Over 1500 Easter eggs and gifts donated to children, young people and their families

As you will know from our ‘Christmas Thank You’ blog, our Child Friendly Leeds ambassadors are just as eager to help and support children, young people and families, if not more so, during the Covid pandemic.

The Child Friendly Leeds Team was not in a position to deliver face to face activities earlier in the year but are on target to resume after the Easter break with in person projects. However thanks to our ambassadors, we have been able to bring some chocolate cheer to our children and young people over the Easter holidays despite Covid restrictions being in place. Read on to find out about the many contributions made by our amazing ambassadors …

Dawn O’Keefe, Managing Director of Shine in Harehills contacted us with the idea of running an egg collection for Easter, so that we could provide Easter eggs to children, young people and families in Leeds.

A record number of eggs (over 900) were collected from within the Shine network and these have been distributed to children and young people whom our social care teams and Leeds Foster Carer Association work with, as well as to local schools including Harehills Primary. Look at how many they collected in their Twitter (@ShineLeeds) video.  

At the same time, other ambassadors were also contacting our team wanting to help and support. Here’s what they did …

first direct sponsored organic and eco-friendly chocolates from PLAYin CHOC which come with a miniature model to create and fun fact card. These chocolate treats were donated to the Gipton Partnership who are based at the Old Fire Station and will be shared out as part of their Easter offer with families in the Gipton and Beeston area.

Park Square Barristers arranged an egg collection which filled a van and these are being distributed to foster, kinship and Special Guardian families taking part in our Easter egg hunt at Skelton Grange Environment Centre over the Easter holidays. Eggs were also given to Hovingham Primary and Otley 2030 to share with 140 families who receive a food parcel during the holidays.

The Grammar School at Leeds family collected over 300 eggs which we helped distribute to the Foodshare initiative which runs out of St Aidan’s Church, Harehills, the Freedom for Girls charity, to foster and kinship families and to the community supported by Hovingham Primary.

Finally, The British Library who we’ve been working on online projects with, have produced some amazing tote bags. These goodie bags contain coloured pencils, a pencil sharpener, badge, writing pencil, scissors, a glue stick, paper and a fantastic activity booklet entitled ‘Let’s Play Today!’ It is full of activities, ideas and crafts for children to enjoy doing over the holidays. More ideas and activities can also be found at www.bl.uk/families The bags are being given to foster, kinship and Special Guardian families taking part in the Easter egg hunt at Skelton Grange Environment Centre.

Child Friendly Leeds has many strands and one of these is ‘enrichment’. Our enrichment work focuses on supporting children and young people who are in the care of the local authority, and those who are leaving local authority care (care leavers) and working with partners to reach other vulnerable children and young people to access a range of fun and meaningful opportunities that support their aspirations, learning and personal development.

If you want to get involved, sign up as an ambassador or find out about our future projects, please contact the team at either childfriendlyleeds@leeds.gov.uk or cflenrichment@leeds.gov.uk