Home-Start WSBA supports military families whilst living overseas across both Episkopi and Akrotiri in Cyprus. After being present on island since 1989, we have successfully established ourselves into the community, and been a lifeline for many families over the years. With battalions rotating on and off the island every 2/3 years, Home-Start WSBA has to consistently meet the needs of both departing and arriving families, therefore much of our efforts are spent networking with the community and providing a safe and welcoming space for parents, carers and children in very transient times.
In September 2024, Home-Start WSBA had an uplift of staff recruiting 2 additional operations assistants and doubling the number of our team in total! In light of this, we had outgrown our existing office space and managed to secure a larger building which could comfortably house both the requirements of staff, supported families’ drop-ins and our much used ‘Stay & Play’ group.
With a much larger space to organise, we set out to create a homely and welcoming area for the families in our community to be able to network with others and create those vital bonding opportunities with their children, because childhood can’t wait. We had the vision to develop the new building following the ‘Curiosity Approach’ which is a play-based and child-led method, inspired by various early years pioneers, that aims to create a generation of thinkers, doers and investigators. The approach moves away from technology and focuses on the wonder found all around us, here and now. Children are encouraged to explore, experiment, and create, using open-ended resources, and recyclable curiosities, rather than bright, primary colours, or plastic toys. Their innate curiosity is awakened and sparked.
This approach is also implemented in the Early Years setting located on the garrison, meaning that Home-Start WSBA plays an important role in sharing and modelling these learning behaviours with parents and carers to engage with their children to be able to reinforce positive parenting and solidifying bonding experiences. It also means that Home-Start WSBA provides support to children in preparation for when they start attending the Early Years, resulting in a collaborative working relationship across agencies on island.
Home-Start WSBA would like to give special thanks to the Army Central Fund (ACF) who provided funding towards the purchase of equipment and furniture for our new building. The funds went a great way towards us being able to create a warm, welcoming and safe space for use by the families we support here in Cyprus. Oftentimes, families are left for long periods of time waiting for their shipments to arrive on island which can leave them without resources, toys and furniture in their homes. Our new space now bridges the gap for these families, and has been well-used since we opened the doors on Wednesday 13th October.
We proudly hosted a grand opening event which was well-attended by both members of the community and professionals from other agencies. It was wonderful to see children accessing the specially created space and seeing our vision come to life!
Since then, our focus shifted to getting the office space organised and fit for purpose. After a delay that was out of our control in getting communications installed, we are very happy to confirm that the move to the new office is now complete! We are settling in well and continue to enjoy sharing the new space with our families. Again a massive thank you to all who helped support Home-Start WSBA in this venture, with special thanks to the Army Central Fund.
