RIVERSIDE PARENTS AND CARERS
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Mission Statement
Our aims are: To provide free regular soft play sessions for under 5s and their parents/carers. We want to keep our sessions free and open to all local families from any social economical background. To encourage low-income and economically deprived families to engage in a community activity and have access to help and assistance from other services offered by the London Borough of Southwark where necessary. For all families to keep engaging and attending our sessions to receive support from their peers, our staff and other professional experts in child development in order to help identify families with additional need that we may be able to support and/or refer. Sessions are held in London at Salmon Youth Centre, 43 Old Jamaica Road SE16 4TE
About This Cause
The Riverside Parents & Carers Association (RPCA) is a CIO, charity providing free services for children under the age of 5 years old and their families in the London Borough of Southwark. Provide free regular soft play sessions for under 5s and their families and childminders from all different social-economical background including low-income families to engage in a community activity, to reduce social isolation and support young and new moms with safe space for them to engage with their peers, staff and other professional experts. Help young babies/toddlers that missed out of social interaction during Covid19, soft play ensures they get substantial interaction with other children, develop gross-motor skills, exercise, creative development, crafts were introduced after lockdown, and support language development through sing time in every session. Our sessions are: Culturally inclusive environment: for parents and carers to engage, 45% of children speak a foreign language in addition to English; 46% of adults and 41% of children are from different Ethnic minorities. Living status: 59% are council tenants and private renters. Single Mums:18% of adults are considered lone-parents and they are a hard to reach, living in local council estates and have less social mobility due to lack of employment and income, so building a community that they feel comfortable accessing is important. Low-Income Families: 46% are unemployed/seeking opportunities and 35% receive Universal Credit and qualify for free school meals Due to the urban area of Bermondsey, the majority of the families in the area live in flats with limited play areas and/or no designated safe indoor or outdoor spaces for play. Our sessions provide young children with a unique opportunity to run and play in a large and safe indoor environment guaranteed independent of the weather. Under 5s can get independent and social play, as well as much needed exercise; fosters connections and combats isolation for parents; and provides occasional on-site access to representatives from NHS Oral Health & Nutrition and Speech and language therapists. Southwark has a poor record for childhood obesity and our sessions play a pivotal part in helping the young children who attend to get important exercise twice a week. Our special events sessions organised throughout the year, are specifically aimed at focusing on different skills for the children, as well as the added benefit of bringing the community together. The events have various themes such as Sports Week, World Book Day, Be Active Day Outdoors, Christmas party with relevant activities associated with the theme. Post covid world, the majority of the parents wrote on our latest survey that our sessions were life-saving for their mental health and their children too as our free sessions is one of a kind that they cannot find anywhere else. Our sessions are vital for the development of babies and young children and for readiness for school through our safe, clean space for under 5S where they can independently play, exercise and socially interact with children and their parents/carers. Gross motor skills: crawling, walking, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, creeping and slithering, spinning, turning,twisting, pushing and pulling skills using the various equipment Hand eye coordination: throwing and catching a ball, bouncing balls, tossing a small bag/ball through hoops, rolling a ball to hit down bottles (bowling), stringing beads and building a tower block. Balance: Walking stepping stones, yoga poses, obstacle course, sitting /bouncing/hopping on big exercise balls,hopscotch jumping , etc. Language, music and movement: Our sing time help to embed language sounds by increasing familiarity with language and emphasising the sound sections within words. Creative development and fine motor skills through arts and crafts activities. Parents/carers/childminder and staff: Interact and build community engagement and resilience supporting each other and fostering new meaningful relationships which ultimately benefit the child. A happy parent, a happy child. Our staff members provide a safe, stimulating environment for our families to play, learn and develop and a great platform for parents to meet other parents. Staff members are fully trained to safeguard all children attending our sessions and to help our local families, their babies and young children to achieve the best start in life.