Holiday Activities & Food Programme

Bring it on Brum!

Thanks to the support via the Sport England Birmingham 2022 Innovation & Digital Fund, England Hockey have collaborated with Bring it on Brum! and Street Games, to bring hockey to young people and their families in the Birmingham area.  

Designed for children who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals, the free Bring it on Brum! holiday camps, ensure that children, young people, and their parents have fulfilling, active, fun-filled, and healthy school holidays.  

England Hockey provided free online training, equipment packs and support for local providers. The initial summer sessions ran during 2022 across 13 locations in and around Birmingham and provided hockey to over 2000 participants from ethnically diverse and low socio-economic backgrounds, with the majority picking up a hockey stick for the first time. 

Following a successful summer of activity, the Birmingham programme has expanded, introducing and training new providers across the city and continuing to deliver hockey at HAF programmes across all major school holidays.

Now, into its second year the programme has grown significantly and continued to deliver great first experiences of hockey to a diverse group of children across the Birmingham and West Midlands area. Currently there are 54 trained providers, who have delivered hockey to over 5,000 children at 72 sites across the city.

It has been great to see the enthusiasm grow for hockey in and around Birmingham. The providers have positively backed the quality of the programme and the impact it has had on their HAF provision and are now regularly using their equipment with new groups of children in local schools and community sessions and planning to train more people to deliver hockey, so the reach can increase even further.  

Expanding the Programme – Manchester, Trafford, Humber & London

After the successful implementation of HAF delivery in and around Birmingham, England Hockey have expanded the programme into 62 new sites across Manchester, Trafford, Humber and London.

As in Birmingham, England Hockey provided free online training, equipment packs and support for local deliverers. Delivering throughout the Easter and summer holidays, over 2000 young people from ethnically diverse and low socio-economic backgrounds, have already had a positive first experience of playing hockey.

Next Steps

It has been fantastic to see the engagement and impact this provision has had on existing HAF delivery programmes. Providers across the country are planning to widen their delivery reach by training more people and increasing the number of sites where hockey is played throughout the school holidays.