Projects Resume as Restrictions Ease

Blues Foundation are delighted to resume and launch some of our flagship programmes as the UK Government’s lockdown measures continue to ease and allow the return of outdoor physical activity.

On April 12th, Stage 2 as outlined in the COVID return roadmap was implemented and allowed the return of outside activity and organised outdoor sport for adults and children with any number of participants if formally organised by a governing body, business or charity like Blues Foundation.

We have been proud and humbled to see the impact we’ve already had across Bedfordshire as some of our programmes has already returned, including our Families Project in association with England Rugby last Monday at Bedford Athletic RFC (19th April). It’s still not too late to sign up to this project, click here for all the details.

One of our strong beliefs is to continue offering enrichment opportunities where possible to young people in our local community and we have exciting plans in regard to the Tackle LIFE and Blues Foundation Inspire programmes, which will be held at Goldington Road, home of Bedford Blues RFC.

Some work in this particular area has already resumed, with Blues Foundation last week announcing a partnership with Bedford College focusing on core life skills and vocational education. Due to the success of the opening two weeks, another course is now being run at their Kettering campus and allows us to impact on many more young people in the Bedford College Group. Read more about this partnership here.

Click here to read about the Tackle LIFE project, one of our flagship programmes looking at using the power of sport and exercise to inspire young people disengaged from mainstream education. The Pilot programme is due to start mid-May with key partners including Bedford Borough Council and Bedfordshire Police.

One of our most successful and uplifting stories towards the back end of 2020 was our ABILITY Blues project, in partnership with Wooden Spoon Bedfordshire, and launched with support from Autism Bedfordshire. Through this project, we were able to support disabled young people and promote positive physical and mental health.

This project is set to resume next week with further opportunities across the borough to be announced as the project expands. Click here to read all about ABILITY Blues.

Another project halted by the most recent lockdown restrictions was the physical and mental wellbeing sessions created to support residents at local Bedford housing charity, Penrose. This weekly activation is also scheduled to resume at Bedford Park. Click here for the information.

Penrose and its residents have also benefited from our Meals for the Vulnerable campaign which is just a fortnight away from reaching a year since its anniversary of being our very first ever project launched. In that time, we’ve delivered over 5,000 meals and are set to deliver even more this coming week.

The Meals for the Vulnerable campaign is linked directly to the wider project entitled ‘No to Hunger in Bedford Borough’ which Blues Foundation are determined to play an integral role with. Click here to read our involvement.

Looking further into the future, we are again exploring offering holiday provision in the summer following the success of our delivery over Easter. This focuses on development across all sports, not just rugby, and is held at locations right the way across Bedfordshire. Keep checking here for all the announcements on future dates.

Last month, we announced an exciting partnership with University of Bedfordshire to see our two organisations work closely together on delivering upcoming programmes and research projects. We will look to provide as many enrichment opportunities for their students as possible with these coming projects and look forward to future collaborations in the future also.

Don’t forget, keep checking our website regularly and all our social media channels to hear first about our latest initiatives; or sign up to our newsletter by clicking here for regular updates.

You can find Blues Foundation on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Alternatively, you can contact Blues Foundation Manager, Tom Harwood via email at info@bluesfoundation.org.uk with any specific questions you may have.