Summer Fun 2021 - Coventry HAF programme - Video and audio transcripts

 This summer coventry city council brought together 35 organizations to run holiday clubs and activities for children and young people across the city through the holiday activities and food programme or half programme these clubs were primarily for children accessing benefits related free school meals and a meal was provided alongside every session funded by the department for education over 50 holiday clubs took place providing thousands of coventry children and young people opportunities to take part in a range of exciting and engaging activities these included creative and arts master classes sports games learning about nutrition and they went on trips having new experiences this has helped them to build new friendships learn new skills and develop their well-being the half program has come at a really important time for coventry lots of young people need somewhere to go safe places positive places where they can learn but most importantly have some fun when the information was sent to us from the half team and we knew straight away that that would benefit the families that we have here at holy family and in the local community the biggest benefit for the young people is the fact that they get a new experience that they probably or they might not have come across otherwise and being fully supported to know that you know they have food and they're able to come and it doesn't feel like a barrier i feel like this has removed the barriers to participation i was very good very fun because normally i'm at home probably on my phone or i'm just playing outside but today i got to try something new when they are coming here they are doing some different activities that's increasing their you know creativity in their mind and in the end there is a sense of accomplishment you know cooking meals from scratch might not be something they've been able to do before or something they've not got a lot of experience in so it helps them to understand different things like different types of fruit and vegetables different cooking utensils how you can go from all these raw ingredients to actually having a meal that they can they can cook and eat from scratch well the major benefit obviously is an opportunity to make friends which is hugely important for any teenager particularly for children with sdn getting a balanced diet can be really difficult because people can be quite particular about the foods they eat and so this is an opportunity really for the young people to explore and try some things in a different way but also developing the skills that they need to cook and prepare the food themselves and they're more likely to eat it if they've prepared it themselves as well quality activities that they've been able to do have actually set them up for the return to school in september a lot of them are on similar pages of like feeling a bit anxious or nervous about that start and so that's definitely been helpful for them to kind of get used to that routine [Music] um i'll definitely remember kind of helping out and it's been really almost humbling to be able to give back in a way that's really benefiting people and kind of the results are really apparent really quickly really important that we're engaging with the community we're out of schools quite often during the week but it's really nice to have that change and have people come to us we've been able to run different activities for them because of the space we've got here do a stadium tour and it's just been really enjoyable to see their experience of meeting other local figures so like the police department the fire service the ambulance service it's all different educational things that they've we've been able to provide through half which has obviously had a greater effect on these young people it really builds on that community cohesion it's very important for the community because it helps a lot of poor families because most of the families are on a living wage or even on benefits so they have a job to feed the families so really it is most important yes we provide the activities we provide a hot meal but it goes deeper than that it's about the social interaction as well as the learning and the education for the kids but also crucially the social interaction for parents as well

[Music] i have enjoyed making new friends at coventry club i think it's like very helpful for like adhd people and autism because i think it would really help them with their stress without this program i wouldn't have got the opportunities and experience that comes with the program being given by university and the future pathways in careers it's a fantastic workshop and i'll definitely come again seeing this has already made me know that like we are in the heart of the government we are in the heart of the community they really care about our mental health and i really appreciate the organizers i really appreciate everyone involved in making this a success i really and i look forward to many more of it i would like it to even like it should be happening every year i think half has to be a partnership it has to be a partnership of people bringing their own strengths their own knowledge and experience and working alongside one another as equals i think that is so important [Music] there are so many more benefits than just the activity that you're doing so yeah i mean i love the fact that we've done this this summer and i really want to continue it um and if we can find someone to do that i'd love to do that so if we were to continue it again next year for me for cv life i would want swimming to be absolute heart of it but i'd want to throw in there how we can offer more lessons you know maybe involve the parents a little bit more in that for them looking back in a year's time two years time knowing that places like coventry boys and girls club have provided activities and food and programmes to support them not just to feed them but life skills skills they're going to take away from this teamwork etc so i think it's been a great experience for us and i think country boys and girls will 100 do it again [Music] i want to say a big thank you to everyone that's been involved in coventry half this summer department for education the programme team clubs parents and carers and most importantly the children and young people who have come along we hope that coventry hath has brightened up your summer we do hope there's more funding for half both nationally and in coventry moving forward so children and young people and families look out for half activities at christmas and into the future and don't miss out. One word that I would describe the shop with would be fantastic