Bags of Creativity for East Riding's Children and Young People this Summer

A new partnership will deliver bags packed with creative activities and inspiring materials to 1000 vulnerable children and young people in the East Riding this Summer.

IVE, the Bridge Organisation for Yorkshire and the Humber, is working with the Local Cultural Education Partnership and social services in the East Riding  to deliver Bags of Creativity. The bags are designed to make sure all children and young people can be creative at home by providing everything they need in one place.

Culture East Riding, the East Riding Local Cultural Education Partnership, has recruited a team of 20 local creative practitioners and organisations to design activities for Bags of Creativity. Child development specialists, Dr Karen Dunn and Di Chilvers, have given training and mentoring to the team to ensure that activities are both tailored to the contents of the bags and engaging for children in each age range. The LCEP is working directly with social services to distribute the bags to vulnerable children via trusted adults including social workers and foster carers.

Bags of Creativity, containing 20 specially designed activity postcards, have been created for three separate age groups. For 2-6 year olds, an orange bag contains vibrant chiffon scarves, a space blanket, and many other materials to enhance imaginative play. 7-11 year olds will receive a bright green bag full of colouring pencils, pipe cleaners and further tactile materials for creative expression . 12-16 year-olds will receive a navy blue bag with contents including watercolour paints and modelling clay, giving them additional ways to explore their creativity. LazenbyBrown of York designed the Bags of Creativity free of charge.

Nicola Dixon, member of Culture East Riding, and Youth and Community Arts Co-ordinator at The Junction, Goole, said: “We’re thrilled with the response to Bags of Creativity from creative practitioners and organisations in our area. We’re very happy to be working in partnership with social services this summer to ensure that these resources reach the children who need them most.”

Councillor Julie Abraham, portfllio holder for children, young people and education, said : "We know that children of all ages enjoy being creative and get many benefits from activities like these so it is excellent to see this project getting resources out to so many children in our area, and I hope they get many hours of pleasure from the Bags of Creativity."

Councillor Shaun Horton, portfolio holder for tourism, culture and leisure, added : "Being creative is proven to have a wide range of benefits to a child's development and health, so it is great to see so many teams working together to deliver this project to support our most vulnerable children."