Alton Towers Short Break
A story by West Glasgow Kinship Group
Short break to Alton Towers by coach for 20 Kinship Carers and the 32 children they care for.
Allowing Kinship Carers to relax, spend quality time with the children in a fun atmosphere, reduce isolation and provide support for one another. Experiencing a range of activities in theme park.
What Alton Towers Short Break did
We spent 5 days and 4 nights (29th June 2015 to 3rd July 2015) at Alton Towers. We traveled to and from Alton Towers by coach allowing the group to bond on the journey. We had a couple of stops for refreshments. We stayed in family rooms with breakfast provided, this was very comfortable and allowed everyone to relax.
Activity days were spent at the Theme Park and even more time spent at the Waterpark. We broke up into smaller groups during the day and came together as a big group at night for the evening meal and entertainment, giving everyone a chance to raise anything and to feel part of the group, especially important if they were feeling isolated. There were lots of opportunities for support and guidance from one another. A chance to get to know new members and form stronger relationships with current members.
Everyone benefited from the break by feeling less stressed and less isolated, enjoying getting away from their daily routine, experiencing new activities, therefore improving Kinship Carers well-being. The nature of the break means many of the children are able to do activities in a supervised area therefore allowing the Carers to get a good break. It also allows for a better understanding of each other's children's needs (many have emotional, psychological and physical needs) and the challenges faced in caring for them.
The short break increases the bonding within the group and allows us to better run our meetings and provide better support to current and new members. We hold fortnightly meetings from 9.30 to 12 p.m in Heart of Scotstoun Community Centre. We publicise our group well through Social Work, in the last 2 years we have held very successful Christmas parties.
In the last couple of months we have acquired 6 new members, and over the past few years about 12 new members. We have had 20 new people who attended the Christmas party but who were unable to attend meetings, however we are now able to give them information regarding Kinship services etc. Our group is good at attending events, conferences, meeting up with other groups and we are able to tell them about Creative Breaks.