A new partnership is looking to tackle fuel poverty among young families in Banbury, Bicester, and Chipping Norton.
Home-Start UK will work with gas distribution network SGN to provide utility support services across 37 local Home-Starts within SGN's network.
Home-Start UK is a local community network of trained volunteers helping families with young children through challenging times.
Representatives from SGN and Home-Start UK recently visited Home-Start Banbury, Bicester, and Chipping Norton to mark the launch of the partnership.
They met families, staff, and volunteers to hear accounts of the impact of Home-Start on the community and discussed new training and resources aimed at keeping families safe and warm this winter.
SGN's community partnerships manager, Janet Duggan, said: "It was great to be able to meet families and staff from Banbury Home-Start to officially launch our new partnership across southern England, from Dorset to Kent.
"Many families are still facing hardship through the cost of living crisis and living in cold and unsafe homes.
"We hope our partnership will go some way to help people with young children to stay safe and warm in their own homes."
Home-Start Banbury's manager, Louise Sansom, added: "This funding will enable us to provide essential support to help families stay warm this winter.
"This will provide relief to those families facing real challenges and help us to support their needs.
"It also allows us to raise awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide and let people know the benefits of joining the Priority Services Register."
A recent survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of Home-Start revealed 48 per cent of parents cited the high cost of living as a significant factor contributing to their feelings of loneliness or isolation.
The number of families experiencing debt or financial challenges has increased by 20 per cent in the past year, and by 52 per cent since 2020-21.
Home-Start has supported more than 20,000 families with debt and financial challenges since 2020-21.
Home-Start's deputy chief executive, Vivien Waterfield, said: "This new partnership with SGN couldn’t be coming at a more important time.
"Feedback from our volunteers is that they’re visiting a growing number of families struggling to make ends meet, with parents making impossible choices this winter between eating and heating.
"Partnerships like this are crucial because they allow us to provide much needed immediate assistance and a vital safety net to families facing fuel poverty."
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