Healthy Lives Summer Programme 2023

03/11/2023

Funded through: 

The Healthy Lives Programme is about supporting the physical and mental wellbeing of young people from the Shropshire SEND community, especially those from the Learning Disability and /or Autism communities. It is about making community-based activities accessible to this group, bringing together activity providers into one co-ordinated programme that offers meaningful opportunities to learn new skills, build confidence, make friends and get active.  Importantly it provides these opportunities during the school and college holidays, a time families tell us can be difficult, when young people miss their friends and routines, and Parent Carers sometimes struggle to balance the demands placed on them.

It has been a privilege for the PACC team to get to know the young people who have participated in the Healthy Lives programme in 2023 and a joy to see friendships develop and confidence grow. We know how difficult it can be for SEND families to try something new and to keep going, so we also want to acknowledge and thank you the Parent Carers who have filled in forms, provided lifts and shared their thoughts with us about what we got right and what we can improve.

This year our programme was funded by Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin NHS Learning Disability and Autism Programme Board and Sport England. Together, the funding allowed for us to work with local activity providers, clubs, and practitioners to develop a unique offer of activities that provide social and active opportunities for our participants. Many of the activities delivered allowed for young people to participate without a Parent Carer present, giving them a genuinely independant experience. In some cases, where one to one or two to one support was required for a young person to be able to participate safely, this was managed by enabling family members to attend and provide that assistance to their child or by facilitating Personal Assistants to support engagement. We are pleased to say that while many of the participants may usually require one to one in an educational setting or in the wider community when alone, we have worked with providers and families to create groups of young people whose needs can be safely met together with less support required. Our report and presentation go into more detail about how this was achieved.

To celebrate the success of the programme we hosted a 'celebration event' that showcased the amazing achievements of some of our participants. Young people, their families, practitioners and system partners came together to hear about the impact of this years programme, see a performance from our Rock School Band, recieve their achievement certificates, and have a listen to the song created by participants at one of our activities this summer. Certificates were handed out by our special guest Brad Fitt (yes the one and only Panto Dame extradinaire!) much to the delight of our participants.

You can read more about the programme in our Healthy Lives Programme 2023 Report here.

You can see the presentation delivered at the celebration event here.

You can watch our photo showcase and listen to the song created by some of our amazing young people here: