Summer holidays can be a difficult time for young people and parents, often it is expensive and can be challenging to find fun and engaging activities for young people to take part in. Many of our Associate Members aim to help parents by providing affordable activities which help Young People with enrichment not only in term time but also during the School Holidays.
Caring and Sharing, Jet Black and Krimmz Girls Youth Club are three partner Associate Members for our Girls Powered Programme. Both of whom have been offering continuous delivery over the summer holidays for young people in Greater Manchester. Sporting Equals caught up with Nicky Iginla (Founder of Caring and Sharing), Yosha Gilkes (Director of Jet Black) and Khadija Patel (Chair of Krimmz Girls Youth Club) to find out about their summer delivery this year.
What type of sessions did you run during the holidays?
We ran a variety of sessions focused on engaging the youngsters in various activities, including sport, creative exploration, games, debates, nutrition and wellbeing sessions, across 16 days of the summer holiday. – Nicky
We hosted a dynamic series of Caribbean dance fit workout sessions alongside Caribbean Carnival dance classes for our teen girls this summer. – Yosha
Some of our term time activities come to a stop over the holiday period, giving the young people an opportunity to explore other sports activities. This summer we had horse riding, snowboarding and skiing for the young people to take part in. We also ran snow camp for the girls and took part in the Chance to Shine National Street competitions coming third out of fifteen teams! – Khadija
How does session delivery differ in holidays compared to term time?
Sessions are busier, as it’s not your usual set up. We hold taster sessions of the activities so if girls want to commit in term time, they’ve been able to try these in advance. We run summer Holiday and Food activities for free school meal eligible children, and they get booked up straight away. We also support providing lunches for families every Friday and our girls supported the projects by helping every week. – Khadija
During the holidays, our sessions are designed for the youths and the elderly, to help give the parents some time for self-development and discovery, when the children are off to school. Also, some of our service users are unable to do a paid job, because of their immigration status, which makes it essential for us as an organisation to get creative about meeting their diverse needs. During term time, we can incorporate longer sessions and monitor progress of our participants for more in-depth engagement, compared to the short holiday activities we run for young people under the age 16. – Nicky
By offering dance sessions during the holiday period instead of term time, we were able to dedicate more time to developing the girls’ skills, fitness, and confidence. The participants were highly focused and brought tremendous energy to each project. – Yosha
How many girls did you engage with over the summer?
This summer, we had the privilege of working with 40 enthusiastic girls. – Yosha
Although our girls-specific activities were on pause, we engaged around seventy-five girls through our Holiday Activities and Food summer programme. – Nicky
We will have engaged with over 200 girls over the summer. With 41 girls partaking in the snow camp over 2 days. – Khadija
What were the highlights of your summer sessions delivery?
The highlight of the season was undoubtedly our participation in the Manchester Caribbean Carnival Parade. – Yosha
Providing girls with opportunities they wouldn’t normally participate in such as the horse riding, and of course coming third in the chance to shine national girls cricket tournament. We started a youth girls club this summer. Every week for 2 hours providing a safe space for girls to come and try new things, make friends, get support with their school and college applications. It has been a great success with over 30 girls attending weekly. We are looking to continue with the sessions over the term time. – Khadija
One of the standout moments was when the girls visited the Box-to-Box Limited for some indoor sports, and three of them came requesting for the possibility of continuous practice with their peers, under the purview of our organisation, as the holiday activities are gradually coming to an end. We have successfully stirred their interest towards self-awareness, fitness and dancing as a form of exercise. – Nicky
Were there any learnings which you took from delivery this summer?
A key takeaway from this summer’s sessions was the flexibility in managing our menu, which helped reduce food waste and reduced no-show in the holiday activity ending this week’s Friday. For our future holiday activities, we would be adopting this technique from the beginning, and publicise better, to help parents get their children registered on time. We realised that early preparation could save us some cost as an organisation, with a potential of improving quality delivery. – Nicky
Yes, there is always learning to be done. Recruit more volunteers to support sessions, trying to plan and organise activities better and in advance. – Khadija
This experience taught me valuable lessons that I plan to carry forward into next year, including strategies for reaching more girls and making the program more accessible to them. Additionally, I gained insights into helping the girls design their own costumes and working effectively with those who may not be as physically active. It was rewarding to see noticeable improvements as I guided them through the physical activities. – Yosha
We would like to thank all our Associate Members for the incredible work which they carry out to support families during the school holidays via fun, engaging and affordable activities, click here for more information on Krimmz Girls Youth Club, here for Jet Black and here for more information on Caring and Sharing.
