Norton Hall has been a centre for community action and learning in East Birmingham for more than a hundred years. It was refurbished in the 1970s to act as a centre for children by a local community association and has been a hub for services for families and children ever since. The Norton Hall Association became a charity more than 15 years ago. It now provides services including: youth mentoring and support, a women’s centre, a community nursery, after school and holiday clubs and services for, and with, SEND children and their families. Norton Hall’s overarching aim is to improve opportunities for children and young people so as to reduce the inequalities they face, including through support for women and families more generally
John, Reece and Zreeda at Norton Hall told Fit for All:
“Our vision is for a community where children and young people are able to fulfil their potential and where parents are enabled to support their families. We are pleased that we engaged so many young people to access this activity and food programme.
“The Norton Hall programme involved two groups of children: a SEND group and an 11+ youth group. Both groups were very diverse – with children from different backgrounds, schools and areas. The 11-16 year old group was established by young people from Norton Hall’s single-sex Boys’ and Girls’ Youth Groups. It included SEND and mainstream young people and young people experiencing home life issues.
“Twice a week the young people cooked their own meal as a team – supervised by staff. Norton Hall also had food cooked by their own in-house catering team and by the visiting chef organised by Children’s Quarter. There was a variety of different foods – particularly significant for the special needs group which included children who have difficulties with different foods. Norton Hall consulted with parents to see what food they ate at home, accommodated what they liked and introduced new foods to enable them to experiment and learn.”
Mixing it Up
At Norton Hall, the children and young people were able to take part in a wide range of activities:
- the SEND group, including children with profound and multiple learning difficulties, did sensory activities, creative arts, physical activities, simple cooking activities. There were also workshops organised by Children’s Quarter, which included Yoga, Music and Movement and a Clay workshop. The children enjoyed the activities available, and were encouraged to take part where they were comfortable to do so.
- the 11+ Youth Group, including children with special educational needs and social, emotional and mental health difficulties, did photography workshops, canvas art workshop, physical activities and team games, creative arts, cookery workshops and took part in offsite visits including to: Meriden Adventure Playground, Laser Quest & Bowling and ‘Inflatnation’ (Inflatables & Trampolining).
SEND group activities took place on Monday and Tuesday from 9.30am – 4pm working with two sub-groups of children each accessing three hours per day. The second group attended in the evenings and accessed weekly offsite activities on Fridays. Both groups were mixed gender groups – which staff found worked extremely well: parents felt the Centre would, and did, manage this sensitively and respect cultural concerns about mixed groups. Staff noted that at first, some of the young people were embarrassed to eat in front of their peers. Towards the end of the programme they were more comfortable to eat and enjoy the food available.
Benefits of Fit for All
John, Reece and Zreeda summed up the main benefit: “The Children have a fantastic experience of the summer holidays!”
Adding “Families facing food insecurity were relieved that their children were fed through the summer holidays. Children were able to try new food, learn how to cook new recipes and enjoy the food available. We provided all families with weekly food parcels – because we know families are really struggling in our community.
“Parents with children with significant needs were given respite care whilst their children were in attendance – which has had a positive impact on their mental health and wellbeing. Many parents were desperate for a short-break and this holiday allowed them to have some time to themselves whilst knowing their children are left in safe hands.”
Community Based
The impact achieved by Bring it On Brum could not easily have been made by short-term or ‘pop-up’ activities organised by larger groups from outside the neighbourhood and without the basis in the local community and the level of trust that Norton Hall enjoys. The Fit for All programme at Norton Hall built on existing relationships and strengthened them and created new connections. For example: Norton Hall used the programme to continue what the Centre sees as critical support for SEMH young people. These are children who have been referred to the Centre due to mental health difficulties or emerging mental health worries. Norton Hall provides them with mentoring support in the community during term-time. Bring it On Brum enabled these vulnerable young people to take part in shared activities for four days a week during the Summer and maintain contact with their mentor during the Summer break or be limked with the mentoring scheme in future.
Acting as a hub for family services in the area means Norton Hall can effectively link and coordinate support from different parts of the voluntary and statutory sectors. Families in need were, for example, signposted to the Family Action service based at Norton Hall (with which the Centre has a strong partnership). The Early Help service and Family Action’s ‘Food on your doorstep’ scheme (which enables families to buy food at reduced cost) were also accessible by families taking part in Fit for All. Local families who struggled with food bills were able to access cheap food at the same time as picking up and dropping off their children for the Summer programme.