Family Fun in the Sun guaranteed!

Family support charity Home-Start Winchester is running a Summer Fun Club for its families which will run for two weeks in August. Community group First Bite and caterers Red Radish have agreed to supply lunches for the families which will also include ice cream from Judes and fish and chips from Rick Stein but the charity is still looking for sponsorship to pay for transport, portaloos and the marquees that are needed to maintain social distancing.

We have become increasingly concerned that our families have been significantly disadvantaged due to lockdown, says Senior Co-ordinator Liz Stannard.  Parents have found home-educating their children a challenge and we know that these children will have fallen further behind their peers once they return to school and parents with fragile mental health have also suffered during this stressful time.

We usually support families with trained home-visiting volunteers who visits the family once a week or through our lively family groups but due to Covid we have been unable to support families in this way and since March staff have only been able to deliver FareShare bread and donated groceries once a week and have a chat on the doorstep. said Liz.

The Home-Start Summer Fun Club aims to bring families together and begin to re-integrate them whilst ensuring social distancing.  The aim is to strengthen parent-child relationships, improve parental well-being, develop parenting skills and have a light touch on educational
activities. There will be co-operative play and craft activities, a Forest school day and each day will be loosely themed on popular children’s stories including The Very Hungry Caterpillar, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and Elmer.

Every day will include well-being activities for both children and parents and we hope that around 25 families will be able to attend,
said Liz.  Much of our expenditure will go on making sure social distancing is adhered to and, along with extra staff costs and transport for families, we are looking at a budget of £5,000, so any support from the community would be very gratefully received, she said.

Photo: Lots of fun for Home-Start families


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