Cumulus Outdoors Supports Local Initiatives
November 15th, 2021
Cumulus Outdoors took part in a number of Dorset Council initiatives over the summer.
The Cumulus Outdoors team were delighted to take part in a number of Dorset Council initiatives over the summer months. These local authority projects enabled us to welcome members of the Swanage community to our residential centre and experience the joy of spending time in the great outdoors.
It was a pleasure to work with young people from the surrounding area, who may not otherwise have access to adventure activities on their doorstep. Our instructors worked closely with participants to promote the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and eating a balanced diet.
We hope that children left our programme with new found hobbies and interests that they can explore further in their school careers. We look forward to welcoming more children to the centre in the coming months and taking part in future local initiatives.
The Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) Programme
The aim of the Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) programme was to support children to eat more healthily, be more active over the school holidays and have a greater knowledge of health and nutrition. It was hoped that this would encourage children to be more engaged with school and other local services.
In July and August this year more than 50 locations offered a total 18,000 funded places, with thousands of families who receive free school meals signing up. We were delighted to be part of this with the Summer in Dorset initiative, which was designed to bring high-quality, accessible and affordable holiday activities to families across Dorset.
Over the course of the school holidays we delivered an exciting activity programme which included Rifle Shooting, Paddlesports, Team sports, Volleyball, Climb/abseil, Tag Archery and Bushcraft, Coasteering, Orienteering and nature art plus Aeroball and Nature walks. With age groups ranging from 5 to 16 years, 280 children attended over the 6 week programme.
Both the parents and children were very appreciative of the opportunity presented by the programme and we were pleased to receive some lovely feedback from parents and children alike. The 5 to 7 year olds wanted to do another week and one of our instructors was presented with a gift at the end of the programme! Here’s just a couple of examples of what they said:
“He had such an amazing time doing the activities during the first week of the holidays. If there are any spaces available would it be possible for him to do the week starting the 16th please?”
“This enables my children to do things I would never be able to do with them and they are loving everything! Thank you so much for running the sessions.”
The HAF Programme is scheduled to be repeated in the Christmas holidays.
Dorset Artz and Sportz
We were also able to support another local initiative for a group of children with additional needs run by Dorset Council. We met the challenge with increased instructor and carer ratios for added safety. “All of the 26 children that attended loved the activities on the beach and in the sea, it was certainly a very rewarding programme to be a part of” said Cumulus MD Sam Thompson.