Children's laughter echoes around a Salford church hall as they enjoy a string of free fun-filled activities. Parents enjoy a two-hour break during a six-week school holiday which they say is just 'too long'.
Play Streets is a project in Salford offering free activities and meals over the summer holidays to children at risk of poverty.
With soaring costs making it harder to afford days out for the family, food and childcare, free projects like these are a godsend for parents in the Clifton area. Families across the region face a battle to keep their little ones occupied while keeping the costs down.
READ MORE: Life on the streets where families are being priced out of childcare
Last month hard-up parents revealed they 'dreaded' the six-week holiday as they worried about putting food on the table. Today's Play Streets session is being held at the St Thomas C of E Church in Clifton, a suburb of Swinton that lies along the River Irwell and neighbours Bolton, Bury and Salford.
Kids are offered a free meal, which includes a sandwich, piece of fruit and snack. The scheme is ran by ForHousing, a landlord that owns and manages more than 24,000 homes across the North West. Play Streets has been running in Salford since 2017, taking place at different locations in the city every weekday for free during school holidays and half term. More than 500 children participated in activities last year.
A city-wide effort, 46 organisations across Salford have been coming together to make it happen. Two of the organisations are The Lowry and Salford Leisure.
Dance artist Holly Rush, of The Lowry, said: “More things like this are definitely needed. I’ve noticed in Salford there’s not much attention to culture and leisure, but if I go to places like Gorton, they’ve got amazing youth centres."
Last year the scheme won the Working in Partnership award at the 2021 Chartered Institute of Housing’s Northern Housing Awards. It has even been praised by footballer Marcus Rashford on Twitter, and is funded by ForHousing and Holiday Activities Funding (HAF).
When the scheme originally began, it was simply about giving children the chance to try new things and grow in confidence with activities ranging from outdoor games and sports to cookery and crafts. However, recently they have begun working with local food banks from Morrisons and Tesco to provide food packs to the children attending.
Community development officer Jessica Jones said they included the free meal after feedback from parents. She told the MEN: "It’s all to do with supporting them and that’s been really positive. With the rise in cost of living, and with the areas we target of low income families and deprived areas parents are very honest about what they need.
“Especially now it’s definitely something that has been fed back to us to say that’s what is needed. Each child that attends gets a meal and a drink.
"We also link with the health improvement team who come in and deliver cooking sessions, teach kids life skills. all about healthy foods and introduce them to new foods.”
Play Streets is free for all families during the school holidays in Salford, Knowsley and Oldham. You can find out more about the scheme and how to get involved here.
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