Our Work | Vibrant Health Advocates

How we work

Starting from what families already know

The practical core of our work is the group session — held in familiar, local venues, keeping groups small enough that every parent's question gets answered, and always presented in language that is clear enough to remember at three in the morning. Every session is co-designed with a small group of local parents before it is delivered, tested against current Scottish Government, NHS Scotland, and NICE guidance, and updated whenever that guidance changes.

We do not lecture. We do not use jargon. We start from what families already know, add the practical knowledge that closes the most important gaps, and make sure every person in the room leaves with something specific and usable.

Beyond our sessions, we maintain a plain-language resource library available to all families who have attended our sessions, covering common concerns from colic and reflux to weaning and toddler behaviour. We also provide informal follow-up support by email and phone for families who attended our sessions and have a follow-up question — not as a clinical service, but as a trusted first point of contact who can help them decide whether they need to contact their GP, health visitor, or NHS 24.

We track our outcomes carefully, asking families to complete a short confidence survey before and after each session, and we publish those results annually in our trustees' report.

Parents creating resources in a church hall

Co-designing with families

18 Communities
Reached

Our programmes

Four ways we support families

Every programme is co-designed with local parents, tested against current guidance, and held in familiar, accessible community venues across Stirling and Stirlingshire.

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Feeding Foundations

A practical, plain-language session on infant feeding for parents of babies from birth to six months, covering breastfeeding, formula feeding, combination feeding, and the introduction of solid foods.

Feeding Foundations runs as a two-hour group session held in community venues across Stirling and the surrounding villages. Using visual guides and real-world scenarios rather than clinical language, the session covers how to tell whether a baby is feeding well, how to manage common challenges such as low supply, latching difficulties, and nipple pain, and what the current NHS and UNICEF UK Baby Friendly guidance actually says in plain terms. Participants leave with a one-page reference card they helped create during the session.

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Sleep Sense

An evidence-informed session on infant and toddler sleep for parents of children aged four weeks to three years, covering realistic sleep expectations, safe sleep environments, and practical settling approaches.

Sleep Sense addresses one of the most anxiety-laden topics in early parenthood by grounding the conversation in what infant sleep biology actually looks like, rather than what parenting culture says it should look like. Families learn what night waking patterns are developmentally normal at different ages, how to set up a sleep environment that meets Lullaby Trust safe sleep guidance, and a range of evidence-informed settling approaches suited to different family circumstances and parenting styles. The session deliberately avoids prescriptive 'methods' and instead gives parents a framework for making their own informed decisions.

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Growing Well

A session on child development milestones and health monitoring for parents of children aged three months to two years, helping families understand growth charts, developmental stages, and the signs that warrant a call to a health professional.

Growing Well demystifies the red book, growth charts, and developmental milestone lists that families receive but often find hard to interpret. Parents work through real examples of growth chart readings and learn to distinguish normal variation from patterns that need professional attention. The session covers key developmental milestones in movement, communication, and social interaction in plain language, and ends with a clear, memorable framework — three questions to ask yourself before deciding whether to call the GP or health visitor — that families consistently report as one of the most practically useful things they take away.

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Village Visits

Our outreach programme bringing all of the above sessions to rural villages in Stirlingshire where families may have limited transport or feel disconnected from city-based services.

Village Visits is the strand of our work we are most proud of. Partnering with rural community councils, church halls, and local childminding networks, we bring Feeding Foundations, Sleep Sense, and Growing Well sessions directly into communities including Doune, Callander, Kippen, Balfron, and the villages of the Carse of Stirling, where a lack of regular public transport can make city-centre services effectively inaccessible. Sessions are scheduled around school run times and farming household rhythms, and we offer a creche space in every venue so parents of older children can attend. In several villages, our sessions have become a regular fixture that families plan their weeks around.

In the community

Seen and felt across Stirlingshire

Feeding Foundations, Stirling

Parent and health worker talking in village

Village visit, Doune

Volunteers unloading materials at a community hall

Volunteers setting up

Practical. Plain. Local.