Sky Blues in the Community have been taking part in the HAF programme this Summer!
The HAF (Holiday Activities and Food) programme is funded by the Department for Education. The idea of this programme was to provide additional support to eligible families to access holiday activities and therefore the government’s expanded £220 million programme (known as HAF) came to Coventry this summer.
School holidays can be a particularly difficult and challenging time for some families who may have limited access to activities, food or learning opportunities. And for families affected by the pandemic also, it has been an even bigger struggle. Marcus Rashford MBE, professional footballer for Manchester United, felt strongly regarding this and has been helping to promote the programme, offering a safe and supportive environment. He commented:
"It’s very important that children have activities to do during the holidays. I can only go back to my own experiences and what I would have been doing if I didn’t have places my friends and I could go in a safe environment."
Our HAF programme ran for five consecutive weeks across six different locations in Coventry, seeing the children take part in numerous activities such as, tennis, archery, arts and crafts, football, healthy eating education workshops, fruit kebab making and much, much more! They got up and active for a minimum of 16 hours per week, including 1 high intensity hour.
A parent of one of our HAF campers commented “I do not know what I would have done during the summer without the Sky Blues HAF programme. My children are now more aware of the importance of healthy eating and lifestyle. As well as being more physically active.”
As well providing a safe environment where children can learn, be active and thrive this summer, we also made it a priority that every child ate well every day they were with us and also took food packages home on a Friday to provide meals at the weekend for themselves and their family.
In total we provided over 3700 meals throughout this summer's programme and will continue to run HAF holiday programmes as often as possible.
One family commented “It is just fantastic to see that you continue to do life-changing work with our children and those in the community. In our home, health is our main priority & we hope one day it will be the same for their families. We can't raise our boys on our own, so sharing the same values with them as we do, is an absolute massive help!!! Thank you.”
For more information regarding our HAF programme, please call us on 02476 786 349 or email your enquiry at sbitc@sbitc.org.uk
