This weekend (12 & 13 February), the Palace’s Creative Learning team delivered hampers to young carers and their families across Haringey as part of our ‘Fam Fayre: Bringing the Festivities Home’ initiative, in partnership with Haringey Council and funded by Children In Need.
Due to the pandemic, there has been an increase in young carer referrals within the borough, partly because many traditional support avenues haven’t been running as normal. In response to this, we designed a project to reward these inspiring young people by creating a festival at home. At a time when we are unable to present live events or host activities from our Creative Learning programme at the Palace itself, we decided to bring the festivities straight to 15 young carers’ living rooms with a special zoom concert and a hamper to enjoy alongside the performance.
The hampers contained creative activities, including jewellery making, fancy dress ideas and creating family portraits, designed by Alejandra Carles-Toira, Amy Leung and Melanie Campbell, illustrated by Kathryn Corlett and Lloyd Winters. The hamper also included snacks and a £30 Deliveroo voucher.
The families were then invited to a special zoom concert performed by musicians from Live Music Now. The project aimed to recreate a night out with glitter, glamour and some groovy dancing.
(Our Creative Learning team packing the Fam Fayre hampers)
Louise Stewart, Alexandra Park & Palace Charitable Trust CEO, said: “We’re delighted to deliver the hampers to local families. The pandemic has impacted us all and as a community everyone has pulled together to support one another. The benefit of creative activities is well established, so we hope they provided the young people and their families a short moment of respite, during this most challenging of times.
“A big part of our role as a charity is to use culture to enrich people’s lives. This project is just one example of our ongoing programme supporting young people and families throughout Haringey and beyond. We look forward to continuing a relationship with all those involved.”
Alexandra Palace’s Creative Learning programme draws on the arts, the Palace and Park’s 140 year history and world class events schedule to inspire and educate young people, families and the wider community. ‘Fam Fayre’ is the first of series of projects run by the Palace, with funding from Children in Need, to support young carers and their families.
