Summary
The Cafe Holiday Club provides short breaks for carers and fun activities for cared-for disabled children and young people, promoting social integration and healthy lives through a wide range of activities including free play, sport, dance and drama
What THE CAFE HOLIDAY CLUB (CHC) did
We had a great 9 weeks CHC - the Spring weather was so good and Summer held out really well so lots of time outdoors in our beautiful garden space and great use of our lovely summer house making best use of our outdoor space. October was fun - as it always is. Still some outdoor space and changing our Summer House to our haunted house is always fun. We continued to be able to offer full day sessions to those carers most in need - those who have other caring responsibilities including siblings of the cared-for child at club and others who they care for including parents / other family members. For many of our carers the short break time enables them to get those tasks done which are more challenging when they have their cared-for child with them and for a few they told us that just having time to re-energise is a gift - its not so often our carers have time to sit down and have a well deserved break. We continued to deliver a wide range of activities including our sports sessions supported by external professional sports coaches, walks in our beautiful public parks, many arts and crafts projects providing our carers with lots of opportunities to see what their child is doing at Club and in our October week we have had lots of fun practicing for our annual Reach for the Stars show which was a. great success.
What THE SATURDAY CAFE CLUBS SCIO has learned
We have been delivering the CHC since 2011 and not a year or session goes by where we do not learn something new. For 2023 CHC a new toy and equipment rotation was put into operation to ensure that all children / young people attending had access to the full range of equipment and activities we offer. This took a bit of planning, but with earlier registration for CHC we were able to ensure each child/young person had access to the full range of activities and equipment on offer. We also extended our professional contacts to ensure word about the service reaches those carers and families most in need. This was positive in many ways, but unfortunately we cannot accommodate all the families who need our service so our waiting list got longer. We would have liked to have been able to extend our session to 30 children per day, but unfortunately staff recruitment has been very challenging so this is a target we will strive for in 2025/2025.
How THE SATURDAY CAFE CLUBS SCIO has benefitted from the funding
Our reputation as a safe, fun Holiday Club for disabled children continues to grow -demand across all our Clubs (general and CHC) means our waiting list grows beyond our ability to supply which is stressful for carers and our management team, but we are striving to open more sessions during our general Club time which we hope will help carers and children alike. Our carers and children are very grateful to the fund for the CHC service as there are very few services available across Glasgow and the surrounding LA's making it very difficult for carers to access short-breaks from their role as carer. Without this fund this service would not be available - the impact of that would be significantly negative for carers and cared-for in our wider communities.
Project Outcomes
Outcome
70 children/young people with disabilities have improved access to participate in fun leisure and recreation activities of choice
Results
This target was exceeded as we catered for 72 children and young people with additional support needs who told us that they had an amazing time at Club, interacting with friends and doing the activities that they most enjoy. We were also able to support some full day sessions improving on our target of hours of access to participate in fun leisure and recreation activities
Case study
K is one of 2 brothers attending Club, he has had a number of hospital visits and is awaiting a further major operation so mum is very pleased we can continue to support him through such a trying time for K and the family. K loves coming to the holiday club. His favourite activity is football so he loves time with the Sports Coaches during the CHC and engaging with his friends. K's mum says being active and staying fit will help K is his upcoming operation.
Outcome
50 carers of children/young people with complex support needs have more time to access activities of choice free from their caring role
Results
We slightly exceeded this target as we had 56 carers benefitting from the project. This of course is only the primary carer and does not include secondary carers or siblings who also benefit greatly from their cared-for child attending CHC. We were able to support more children therefore more carers benefitted. We were also able to support some full day sessions improving on our target of hours of access to participate in leisure and recreation activities of choice.
Case study
J is a teenager who attends our general Sunday Club. He is a very anxious young boy and finds it difficult to settle into the routine of Club. In the past we have tried to extend his time at the CHC to give mum a longer break, but we found full-days were simply too challenging for J to settle into. In the Summer CHC we tried a different approach - we invited mum to bring J along at 10am and collect him at 2pm. This worked well for both J and his family as it still gave mum a few hours to do activities with J's siblings. This new routine also suited J as the extended time was broken up by lunch time break.
Outcome
50 carers of children/young people with complex support needs have increased opportunity to engage in (supported or self-directed) activities with other carers / professionals to discuss challenges and good news stories that improves support networks and their personal wellbeing
Results
As before the number of carers we supported was 56 - slightly more than the target we had set ourselves. We continued to orientate carers to other activities with and without their cared-for child. We also take time to support carers individually in relation to orientation to professional services and funders for support. Our parents/carers also have the opportunity to meet to provide peer support.
Case study
Carer G was delighted that she had a position in the CHC for her second child R (5 years) who had now reached the age to come to the holiday club. G's other child L (10 years) has been attending our Saturday Club for a number of years, but she stated that having a second child with complex additional support needs she now feels that the short-breaks whilst both boys are at the CHC really gives her time to catch up on tasks at home and have a bot of time to do things she chooses to do for herself meaning she feels in a better place to continue her caring role when the boys return home and on the days the boys do not attend CHC.
Outcome
70 children/young people with complex support needs and their carers will have increased wellbeing and reduced stress through improved access to physical health and wellbeing (information and support) to participate in activities of choice
Results
As previously stated we did slightly increase our targets as we supported 72 children/young people with complex additional support needs and 56 carers to have more leisure time and to engage in more leisure activities which they tell us has improved their wellbeing.
Case study
Carer M reported that she felt stressed at the thought of the long school summer break as she had another 2 children at home and it was difficult to participate in activities they enjoyed whilst N her cared-for child was with them. Often planned activities had to be cancelled as N was not feeling well or was having a 'bit of a meltdown' which upset the other children. M told us having N at CHC made such a difference to her and N's siblings and she also felt that N was getting to do activities that he would not normally have access to. M said she felt this made the summer break much more bearable, relieving the stress factor as she could keep all the children engaged in activities that they enjoyed.