During the summer of 2024, we co-created Strive's Summer Family Club, funded by Active Lancashire. After engaging with over 200 community members, we crafted a four-week programme with six key objectives. Crucially, the club provided parents and carers the chance to take part in structured, cost-free activities alongside their children. The success exceeded our expectations, with participants becoming more physically active and reporting improved wellbeing. The project's total social value amounted to £322,321 alongside building community cohesion and upskilling local workforce.
What Next?
We identified a potential to replicate this model in existing holiday clubs. Traditional clubs often incorporate sports and creativity, but they seldom offer opportunities to enhance family time. For some families, holiday clubs are essential for providing children with a hot meal and a safe space to play (Department for Education, 2023). By encouraging parents and carers to join in, family time can be enhanced and bridged in to a new environment. According to the NHS, sharing experiences is fundamental to living a positive and fulfilled life (NHS, 5 Steps to Mental Wellbeing).
In November 2024, we engaged with over 70 parents to discuss their experiences and expectations of holiday clubs. Given the chance, 87% expressed a desire to stay for a joint activity with their child, with particular interest in understanding their emotions. Combining our classroom education with wellbeing expertise, Coach and Shine CIC will deliver exactly this. A series of workshops focusing on connection, healthy relationships and self-worth have been designed. In collaboration with Wyre Council, these workshops will be offered for free as part of enrichment activities at existing holiday clubs. Through shared workshops, parents can be upskilled and bring this power in to the family home.
Our activities in holiday clubs will build upon our Super Me workshops, offering children a toolkit for self-awareness. In collaboration with the Lancashire Professional Development Service at Lancashire County Council, these lessons will soon be accessible to school children across Lancashire. We are also eager to share essential elements of these lessons with parents and carers so that they can support children to flourish even further.
Comments