CYP; Education; Alternative Education; Health and wellbeing; early intervention; crisis support

CASE STUDIES

Study 1

A group of 16 Romani Gypsy students from the City Academy spent last term working towards an event to raise money for 16:25ip, a homeless charity supporting young people in Bristol. The group picked this charity as they had noticed a big increase in homelessness in their local community and wanted to make a change. They spent hours of their time planning, making items to sell, designing posters and taking photos for their event, an art exhibition highlighting Romani culture as well as looking at homelessness in Bristol.

Staff from 16:25ip came along to the sessions to meet the young people and worked with the group to understand the barriers to homeless young people in Bristol and also what the service offers to support their cohort. It was really nice to see them engaging with the organisation that they had picked to support.

This was the first project of its type that many of the young people involved had been a part of and thanks to the partnership between the City Academy, LPW and Jordan Maynard, it was a resounding success!

One of the young people summed up how it felt to be a part of the project really nicely. ‘As Roma young people we don’t really get listened to and everyone just thinks that we are bad or naughty. It felt nice to do something to help people who are homeless and to show other people that we are good too’.

A special thanks to Jordan Maynard, who without this, the project could not have happened, Carrie-Ann Palmer and Aisha Thomas from the City Academy who have been invaluable in supporting our engagement at the school, to Iris and the team at Easton Community Centre who gave the young people the space in the hall out of good will and go above and beyond to ensure that the Romani young people in the area feel included and to Allan Kendall who volunteered his time to photograph the event.

Joe Secrett, LPW Service Lead

https://www.lpw.org.uk/young-people-fundraising-for-local-homeless-charity/

Study 2

Adventure Playgrounds give children and young people a safe, supportive environment to learn and develop through play. In the absence of free school meals during the school holidays, adventure playgrounds are also a critical place for children, young people and families to access free food and meals.

LPW have teamed up with Feeding Bristol, who have supplemented the food the playground normally receives from Fareshare South West to help reduce the risk of food poverty (also known as holiday hunger) during the long school summer holidays.

LPW CEO, Rachel Robinson comments “Thanks to Feeding Bristol and Josh Eggleton, we are looking forward to holding our very first community day! During which, Josh and Councillor Helen Godwin (Cabinet Member for Children and Young People) will let off hundreds of balloons with children and young people to officially open our playground”

“Nationally 3 million children are at risk of hunger during the school holidays. The loss of free school meals during the holidays costs a family £30-40 per week.”

“Teyfant Road Adventure Playground, known locally as ‘The Hideout’ by children and young people is the first adventure playground in south Bristol, and first new adventure playground in Bristol for more than 20 years” adds Rachel.

“It is a safe, supportive environment which creates opportunities for children and young people to play. And, through play, children and young people improve their cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being. It helps them build social connections, learn life skills, improve confidence, self-esteem, resilience and enables them to learn about the world and themselves.”

“The Hideout’ is an important source of free snacks and meals, which becomes even more critical during the school holidays. Thanks to Feeding Bristol, in partnership with FareShare South West,  they have helped make sure we have a more substantial amount of food available at our holiday sessions and a lovely community day where we are also celebrating the opening of our adventure playground”

“We worked hard to get the playground up and running for this summer. Our doors are now open for play but we still have lots more to do including building more play structures. Our aim is to raise £50,000 by the end of the year to make ‘The Hideout’ an amazing, imaginative and fun place to play, learn and develop, and of course, somewhere where food and refreshments are always available” ends Rachel.

Andy Street, Chair of Feeding Bristol notes: “Feeding Bristol is committed to driving systemic change to increase food security across all social and cultural communities of Bristol. We want to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of immediate provision for those in need, and drive long-term local economic and national policy changes that aim to improve the food security of all Bristolians. We were very pleased to work with LPW in reaching families in south Bristol through their adventure playground.”

Josh Eggleton, Patron and Chef to the Pony and Trap comments “Feeding Bristol strives for ‘Zero Hunger’ in Bristol. Working with LPW they are helping to ensure that vulnerable people don’t go without food. I’m really pleased to have been invited to cook for the community and I hope, in doing so, I might be able to inspire a few budding chefs!”

“I hope that Bristol responds to this and helps LPW to continue to make the adventure playground even better than it already is” ends Josh.

https://www.lpw.org.uk/community-day-and-official-opening-of-teyfant-road-adventure-playground/

CONTACT

Social Value Contact: Alexis Woodward

Email: awoodward@lpw.org.uk