Hestia Summer Play Scheme 

For many of the children living with domestic abuse, six weeks off school are a time for worry and fear. Over the school summer holidays our dedicated children and family workers provide activities and outings to give these children a chance to be children…to run, laugh, play and feel safe! This is not possible without your generosity and the summer play scheme project wouldn’t have worked without our fantastic volunteers and the generosity of our funders.

“…Without the summer play scheme I think a lot of the mothers and refuge workers would have really struggled to provide such a fun and exciting environment for the children. Having an extra volunteer for all our activities helped provide a more stress free day which in turn was a massive benefit to the families.

Some of these children hadn’t been on trips like these before and many of them spoke to me about how much they loved their holiday… It was a while before I realised that for some of the children we support, a stress-free visit to the park was a holiday.” 

– Daisy, Hestia Summer Play Scheme Co-ordinator

All the volunteers receive training to help the workers create a safe and secure environment which promotes play and integration for the children; this extra support they provide is especially important when working with different age groups. The summer play scheme volunteers supervise the children and activities as well as being another ‘safe’ person to trust and talk to. They add to creating fun and everlasting happy memories for the children and their mothers. The play scheme also caters for the mothers who benefit greatly from socialising with the other mums and building their confidence so that they feel more able to spend time out and about with their children.

Hestia greatly relies on the support of the public to ensure the future success of the programme. Without public support it would simply not be possible to cover the funds needed for entrance fees for outings, travel costs and everything that goes into making a summer holiday truly special.

 “Having a volunteer gives an extra pair of hands, and more importantly eyes and ears! 
When you are on outings it is really helpful to have another person there to engage the children and mothers in conversation, to ask appropriate questions about the activities we are doing to encourage the families to talk together. It is nice for the families to meet a new, safe person, who takes an interest in them”

– Tamara, Children & Family Worker

THANK YOU! YOUR GENEOSITY HAS HELPED US RAISE OVER £5,600 FOR OUR SUMMER PLAY SCHEME PROJECT!!