Money doesn’t need to be involved for children to enjoy themselves, and this was proven on Sunday the 14th of May, it was National Children’s Day and charitable trust Impact Boscombe was out in full swing. The event took place at Churchill Gardens and celebrated the idea that you don’t have to spend money to enjoy yourself. Impact Boscombe’s motivations are to provide the children of Boscombe with fun and enjoyable free activities. It was their first ever children’s festival and it went down a storm. Immediately when I arrived, I was hit by a flood of laughter and happiness. There were smiles all around and Churchill Gardens was absolutely packed with families. I didn’t see any child looking miserable or upset. It was rather overwhelming to see so many families queuing up for the face painting, sat having picnics and speaking with friends. It shows how much people want to bring the community in Boscombe together, and celebrate the good things in life- like how beautiful the gardens are on a sunny day. The event was completely free, with the chance to offer donations if you wish. It was running from 11am-3pm and in total they raised an amazing £358.73 just from donations and had around 450 people attend.
Impact Boscombe’s founding trustee is Zoe Keeping, a local resident and mum of three.
“The aim was to kind of just provide more for children, young people and families of Boscombe”. Impact Boscombe was created in October 2022 and is currently being run by Zoe, Kelly and Adele. Kelly and Adele are also local parents. “Our Mission is to facilitate a long lasting, positive impact on the lives, circumstances and physical environment of children and young people living in Boscombe”. They are also involved in ‘Friends of Churchill Gardens’ and for the whole summer of last year, they ran free breakfast clubs every morning. Zoe said that she recognises that summer can be a difficult time for parents, constantly trying to entertain your kids, but with not loads of money to do so. Some parents may work early mornings and have no cover for their kids, there are plenty of reasonings why it would be an advantage to the community. There would be a handful of activities for the children to get involved in, such as arts and sport activities and games. Zoe expressed how the events were gaining more and more interest, “we’ve really built this momentum that we’ve got families and children that are really kind of board with this”. They were wondering what the next step would be to help the children of Boscombe, and that’s where the idea for Impact Boscombe evolved. Establishing their own charitable trust would allow them to receive proper funding from the council and get the support to put on more events. This is the step that would allow them to properly make a change and reach out to the children. For example, Impact Boscombe received a £500 grant from BCP Council for the festival. People either offered their time for free, or anything that needed funding came from the £500. Baked Boscombe donated a bunch of cakes and treats and have helped the charity a lot in the past.
The trust does multiple things to give back to the community, examples of this are after school clubs and homework clubs. However, one activity I found interesting was free football coaching sessions being offered for children of all ages and abilities living in the area. They fund a football coach every Wednesday at Churchill Gardens. Every activity is donation based, they don’t expect anything from people, and they want families to not worry about pricing- but donations are always welcome to help continue to run more events. “I’ve got three children myself, there is nothing worse than going to an event and then having to go, we can afford to do that,” said Zoe. I had never heard about free football sessions before, and I think it’s genius. At a young age, most children love getting involved with sports; however, the price that comes with getting involved stops a lot of parents from signing their children up.
The cost of living crisis has given families such an increased amount of worry and fear surrounding money. “All families are feeling that hit really, and it’s about making sure that we’re helping to take the pressure off”- Zoe. The cost of living crisis has really taken its toll on the world, but for those who were already struggling, it made tough times even tougher. The whole point of the festival was to allow kids to be kids; get their faces painted, watch a pantomime and get involved with a drama workshop- but all for free. When discussing how she wants children to be free to have fun without the stress of the parents, she stated that she feels that her projects “give children a freedom to play”. She wanted the children to have the chance to join in with everything on offer and not hesitate and ask for monetary approval.
However, the organisation holds a lot of events that help parents and benefit children without them even knowing. For example, on Saturday the 20th of May, they’re holding a free kid’s clothes swapping event at Boscombe Baptist Church. You don’t have to pay and it’s up to you if you want to bring clothes to donate. Through the Easter holidays they had various activity mornings and will always post other outside opportunities for people on their Facebook page.
The Treehouse Theatre put on a production of Jack and the Beanstalk and encouraged the children to get active and join in. As a theatre group they perform fun and engaging material but also put on interactive theatre workshops that collaborate with home education communities. They will always encourage people to get involved, so they can feel what it’s like to be part of a theatre environment.
As well as the theatre, there was the Big Blue Play company doing a pop-up play section, face painting and Dorset Rewilding.
The image Boscombe gets in the media gives it a bad reputation and people determine it to be an area of deprivation and filled with crime. Mother of two, Abigail McQueen attended the festival with her children and stated that “It’s a great community, but that’s not what the media portrays of the area”. Just because the rent in certain housing areas is lower, it does not insinuate that it is a place of deprivation- some places are just more expensive to live in compared to others. Zoe then leads on to say how local families just need more support and connection, “so it’s about providing activities that are open and accessible to everybody.”
Abigail mentioned how because she lived locally, she’d been to a fair amount of the events held by Impact Boscombe and told me how much her children enjoyed them. They get to play freely, and because it’s local, they’ll see kids they know from school and get to be around their friends. Abigail discussed that a lot of the money that goes into Boscombe doesn’t actually go into young families, but it seems to go into the image of Boscombe. She insinuated that it goes towards the crime side, and dealing with those committing in the area- which is great for protection, but some could be spared on families.
In 2019, End Child Poverty Coalition posted statistics on child poverty surrounding Bournemouth and Boscombe, this audio clip delves into the facts and the figures. click here to listen
In 2022, Action for Children released statistics stating that in the UK alone there are 3.9 million children living in poverty. There had been progress as the number dropped from originally being 4.3 million before the pandemic, partly due to
the £20 a week increase in universal credit. However, due to the cost-of-living crisis, it doesn’t look like the figure will stay down for long.
After the phenomenal feedback the group received about Sunday, they’ve decided they want to make it an annual thing and have an Impact Boscombe children’s festival available each year. Zoe’s main message is that having fun doesn’t need to cost money, “I think as parents you’re kind of pushed into buying and spending to make children happy”. She goes into say how so much joy and happiness has been achieved by playing with nature and loose parts.
“It’s a safe space where they can be free and play”.
What’s in store for future projects you may be asking? Well alongside the clothes swap event this weekend, the organisation hopes to keep creating events to help the community and make a life-changing impact on the children of Boscombe.
If you wish to see their page to find out a bit more about what they do, then visit: https://www.impactboscombe.org/
NO PLANET B: how can we help our environment?