DCF Summer Holiday Club

In 2018, the Derbyshire Cricket Foundation (DCF) launched an ‘Active Kids’ programme in Derwent to increase nutrition and physical activity for kids in the local area.

In partnership with Revive Healthy Living Centre and Tony Palladino’s Testimonial Year, the Foundation launched several fun sport programmes in the October half term to support local Derwent children.

Revive Healthy Living Centre offers a range of services focused on health, well-being and to improve the quality of life for residents in Derwent and surrounding areas.

Poor diet and lack of activity are key issues for kids in disadvantaged wards within Derby. The aim of the programme was to address the issues of holiday hunger and also to encourage participation in the Derwent by allowing children the opportunity to participate in physical activity.

Three million children risk going hungry during the school holidays in the UK, leaving them vulnerable to malnutrition and undermining their education and life chances.

The summer holidays can be a cause for concern for most parents, how to afford to keep the kids entertained over a large stretch of time? The financial implications can be stressful to say the least. In fact for some, the stark reality is how do we afford food to feed the whole family?

That’s why, in 2019, we decided to run a summer holiday camp from Derwent Primary School offering free breakfast, lunch and activities.

We made the most of the sunshine (whilst it lasted) by getting out in the fresh air. We were fortunate to be given free access to the Racecourse APT pitches by Derby City Council, which meant the children could run around in a safe environment. We played Cricket, football and had our first experience with Drummercise. We had great feedback from both parents and children so much so we are in the stages of planning for next year when we’ll be back with a bigger and better programme, we may even entertain the idea of making slime again!

For 2021, the DCF partnered up with Aspire Wrestling Alliance to deliver a four-week food and activity provision for children living in Derwent, Oakwood, Spondon, and Chaddsden in the Summer Holidays.

The summer club took place over two sites, one at Derwent Primary School and the other at Aspire’s Community Centre where children could submerge themselves into the world of WWE style wrestling. The holiday club was specifically aimed at children between the ages of 5-11 who were in receipt of free school meals. With funding from the DFE food and activity fund, The Woodward Trust, the ASDA Foundation and the DCF we were able to offer 60 places per day with breakfast and lunch. At the end of the four weeks, we celebrated in style by having a trip to Yorkshire Wildlife Park, however, we think someone forgot to tell the animals that we were coming!

The Holiday Club was jam-packed with activities from start to finish cramming in football, basketball, a climbing wall, the circus, Cycle Derby, a steel band, animals, and even a special visit from children’s entertainer Geoffrey Jumper.  Just to put that into perspective over the course of the four weeks children attended on average 12 sessions, we provided 1271 meals,  delivered 160 activity sessions, and filled 728 places.

What was special about this project was being able to work with so many inspiring, caring, and talented people from the community as well as forging great connections with the children themselves.