A grant of almost £1,000 has been awarded to a family advice service to help it expand. 

The Weymouth & Portland Lions Club has award the grant of £900 to Home Start Wessex so that the organisation can fully expand into the Weymouth and Portland area.

This grant will go towards the training of much-needed local volunteers as the service expands.

Home Start Wessex offers friendship, practical support and emotional advice to families living who are having difficulties for a variety of different reasons such as poor mental health, postnatal depression, disability, domestic abuse, bereavement, isolation, financial hardship and multiple births.

Sally Smith, grants partnership manager from Home Start Wessex, said, “For the last 28 years we have provided family support to local vulnerable and disadvantaged families with at least one child under five.

"We are also working hard to keep up with demand, so that is why this £900 grant from Weymouth & Portland Lions Club is so important for us and will help us fully expand our services into this area of south Dorset.”

The Lions club is a charitable trust fund and was formed in 1969.

Currently there are around 30 members from all walks of life who work to raise money to help those in need in the community.

Club president Ryan Hope said, “One of the main principles of every Lions club worldwide is to help children in need.

"I feel that this grant will achieve that aim. So, where there is a child in need, there is a Lion.” 

For further information about the work that Home Start Wessex do in the Weymouth & Portland area and ways in which you can consider becoming a volunteer, visit the website at www.homestartwessex.org.uk.