On Wednesday 15th January, our proud charity Roseberry Community Consortium attended the HAF (Holiday Activity and Food Programme) celebration. This was to celebrate the last three years as a provider of HAF during school holidays. HAF is a government initiative, funded by the Department of Education and delivered by each local authority. Ours being Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council in partnership with Catalyst Stockton who manages the programme.

Wednesday evening during the celebration we were invited to talk to the visitors, our chairman Paul Scott, took the stand explaining our experiences of the HAF, followed by introducing a video that we were asked last year to capture as part of an evidence gathering exercise to enable SBC to build a case of why the HAF should continue.

SBC also asked us to take along a few HAF attendees who would be willing to answer a couple of questions, regarding their thoughts on HAF. They did absolutely amazing, being true ‘StarmakerZ’ showing their confidence speaking publicly; which is something that they may not have experienced previously. But of course, they smashed it! Well done!

As part of the HAF celebration, the Mayor of SBC was handing out awards to providers and we’re pleased to announce that we have been chosen and proudly won “Inspirational Leader Award”. This award means a lot to our team of dedicated volunteers and we’re extremely thankful to Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council and Catalyst for the opportunity to be a HAF provider.

The HAF has been a huge part of our annual delivery and charities income, not only will our charity be affected by its loss if it does not continue, other providers and ultimately the children and young people of our wider community will be affected also.

Roseberry Community Consortium is super proud of all volunteers, who have been a huge and vital part of the HAF delivery. You are an inspiration to the children/young people of your community.