BORO Academy players Ben Beales and Frankie Whelan were welcome guests as we celebrated the end of a Family Learning programme at the Herlingshaw.
In a programme sponsored by Thirteen Group, community members from Pallister Park, adults and children, worked over an 18-week period to achieve community social action, improve the community spirit and improve the family bond.
This was achieved through participating in a wide range of fun activities and sessions on a weekly basis, some where they worked together as a family unit or with other families, and others where children or adults participated separately, with an emphasis on having fun, being interactive and working towards common goals.
They participated in football and general sport sessions and enjoyed a tour of the Riverside Stadium. Participants also worked towards developing and gaining an understanding of health and wellbeing.
The Boro duo learned that the programme contains three elements; 1) Family Learning Through Football; 2) Family Learning Through Social Action; and 3) Social Action.
Football themed workshops and activities, to improve parenting skills and mental health including a range of team building activities, allied with community mapping exercises, including a hunt around the local area to show or improve participant’s knowledge of the community, were all part of the programme.
Issues in the local community were identified as a worthy cause for social action.
Fundraising activities included bag packing in Morrisons, visiting the Church of Ascension in Middlesbrough to offer social action on the church’s premises and purchasing suitable equipment such as gardening and sporting materials to introduce community sport and gardening sessions.
