Over the last few months SSF Families has continued to strengthen its partnership with Cranhill Development Trust (CDT), being able to give back to their families programme and help plan their Easter schedule, offering advice and helping out with sessions where appropriate. Supporting the Easter schedule meant we could help vulnerable families become more regularly active and make healthier choices during the holiday period when children did not have schools supporting them.
We are continuing the delivery of SSF Families programmes within the Cranhill area, building on strong local partnerships and addressing the clear need for the programme in the area. Continuing to follow and adapt to all government guidance and apply this to our delivery models remains a vital process across the organisation. Therefore we have a delivery model for the programme in place for each level of lockdown with a blended approach being implemented.
As a result, we have had to adapt the numbers of participants who can attend sessions as well as SSF Young Leaders and will continue to review guidance and adapt accordingly. This has been the case for our most recent programme beginning in March. Although the original plan was for this to be a traditional 10-week, face-to-face programme, we had to adapt it due to restrictions.
Moving the programme outdoors throughout March and April, we continued to meet our programme aims, supporting vulnerable families, providing weekly food provision, accreditation, discussion on health and wellbeing, and outdoor exercise. Regular consultations with the families continued, and, through these, it became apparent that due to constant changes in their home/school environment a “back to basics” approach would be required for the young people. The aim of this was to support young people to regain their confidence socialising outdoors with people from other households, hence why the first two weeks were orientated on outdoor play and making new friends.
The families reported that these sessions were invaluable, and they benefitted from the fun approach and the subject matters that were introduced:
"It’s been a tough few months and we have enjoyed being able to meet other families and make new friends. We are beginning to feel better as a family and I have enjoyed taking some of my new knowledge back home with me!"
We are very excited to have relaunched our 10-week, face-to-face programme at the start of June which will run throughout summer with other programmes running until the end of the year. In addition to this, we have also launched a new programme in Helenslea Community Hall. It is fantastic to have face to face delivery up and running again and be able to help families who need it more than ever.
