Coming this week, Coordinate Sport is bringing you an exclusive from the HAF Alliance, a collaboration of providers, organisations and charities who were instrumental in the inception of the program. The alliance offers local authorities and delivery partners support, guidance and advice to successfully deliver the programme.
220 million in grants have been offered to local authorities to provide a program that offers both physical activity and nutrition for the upcoming school holidays.
The project is an ambitious one and comes with many challenges. None is more significant than working to reverse some of the adverse effects that successive restrictions have had on children.
Issues of social isolation, lack of nutrition and impoverishment have been brought to the fore, and in some ways, been caused by the pandemic. It is a signal to all that change is absolutely essential.
This month, The Drive Phase Podcast, hosted by James Moore CEO of Coordinate Sport, will bring you two leading figures from HAF Alliance.
Jane Ashworth, OBE, co-founder of StreetGames and spokesperson for HAF, and Professor Greta Defeyter, an unparalleled researcher in the field of holiday activity and food poverty. The panel will also include Jade Harris, Head of Children, Young People and Families at UKactive.
Coordinate Sport is as always dedicated to bringing you the best in analysis and insight to keep you in The Drive Phase.
As one of the founders of StreetGames, a project aimed at providing social skills, qualifications and improved wellbeing through the pathway of sport, Jane is fluent in the language of physical activity.
Founded in 2005, the organisation has designed shorter sports provisions that would adapt to some of the most impoverished areas across the UK and work seamlessly with local organisations.
Jane has established herself in the area of community engagement, recreation and sport for the best part of thirty years. She has worked with Newcastle and Salford City Councils as well as managing London and the Southeast on behalf of Sport England for ten years.
Her focus within HAF Alliance is on making physical activity a key driving force in holiday provisions for children and as a childcare provision for parents.
As a spokesperson, she has been instrumental in pushing non-stigmatised places where children can develop confidence through activity with a view to their developing skills for later life. HAF is a perfect opportunity to use the energy of the last year to create a sustainable program, she added:
“We have a perfect opportunity to use the energy of the 16 HAF Alliance members to motivate local authorities to go beyond a minimum-standards approach to HAF 2021 for children and young people and build a platform for future delivery.”
Jane was awarded her OBE for services to community sport in HM The Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 2011.
Greta Defeyter has spent much of her formal academic life, carving out a language by which to understand, research and test how nutrition and physical activity can impact the lives of children during the holidays.
For eight years, she steered a program that would be the precursor to HAF, specifically researching holiday activities and nutrition. Alongside Feeding Britain, and the original pilot providers, HAF was established in March of this year.
Greta Defeyter is a Professor of Developmental Psychology in the Department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing.
She is also the Strategic Lead for the Knowledge Exchange and the Director of the ‘Healthy Living Lab’ where she performs much of her research into food poverty, food insecurity, social and educational injustice and holiday hunger.
As a recognised expert in this area, she has not only published papers, but the value of her research has sought and secured financial support from across sectors.
For Greta, the goal of the program is sustainability. To offer not only a program in the coming months but one that can continue to support the physical and mental wellbeing of parents and children long into the future.
Jade Harris is a Sports Coaching alumni of the University of East London, who began her career soon after the London 2012 Olympics.
She worked tirelessly to develop a diverse programme of sport and health activities that would ensure the legacy of the Elizabeth Olympic Park for its surrounding residents.
When she moved to ukactive, she quickly established herself as an evidence-based person with a passion for growing relationships among the many key stakeholders for ukactive. She is now Head of Children, Young People and Families.
Find out more on Wednesday 26th May, available from the Coordinate Sport website, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
