individual board often plays an important role in relation to fundraising and in creating good conditions for HOME-START services in each and every scheme.

The local coordinators are responsible for running their scheme, including tasks related to families and volunteers. This includes recruiting and training volunteers; conducting reflected matches between volunteers and families; and performing ongoing follow-up with families and volunteers. To ensure ongoing building of competencies all coordinators must take part in 4 days of training every year.

The national HOME-START board has the overall responsibility for HOME-START Denmark; acting at strategic level; handling all types of tasks with responsibility and diligence; supporting the ongoing development of HOME-START; and ensuring that HOME-START Denmark complies to the HOME-START principles and practices, the values and the high quality standards characterizing the worldwide brand of HOME-START at all times.

The board is composed to ensure strong professional and personal competencies in relation to management, networking, social and health professionalism, lobbying and fundraising.

The national HOME-START office handles tasks at tactical and operational level across the country.

The secretariat supports local schemes with activities related to competence building, quality assurance and communication. Also, the secretariat launches new national projects to strengthen the HOME-START concept, and to create a strong, sustainable organization. Last but not least, the secretariat has ongoing dialogues with politicians and officials in municipalities to make them realize that funding local HOME-START schemes is a superior investment in children’s well-being.

The national secretariat is funded primarily by private foundations supplemented by an a governmental grant and a fee from every local scheme. The secretariat continuously works to achieve stable funding from Danish government to be able to concentrate on supporting local schemes and establishing even more, so that HOME-START Denmark can offer home-visiting for even more families.