This week is National Family Week and in order to celebrate this the team at Step Forward decided to put on a ‘Family Fest’ event.

The idea being that young people who were attending our PAYP programme this week could get to feel part of the Step Forward ‘Family’ be taking part in the day. Other young people who use the service were invited and everyone was welcome to bring other people that they considered part of their own family if they wanted to.

People were encouraged to bring some food to share and we planned some activities and games suitable for all ages. All the team joined in and one of our volunteers helped out one the day.

A lovely warm day helped ensure that the afternoon was a success and enjoyed by the 20 people that attended, age range from 8 months to someone in their 50s. We had a massive picnic including lots of healthy snacks of course!

Young people and adults got to mingle and chill out with each other and almost everyone took part in an arts activity creating ‘Grass Heads’ which used arts materials, stockings, grass seeds and soil. People made a ‘head’ out of the materials and decorated them however they liked and were able to take their own away with them and watch them grow grass ‘hair’ over the next few weeks. It was also a great team building activity as the team don’t often get to work with each other on an activity, it also helped promote the Family Support Service to people who might not know much about it.

There are plans now for a bigger and better event in the summer where we hope more service users and volunteers will get involved so we can have a even bigger Step Forward Family.