Summer Activity Bags

Not all families look forward to the summer holidays, as many children are at home with no access to stimulating activities to occupy them during the break.  Holiday poverty is a real issue as parents worry about providing extra meals, snacks and the high cost of days out. 

At the request of families and our referral partners, we have put together some activity bags to help combat holiday poverty .  The bags are aimed at low-income families who dont necessarily have the means to offer activities to overcome summer boredom, particularly on those rainy days.

Items such as books, bouncy balls, drawing pads, puzzles, colouring activities will be used to fill these reusable drawstring bags. The bags are aimed from toddlers to secondary school age and can be adapted to suit the child’s age.

"These packs are a great initiative to help families who struggle during the summer holidays. More families are becoming even more isolated as they cannot afford to take their kids out, particularly with the high costs of soft play areas and theme parks for example. These will help keep the kids occupied and give the parents a break, even for 5minutes!"
Bee
Health Visitor

The packs have been put together by our team of volunteers who have kindly donated their time, carefully selecting items suitable for the age of the child who will be receiving it.  Savannah is one of regular volunteers and was more than happy to get involved in this project, making the bags ready for the children to receive.

Since launching the summer bags project, over half were distributed to families within 48hours! The bags will be distributed throughout the summer holidays but to fulfil all requests we need the help of our community.  There is a number of ways to get involved:

💜 Volunteer your time to help put the packs together ready for children to receive. Please contact us at volunteer@loveamelia.org.uk to discuss volunteering opportunities

💜 Donate items which can be used in the packs such as arts/crafts/colouring packs, puzzles and games. Please note the items go inside a drawstring bag so we are not able to accommodate larger items.

💜 Have a look at our Amazon wishlist which we have updated with items needed for the summer bags. If you wish you purchase items, they can be sent to us directly 
 
💜 Sponsor a summer bag by texting LOVESUMMER to 70085 to donate £5 or if you wish to donate any other amount, you can do so through our justgiving page 

We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has been involved in getting these bags out to families who need them most. We are very grateful to our supporters, volunteers and referral partners who go the extra mile to ensure local children have access to everything they need