Listening, understanding and responding
We work with women and families navigating complex circumstances connected to pregnancy, motherhood and parenthood.
Our approach brings together emotional care, practical assistance and skills development. We respond to immediate needs, connect people with appropriate support and explore opportunities that can help build confidence, stability and independence.
We believe meaningful support starts with the person, not a predetermined solution. Every situation is different, and so is the support that may make a difference.
Who we support
We support women and families facing challenges connected to unexpected or undesired pregnancy, adoption, single parenthood, emotional difficulties following childbirth or adoption, and circumstances involving foster care, guardianship or family care.
We also recognise how economic insecurity, documentation difficulties, limited access to services and a lack of opportunities can affect people’s lives.
Three connected areas of work
Emotional care: Difficult experiences can bring grief, uncertainty, trauma, fear and isolation. We work with professionals and partner organisations to help people access appropriate counselling, mental health support and trauma-informed care. We also value the importance of being heard without judgement.
Practical assistance: Sometimes, meaningful support begins with addressing an immediate need. Our work has included paying crèche fees to enable mothers to pursue opportunities, helping create living spaces that support family reunification, funding education through partner organisations and building a nursery from scratch.
We also help people navigate services and connect with organisations that can provide specialised support. These interventions reflect our understanding that emotional well-being and future opportunities are closely connected to everyday realities.
Skills and opportunity: We support opportunities for skills development, employability, entrepreneurship and personal growth. Depending on individual circumstances, this may include training, job readiness, CV development, interview preparation and connections to educational or vocational programmes.
Our aim is to help women build on their strengths, explore possibilities and move towards greater independence.
Listening before assuming.
We don’t want to speak for communities. We want to create space for communities to speak.
What shapes a woman’s experience of pregnancy and motherhood? What influences the decisions she makes, the choices available to her and the support she receives? And what might we be missing when we look at an individual experience without considering the world around it?
Community Conversations is a research initiative exploring the wider ecosystem surrounding motherhood. Behind every story there may be relationships, family dynamics, social and cultural expectations, economic circumstances, access to services, community influences, fears, hopes and aspirations. Some of these factors are visible; others are much harder to recognise.
Through Community Conversations, we create spaces for women and communities to share their experiences and knowledge, helping us understand the wider circumstances that shape motherhood.
Looking beyond the individual story
Motherhood does not happen in isolation. The circumstances surrounding it can shape a woman’s experiences, opportunities and possibilities, often in ways that are not immediately apparent.
We don’t enter communities with all the answers. We come with questions, a willingness to listen and the recognition that communities hold knowledge that deserves to be heard. Ultimately, we want this knowledge to contribute to better-informed programmes, stronger connections and more responsive approaches to supporting women and families.
We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. There is a much larger ecosystem beneath every story.