Dover District Council is welcoming the success of two inspiring initiatives to help support young people and unite local families – with the Inspire and Inspire Families projects being highly commended at the KCC Reconnect Community Awards on Thursday, (6 October).
Although the current Inspire Families project has now come to an end, almost 2,500 people took part in the programme, with a range of free activities over the summer months.
Our Inspire project continues to help support young people, with over 2,000 people having been involved across the district. The project provides a wide variety of support, including a range of sports and educational activities. It provides funding support to help young people to create new friendships, introduce them to healthy lifestyles through sport, and open new doors into work with opportunities to learn new skills.
As part of the Inspire Families initiative, administered by DDC’s Communities team, a wide variety of activities were made available to families in the district, ranging from free days out at Wingham Bird Park and Roman Landings Adventure Golf, to days out enjoying cycling, cinema, metal detecting, and boat tours.
There were also two major Inspire Families days out, organised at Whitemills Aqua Park and The Beast inflatable obstacle course at Betteshanger Country Park, where around 1,000 people were given the chance to enjoy a free activity for the family.
A range of exciting activities also took place in the district this summer as part of the national Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme in Kent, providing holiday activities for school aged children who receive benefit-related free school meals.
KCC’s Reconnect Community Awards at the Ashford International Hotel last week celebrated the achievements of people who have helped children and young people reconnect to the things they missed during the pandemic. The Inspire and Inspire Families projects were highly commended for the sport and activities award.
Cllr Oliver Richardson, DDC Cabinet Member for Communities, said: “We continue to work hard to support communities, and the Inspire and Inspire Families programmes have been a great success. We do understand the challenges that the rising cost of living creates, and the importance of being able to get out, to help people build confidence as individuals and enjoy time together as a family. We are very pleased the projects were highly commended, and that we’ve been able to help our communities in this way, and we thank everyone involved for all their support.”
For more information on help available to communities, please see the communities page on the DDC website.
NOTES:
A whole range of great feedback from happy families this summer included:
- We had an amazing time and loved having the opportunity to take part in such a fun and different activity, and are extremely grateful to you as without the Inspire Project we would never have been able to afford this activity
- We had a great time, I think it’s a great thing for Inspire Families project to do as family days out can be very expensive. Especially in these difficult times and all the Inspire Families project staff were very friendly and helpful
- My cousins and myself and my children really had great fun and it was a time for us to let go of our worries for a while and to have some fun together. We all had a wonderful experience, and we are so grateful to have been given this opportunity
- It was easy to complete, and it is a wonderful thing to help those who are struggling. Thank you for this opportunity
- Thank you so much for our day out … we had such a lovely day together. It was perfect and made lovely memories together
- It was a lovely and much needed day out. We spent the whole day without our phone, enjoying time as a family. We wouldn’t have had the opportunity without the help, so thank you.
Posted on 10 October 2022