Open Arms sessions have been running at Canklow Pavillion on a fortnightly basis since April 2023. We decided at quite short notice to hold an information session during the school holidays for families to come along to and find out more about the project. We arranged for Making Our Money Go Further to attend with us and they brought along a hamper of shopping to give away to the person who guessed how much it would cost. We also arranged for an ice cream van, who works in the Canklow area, to come along and we had vouchers people could exchange with them for a free ice cream. Posters were put up in local businesses and publicised through social media platforms.
On the day, Wednesday 31st May, the weather did not look too promising, so we were not sure how many people would attend. We were therefore so pleased when we started seeing families heading towards us outside the pavilion!
In total we had around 10 families come and talk to us about the project, have a go at guessing the price of the hamper, and enjoying a free ice cream. Some people we spoke to were referred into Citizens Advice for support on the day, while others have said that they would prefer to come back and speak to them at our regular drop-in session instead. We were pleased by the success of the event and plan to do more family friendly activities at the sessions.
