During the build-up to the festive period Sky Blues in the Community delivered Christmas Holiday Activity and Food Parcel Camps at the Moat House Leisure Centre.
This year has been extremely difficult for families in the City of Coventry due to the pandemic. The impact of the pandemic on young people has been significant, with most vulnerable experiencing food poverty, social isolation, poor mental health and physical inactivity.
We at Sky blues in the Community deemed it essential for the community to receive Holiday Activities on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of December at the Moat House Leisure Centre CV2 1EA, as part of our Premier League Kicks project.
This was all made possible by funding provided by the Premier League, Premier League Charitable Fund (PLCF) and Barclays. We provided three full days of multi-sport activities to give young people a positive end to a very difficult year.
The Camps ran for 5 hours each day and were split into two time slots. During the morning from 10:30 to 13:00 we catered for our younger ages, 8-14 years. The second time slot, 13:00- 15:30 we catered for an older age group of 15-18 years. Due to current COVID-19 restrictions we were only allowed bubbles of 30, meaning 28 young people could attend with 2 coaches assisting each group.
During the two and half hours, our young people had the opportunity to play a variety of Multi-Sport games as well as giving them the opportunity to build back their crucial social skills, mental self-esteem and physical wellbeing. In addition, each young person received a nutritious food parcel to take home each day they attend.
Over the duration of the three days, we saw attendances of 60+ young people. It was great to see familiar and new faces, especially as the pandemic has put a stop to sporting sessions all over the city. We followed social distancing measurements and all our coaches wore appropriate masks and visors throughout the sessions. In addition, we provided hand sanitizer stations and sanitizer spray bottles throughout the venue so young people and staff could regularly sanitise their hands and equipment.
Due to the cooperation of everyone we were able to provide this much needed project safely to the young people in the Community, with all costing and potential participant charges covered by the Premier League.