Supporting families during lockdown with Home-Start

During our first lockdown in the summer, we were very privileged to work with the fantastic Home-Start teams across the UK to support families in need. We put together a number of bespoke activity packs to provide families with engaging and fun activities to do with their children. One of the many Home Starts we worked with was Home Start Lambeth.  Here is the overview of how the campaign went:

During our first lockdown in the summer, we were very privileged to work with the fantastic Home-Start teams across the UK  to support families in need.

We put together a number of bespoke activity packs to provide families with engaging and fun activities to do with their children.

One of the many Home-Starts we worked with was Home-Start Lambeth.

 Here is the overview of how the campaign went:

Homestart craft pack evaulation

 

Feedback from the families who received the activity pack.

Most children got more than 6 hours of play from the pack. Given this data we can estimate that this project provided around 1048 hours (44 days) of play (262 packs sent x an average of 4 hours of play).

Families’ comments

The comments below are organised into themes. Where comments fit under more than 1 theme, the second occurrence is in italics.

General positive feedback

  • My daughter loved this so thank you very much
  • Fun for children.
  • My daughter played every day. So grateful
  • I thought it was very kind for people to thought about the children in that way, made a lot of difference
  • We enjoy it, if we’re bored we play with it
  • I like nice 👍🏿
  • That was interesting for him
  • It was lovely, my child is only 14 months so couldn’t use all and under a lot of supervision but she enjoyed herself. Possibly more baby/infant friendly activities

Spending time as a family

  • Gave me and my family an amazing time hunting for different textures, and colours and we adapted all the craft pages to our walks and it was amazing.
  • It was such a great way to bond with my children, and to get my 2-year-old to use her imagination.i wouldn’t have been able to afford such a wide variety of creative items like the craft pack.
  • My child and I loved spending time together creating so many different types of crafts.
  • The pack allowed me to bond that little bit more with my son. We had a great time
  • It was a great opportunity for me and my 2 kids to spend quality time together. We had the chance to learn new activities that we never tried before and my older child defines herself as an artist now. It helped to boost her confidence as now she knows how to do things and shoes her art work to family and friends. A great initiative. Thank you for letting us be part of it.
  • I don't buy so much different craft supplies so my children enjoyed making different things from it. I was happy to learn and help them to do new activities.
  • I did different activities than I normally do with the kids
  • This was such a lifesaver during lockdown. It’s so hard to get a balanced day when I was homeschooling my older child. This enabled me to spend quality and constructive time with my youngest as well. I’m not creative, so having links to ideas plus loads of crafts was absolutely brilliant. Thank you!
  • That was an activity I could share with my 2 year old boy and my 7 year old daughter who really love craft colouring and cutting as we are in shielding and lived in a cramped flat it was nice to do something that bring us to a kind of normal fun activities
  • I had a good time with my son
  • We dedicated 1 hour a day and I was just as excited and the kids in participating. We tried everything suggested but some instructions were too complicated so we just improvise most of the time but it was great because we had enough  materials

Fuelling children’s creativity

  • It was helpful for my child as they like to be creative
  • It was such a great way to bond with my children, and to get my 2-year-old to use her imagination.i wouldn’t have been able to afford such a wide variety of creative items like the craft pack.
  • Rather than the suggested uses, the patient enjoyed making things “free play” and used their imagination to make imaginary animals and scenes
  • It allowed my child to experience and experiment with materials I would not of envisioned her using. We are so grateful as it sparked her creativity and items were used in a vary of different ways
  • My daughter loves it and has used the materials to do a wide range of crafts, using her own imagination. Perfect things for a 4-year-old missing her friends on lockdown. Thank you!
  • It was a great opportunity for me and my 2 kids to spend quality time together. We had the chance to learn new activities that we never tried before and my older child defines herself as an artist now. It helped to boost her confidence as now she knows how to do things and shoes her art work to family and friends. A great initiative. Thank you for letting us be part of it.
  • This kept the children entertained for ages. They used their imaginations to create all sorts of things from the different materials. There were lots of things in there that I wouldn’t usually think of buying. It made it much easier having everything there at the same time to do some activities. Thank you so much!
  • The pack helped to prompt me with different activities and to think outside the box. My children are enjoying the pack exploring the activities and using new materials.
  • This pack allowed us to explore our imagination

Educational benefit

  • The craft pack allowed my son to complete his school projects and it also made us create a crafts area in our kitchen. Which we never had before
  • It was great that my child was able to direct the play with these craft materials
  • We found it an excellent initiative just at the right time when everything was closed and the children without school.  So in each one we have taken advantage of doing each day our homeschooll.  also q is a pack mu complete with activities.  Receiving it made us very happy.
  • This was such a lifesaver during lockdown. It’s so hard to get a balanced day when I was homeschooling my older child. This enabled me to spend quality and constructive time with my youngest as well. I’m not creative, so having links to ideas plus loads of crafts was absolutely brilliant. Thank you!
  • My daughter is under 1 and starting to explore, she loved the play dough and getting messy with the paints

Excellent contents in the box

  • Very colourful  lots in the box to do
  • Lots of things to create lots of ideas and make weird and wonderful inventive creations
  • my daughter thoroughly enjoyed her craft pack. She loves play dough and using scissors to cut things and there it all was, plus more
  • An excellent selection of tools and activities that can be used again, suitable for all ages.
  • My children and I was so excited when the pack arrived. The different fun stuff in the pack left us with hours of things to do. Thank you so much.
  • Really great to have everything together, with the items listed for each craft activity.  the videos were a bit long.
  • So lovely.to have lots.of resources and ideas about how to use them.
  • Variety of materials, excellent ideas, something to make my youngest special - her own scissors etc. A great idea.
  • the pack was a wonderful mix of craft materials. loads to enjoy
  • A great pack with good quality tools. My son really loved using the paint brush and cutting and gluing paper. I would have preferred to have a few ideas in the pack as I didn't really have the time to watch the videos.

Bringing joy in lockdown

  • My girls were so excited a box came just for them. They enjoyed using proper scissors and their own glue to create foam monsters with the resources provided. It was a godsend during lockdown as two of us were shielding in a small flat without a garden. Thank you for providing a much appreciated resource to those in need.
  • The delivery of box was a wonderful surprise For my children! During the pandemic we struggle to find places that stocked arts and crafts so we were so greatful! My children made lovely pictures of one another and pictures to send to our families and friends
  • The best present in lockdown
  • My daughter loves it and has used the materials to do a wide range of crafts, using her own imagination. Perfect things for a 4 year old missing her friends on lockdown. Thank you!
  • We found it an excellent initiative just at the right time when everything was closed and the children without school.  So in each one we have taken advantage of doing each day our homeschooll.  also q is a pack mu complete with activities.  Receiving it made us very happy.
  • This was such a lifesaver during lockdown. It’s so hard to get a balanced day when I was homeschooling my older child. This enabled me to spend quality and constructive time with my youngest as well. I’m not creative, so having links to ideas plus loads of crafts was absolutely brilliant. Thank you!
  • That was an activity I could share with my 2 year old boy and my 7 year old daughter who really love craft colouring and cutting as we are in shielding and lived in a cramped flat it was nice to do something that bring us to a kind of normal fun activities

 

Analysis of the feedback from families: 

Creation Station Activity Pack Home Start   hours of play
Creation Station home start what people liked

Postcode analysis

An analysis of family postcodes receiving the craft packs was conducted using the .gov.uk indices of multiple deprivation.

Of the households receiving craft packs:

  • 86% of families ranked in the lowest 50% of the index of multiple deprivation. 28% were in the lowest 20%.
  • 82% ranked in the lowest 50% for income. 37% were in the lowest 20%.
  • 99% ranked in the lowest 50% for living environment. 81% were in the lowest 20%.
  • 97% ranked in the lowest 50% for the index of deprivation affecting children. 66% were in the lowest 20%.

The below graphs breakdown the postcodes for families receiving craft packs into deciles for deprivation using the .gov.uk tool linked above.

Creation Station craft packs   areas of support

We would like to thank all those families who took the time to get creative with their children during such difficult times. We'd also like to thanks ALL the Home-Start teams for the amazing work they do. And a special thanks to those who helped with the Home-Start Lambeth campaign, especially Lizzie Poulton, Susie Baker, Fran Long, Sam Cressall. Ollie Cressall and Josh Cressall.  

If  you would like to find out how we may be able to support the work you do please email [email protected]

Published by Creation Station: (updated: )

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