Young people enjoy two fun-filled activity days on Corby’s Kingswood estate

Kingswood Urban Development Project (KUD) hosted a taster day of archery on Wednesday (May 29) and on Thursday (May 30) they had their popular inflatable day.

KUD is a collaboration between four key partner organisations in the area: Kingswood Neighborhood Centre, Northamptonshire Sport, North Northamptonshire Council and KHL Big Local.

The archery session was held in partnership with Intergr8 Archery. Children and young people were offered one-to-one coaching on how to use both soft and pointy arrows.

On the Thursday the main hall was filled with bouncy castles and an inflatable obstacle course, with both events held at Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre.

The two fun-filled days included a SEND session, with limited numbers to allow for the activities to be inclusive and accessible to all.

Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre recently received funding from KHL Big Local for a pop-up sensory room to go alongside their SEND sessions.

Lynn Johnston, manager of Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre, said: “We have known for quite a while there is a need for SEND activities in the area. It is something we have been trying to include in our activity programme and after speaking to the community and parents we have finally managed to obtain funding to offer this, after working tirelessly for three months to show funders there is a need for these activities.

“From previous SEND sessions we have listened to feedback. Some parents could only stay for a small period of time due to their child becoming overwhelmed and they have said a calming sensory room would be good for their child to regulate and calm down so they could come back into the inflatables. We managed to receive funding from KHL Big Local and we put the sensory room together.”

The sensory pop-up is in the youth room and includes a calming inflatable pod with lights and sounds, soft rugs, beanbags and calming projector lights for the ceiling and sensory toys.

It will be available to run alongside any SEND event that Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre organises in the future.

One parent said: “It's so nice to be able to attend an event that is accessible for my son, it so hard to find things to do or places to go. It's nice to be in a room with other understanding parents and a kind understanding team that go above and beyond and listen to parents' views.”

Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre are looking at more inclusive activities to add to their current calendar of activities.

Lynn said: “We would like to thank our partners, Integr8 Archery, Northamptonshire Sport, Corby Tresham College, our regular volunteers, Tayto for their support for these half term events, and the North Northants Council Member Empowerment Fund that funded the inflatable day.

“We work and listen closely with our local community and if anyone has any further ideas of what activities/events they would like to see happen then please get in touch.”

Updates on future events and weekly activities can be found on the Kingswood Urban Development Project and Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre and Cafe Facebook page.