Home-Start is an international organization in which volunteers offer regular support, friendship, and practical help to young families under stress in their own homes in order to prevent family crisis and breakdown. It is available to any family with at least one child under 5 years of age. This book presents a snapshot of the day-to-day activities during the first 3 months of 1993 of over 500 Home-Start families and their volunteers in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Israel, and the British Forces in Germany. The first part of the book provides an overview of the schemes and activities of the Home-Start organization. The second part presents, in words and photographs, descriptions of family background, needs, use of services, progress, parental satisfaction, detailed records of volunteers and organizers, and their time spent. Topics covered in this section are: children in need, child abuse, children with disabilities, multiple births, child parents, what volunteers do, what organizers do, rural families, inner cities, equal opportunities, homeless families, family health, isolation, widening social networks, quality of life, self-development, service families, endings (outcomes), partnership, and past families. Contains 38 references. (AP)