Hundreds of children and young people across Wyre have taken part in dance, swimming, bowling, coding, yoga and more thanks to Wyre Council’s Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) clubs this summer.
Children age 4 to 16 who are eligible for free school meals were able to choose from 20 clubs running throughout the holidays with a range of providers across the borough.
Wyre Council offers the HAF clubs every summer, Christmas and Easter thanks to funding from the Department for Education. The intention is to give families a helping hand in the school holidays and give young people a place to meet new friends and learn new skills. The clubs deliver a range of activities including to get kids active and free lunches are provided.
Some sessions were also open to children not eligible for free school meals to give everyone a chance to take part.
Councillor Lynne Bowen, Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Health and Community Engagement at Wyre Council comments,
“I was really pleased to go along to the Fleetwood YMCA HAF club and see so many young people having fun. The HAF programme is a great way for families to keep children occupied during the summer holidays, which can be an expensive time. This summer we’ve had over 7000 bookings on the clubs with another 500 attendees at the drop in sessions, which is double the number of people who took part last year. It’s great that more and more children are taking part each year. There was something for everyone on offer and I’m looking forward to seeing young people enjoying our clubs again at Christmas.”
Wyre’s Mayor, Councillor Julie Robinson also visited a session at Over Wyre Sports Centre, run by Absolute Futbol. She comments:
“It was brilliant to chat to the young people taking part. It was a fantastic session – glow in dark dodgeball, what fun! Everyone got involved and they all looked to be having so much fun. The food went down really well, all in all it was a great day and I was really pleased to get involved and meet the young people there.”