RCS were pleased to be able to continue its local Community support by providing family and teen fun days over the summer 2022, with the funding support of Hampshire county council.

Over a 4-week period our team put on daily activities to help, support and engage families in 3 locations, Andover, Eastleigh and Romsey, also providing a teen provision in Andover.

As part of these days, we put on a large variety of activities including make take and bake sessions to help with food and nutrition and families took home their finished products. Daily specialists came in to provide entertainment to give families insight to new activities or to provide fun activities that our families may not be able to afford to do on a normal day. A popular favourite was our Crystal Art sessions which kept the families really engaged, with several families asking to take home a little kit to practise at home!

Alongside the long list of activities provided, the families were most appreciative of the two-course hot meal provided by external chefs on a daily basis. Taking that summer holiday pressure of money for food away. At the end of each week, our families were provided with a weekend recipe bag to help further. Several families commented that these bags were a lifeline and couldn’t believe they were getting these in addition to the fun days and food already received. Many of our families chose to take part in several of our family and teen days, with the families making friends and support networks which are still in place now.

Alongside the fun activity with learning elements rolled in, we were able to provide several support drop-in sessions to help with signposting, some of which were connect to support Hampshire, our local community pantry’s and local health visitors.

With several days of severe heat over the summer we put several interventions into place to support our families, and additional activities were put on the following week, when it had cooled a little, so our families didn’t miss out due to the heat.

Our staff team members got to see the importance of these days as they welcomed several familiar smiling faces from our previous events. We were also able to support and welcome new members of the Community from the Ukraine.

To finish off a fantastic summer of fun we provided a day trip out to Paulton’s park with the transport and hot food provided. Families enjoyed learning about creepy critters and little Africa. With good weather in tow, a fun and tiring day was had by all.

Our Andover teens also engaged in several fun activities, helping our teens to engage with new people and enjoy fun and learning activities over the summer. Activities such as Mosaic workshops, crystal art, t-shirt designing and mini golf. Maths crept into the mini golf as the fun competitive spirit of the teens came out when tallying up their score cards!

A great summer was had by all areas we provided provision in, and we are now very much looking forward to planning and supporting our Families over Christmas 2022.

Natalie May-RCS Senior Manager.