Emma Hodge is a Kids Matter facilitator at Hope North London (HNL), which offers safe, fun and creative groups, activities and events focusing on children, young people and families. HNL is committed to raising up, training and releasing local leadership to become a catalyst for positive change in their own communities. We asked Emma how Kids Matter has made a difference in her community:
How did you get involved with Kids Matter?

I’m Children & Families Lead for a charity working on our estate and I was looking at ways to support families and to build relationships with parents. It was important that whatever programme we chose wasn’t going to be seen as being judgmental in any way or force people into anything. Parents and carers can be very suspicious of anything perceived to be social services related. I was trying to find something that that would work for our community, and I felt like Kids Matter was the perfect fit. It’s aimed at low-income communities with people who are lacking in in support, and it’s easily accessible to everyone.
How has Kids Matter impacted your community?
What’s been key and really great is the building of relationships and the building of community within the groups we’ve run, and that parents who haven’t necessarily got a support network can come to Kids Matter and be real about where they are in their parenting. We’re all in it together and being in a group helps parents realise that other mums and dads struggle; that other parents find things hard and just being able to share that, and encourage one another, has been massive.
The other thing I love about the programme, is that it goes deep quickly, which is good for relationship building within the group. Straight away, parents are asked to reflect on their support network and how they were parented, which enables them to think about their own experiences and things that affected them when they were little. That then leads on to ideas about how they want to do things differently for their children. I feel like that’s a really precious thing and helps people connect with one another. And when people feel connected, they are less alone, which impacts their confidence as parents.
What inspires you to keep running groups in your community?
In one of our sessions, I shared a moment from my own life as a mum; I’d had an argument with my daughter and I got really cross, and shouted at her and I felt bad afterwards… one mum in the group was hugely surprised. She thought that she was alone in her anger and shame when parenting doesn’t go as you would have liked, which is the reality of parents who haven’t got people around them encouraging them. And it was in that moment that I thought: this why I’m doing this. For that one mum who went, “Oh, other people feel like that too.”