During the summer we had 2 incredible weeks of children’s holiday club. We averaged over 22 children each day and only 7 of the 43 children we expected to see didn’t attend. All who attended had a great time. The food was really good and we had some great feedback from the children and parents.
We had one family attend who had not been involved in any activities with Phase Trust before. They moved from Kent just over a year ago and have struggled to settle. On the first day of the club, one of the boys from the family said to his mum, “they have free food, free drinks and free fun.” When we were giving out food parcels, one of my colleagues was speaking to her. The mum said, “thanks so much for all you guys have done, you are one of the first people to have ever come up and spoken to me in Halesowen.”
On one of the days the club was running another member of the Phase team was having an unrelated meeting with CHADD (Churches Housing Association of Dudley and District). The CHADD worker recognised one of the families and was so happy to see the children having such a good time.
We had an Ethiopian family come on the first day of the holiday club. They are known to us from work in the local schools. They had a great time. The next day they brought their cousins, meaning we had 7 children all from the same family. They really appreciated the food parcels we were able to deliver to them.
One parent wrote, “I would like to thank everybody at Phase Trust for all your help and activities you do for the children. It’s hard to find things to do when you are out of work. I would also like to say a big thank you for the food. You all do a great job here and the children enjoy it. Thank you so much. My son enjoys it here.”
Some of the other comments and feedback we had from parents:
“Thank you for a fab opportunity for the kids. Appreciated.”
“Thank you again for a very enjoyable week for the children.”
“Phase is amazing. I cannot put into words how grateful we are. You have given my son the opportunity to come to Phase Trust again. Thank you.”
“Absolutely marvellous team. Kids loved every minute. Thank you so much.”
“My children have loved every minute of it, every time I pick them up they are excited to tell me what they have been doing.”
Thank you to all of your food parcel donations that enabled us to give one to each family that attended. This was appreciated so much by all of the families.
We are looking forward to this next academic year where Pete Barks, Lauren Jackson and Vicky Welch will be delivering the primary school work and continuing the relationships forged during our holiday club. Lori Martin, who volunteers for us, will also be continuing to support and help out with this area of work. We are excited about continuing our work in the local primary schools as well as hopefully starting with some new groups and schools over this next year.
