Brentwood Borough Council together with the Royal Opera House Bridge is distributing 200 arts resource packs to local vulnerable children and young people in time for Christmas.
The packs have been curated to provide free art and craft materials for children and young people who may find it difficult to access such resources and creative learning experiences, especially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project aims to address learning inequalities and ensure vulnerable children and young people do not miss out on the health, wellbeing and educational benefits of creativity.
The packs are crammed with some fantastic materials to create decorations, cards and pieces of art for the festive season. The primary school packs contain stickers, pens, pencils, glue, paper chains and glitter, whilst the secondary schools pack contains paints, sketch books, pencils and scrap books. All packs will also include some fantastic art books supplied by Turn a New Leaf Usborne books, who kindly contributed financially to the project.
Also included are some booklets with some great ideas for activities by Essex- based artists. Local artist Sue Mills of Curly Cloud Art has provided a festive activity for children to try.
The Council has worked with a number of local organisations and community hub partners to distribute the packs to vulnerable children and young people. Packs will go to young carers, families who have recently accessed emergency food provision, those who have long term health conditions, or are receipt of income support.
Chair of Community and Health Committee, Cllr Cliff Poppy, said, ‘These packs are amazing and absolutely rammed with all sorts of ideas and items for children to really express and grow their creativity. There are a lot of children and young people in the borough who, for a variety of reasons, do not have the same access to high quality learning opportunities as their peers. So this initiative is incredibly important and poignant given the time of year when families face the challenges that come with the festive season. We are incredibly grateful to the Royal Opera House Bridge, Countryside Properties, Usborne Books, West Designs, Sue Mills and Lighthouse Furniture Project for their contributions and we look forward to seeing what masterpieces are created with the packs.’
