This week young people are heading back to school and college – we hear some parents may be sighing in relief right about now!
Summer at Mahdlo Youth Zone has been a busy one. We run Holiday Zone every school holiday, but none are as big as summer.
As well as our sessions for young people aged 8 to 14, we’ve welcomed back young people with additional needs in CADS and Short Breaks, and for the first time, we’ve run experience days for Senior Zone members aged up to 19!
We’ve not slowed down with our evening and weekend sessions either, staying open seven days a week, every week, throughout the six weeks.
Because of this, we’ve met and worked with 1,042 different young people here at Mahdlo, out in the community and in our sessions across Oldham’s districts.
There have been more than 70 different activities taking place every weekday, starting at 8.30am and continuing as late as 10pm.
Needing to provide three meals a day dramatically increases families’ costs over summer, so we upped our support to those that need it most.
For the last 12 years, we’ve seen our sessions get quieter over the 6 weeks as families go on holiday, spend time together, or just look for other things to do in the nice weather.
But not this year. They’ve been busier than ever.
We’ve given out over 4,870 free meals, covering breakfast, lunch and a hot, fresh and healthy evening meal.
For families who receive free school meals, we provided free places during our weekday sessions to 117 young people, funded by Oldham Council and the Department for Education’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme.