We have formed a partnership with The Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) programme, funded by the Department of Education. HAF is available to those in reception to year 11 who receive benefits-related free school meals. However, Gloucestershire County Council have recognized that all children and young people would benefit from a programme like HAF so have worked hard to secure extra funding to extend the offer to all families. This means they are now able to offer this programme to other children – HAP.
The HAF/HAP programme offers a range of activities for children and their families including family play days, football camps, music workshops, arts and craft and more. Many of these activities provide food and in addition, there are food hampers that can be collected from various locations across the City.
The event was organised by our district lead for Gloucester County Council HAF program, Dawn from The Venture in White City and Erica, the site lead. Joining us was Rachael, the Children and Family Worker for the Parish of Hempsted with the City Centre We already have an existing relationship with both Dawn, who runs art sessions for the parents at The Family Haven and Rachael from her weekly group, coffee and chat, our outreach partner. Kings School have kindly offered to provide a venue for us.
The workshops run twice a week throughout August for our families to attend, the staff from The Family Haven accompanied the families on the Tuesday group, to support the event so that the whole family could attend. On the Thursday event, we provided crèche for any younger children as this session is targeted more towards children aged seven and up and their parents.
This is a wonderful opportunity for our families to experience things in a new environment. For many of our families, they only attend our centre so getting them used to accessing other activities from different providers is invaluable. It helps our families to broaden their life experiences, encourages the development of news skills for both adults and children and more importantly, it helps improve their mental and physical health.