23/10/2026
Community Drop-in Service Last Weekend 17/10/26
How do families experience the support we signpost them to, and what makes taking that next step difficult when their mental health and wellbeing is impacted?
At Kind Ambition’s latest community drop-in at Makkah Foodstores in Poole, Dorset, our community shared experiences of parenting, cultural expectations, safeguarding and the impact on mental health and wellbeing when there has been involvement with social care services.
The engagement from men and fathers was particularly encouraging. Thank you to everyone who stopped to share lived experiences, to learn and to take away resources and signposting information. Your openness reinforced the importance of recognising fathers as active parents and creating opportunities to discuss their strengths, challenges and emotional wellbeing.
We discussed signposted services in our community such as Steps2Wellbeing, Access Wellbeing, GPs and other medical practitioners, health visitors and midwives.
A recurring message was that approaching formal support can be extremely difficult when families are bridging cultures, and already experiencing emotional distress. Some described shame and fear of stigma associated with services involvement, feeling unfairness and discriminated against, but scared to voice this, making it hard to engage openly with professionals.
Knowing where support exists and feeling able to approach it are different stages of seeking help. Our conversations highlighted the importance of understanding what families need to feel comfortable taking that next step.
For professionals and partner agencies, the learning includes:
• Hear fathers directly. Make space for their parenting experiences and their own support needs.
• Explore cultural expectations with curiosity. Understand how these shape each person’s experience of parenting, vulnerability and help-seeking.
• Ask and then listen about barriers to accessing support. Explore what might make a service feel approachable and what practical help a family may need, and help them alongside to access it.
• Build relationships in familiar community settings. Drop-ins are one of the ways that offer opportunities to listen, share resources and discuss concerns and how we can help shape a safer and more fairer diverse community.
• Use lived experience to shape services. Let real community feedback inform partnerships, outreach and future support.
As Ocrober is Black History Month, themed: Honouring our Communities, we took the opportunity to thank our Black communities, recognising their strengths, hearing diverse voices and valuing their contribution to protecting children, strengthening families and bridging cultures.
It was a delight to see smiles and stories of courage shared from families about how they continue to honour their communities.🫶
Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences, their smiles, encouragement and their time, it is incredibly valuable.
Thank you also to Usman and the leadership team at Makkah Foodstores for providing us with such a welcoming venue to meet our diverse communities.
Our drop-ins take place on the first and third Saturday of each month. We welcome conversations with organisations interested in collaborating to bring accessible, culturally attuned support closer to our communities.
Look out for our community blog, coming soon to the Kind Ambition website! We’ll share reflections from our drop-in sessions and how your feedback is helping us build partnerships, strengthen community support and respond to the needs you’ve shared with us.
Our community drop-in services are made possible thanks to funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and sustainability funding from Dorset Community Foundation. We are grateful for their support in helping us protect children, strengthen families and bridge cultures.
