Holiday food and fun offer for kids
THOUSANDS of free places are on offer to primary and secondary and special needs pupils on the fourth Rossendale Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF).
Managed by Rossendale Leisure Trust and delivered by working in partnership with different providers, the project delivers a fun and diverse range of activities in venues all over Rossendale, along with free food.
The trust secured £200,000 from the Department of Education to provide Easter, Summer and Christmas sessions for children aged four to 16.
Co-ordinator Paul Gallagher said: “This summer, we have 22 different providers, most of whom come from Rossendale, along with the leisure trust, and they will be providing a wide range of opportunities for the young people in their communities.
“It is important that this programme is provided in the communities where those who are eligible live as sometimes travel to different locations can be difficult. When we opened up the registration in July, in the first three days we had received nearly 400 registrations and all of our primary school activities are already nearly full.
“For primary age pupils there is animal handling, cooking, theatre, adventure, forest school, tubing at the hill and a variety of other sports in Leisure Trust facilities. For secondary students, there is an escape room and virtual reality, bushcraft survival, and junior lifeguard course as well as various sports including skiing.
“This summer we are able to offer 6,000 free sessions over 20 days in August, some, like the primary age activities, are half days or 9-3 whereas the secondary sessions are sometimes an hour to two and are more flexible.”
Rossendale Leisure Trust first began offering the HAF project in 2021 when activities were held at Summer and Christmas. The success of that project helped the trust to secure further funding in January/February for three more sessions this year.
Paul added: “Government has agreed to fund the HAF Programme for the next three years up to 2024, and we are hoping that the three separate programmes that we are overseeing and delivering in 2022, will leave us in a good position when applying for the funding again over the next two years. Not only does the HAF provide free food and a wide range of activities for young people, it also supports local businesses, both up and coming and more established.”
For more information and to register visit rltrust. co.uk/community/haf/