Child-Friendly Medway January News and Events

Medway Council sent this bulletin at 06-01-2023 11:28 AM GMT

Children and young people are helping to shape Medway

Welcome to this month's Child-Friendly Medway newsletter

Filled with news of our recent events and details of what we have coming soon

Designing the Child-Friendly Medway mascot

Children and young people across Medway are being encouraged to get creative and help come up with ideas for a Child-Friendly Medway mascot. Their drawings and ideas will be used as inspiration by local artists to create a shortlist of final designs that young people will be able to vote on. The chosen design will then be made into a costume which will appear with the team at events.

All schools across Medway as well as local youth and creative groups will be sent a copy of the design sheet and young people can also take part in special creative workshops, led by local artists.

Workshops for young people aged 11 to 18 will take place at Chatham Library between 2pm and 4pm on Saturday, 28 January and Saturday, 4, 11 and 18 February. To book spaces, email childfriendly@medway.gov.uk. Further workshops will be announced on Child-Friendly Medway’s social media pages.

The mascot design project is being sponsored by Countryside Partnerships and Hyde through the Rochester Riverside Community Board, which was set up to spread the benefits of the Rochester Riverside regeneration scheme across Medway by supporting worthwhile community-led projects.

The Community Board has awarded a £5,000 grant to support the mascot project.

For The Love of Reading

Child-Friendly Medway is encouraging children and young people to develop a passion for books through a new project called For The Love of Reading.

The initiative aims to ensure ensure children and young people have books in their homes to enjoy and learn from. For The Love of Reading launched last September with a book trail around the centre of Chatham, where children could find copies of The Detective Dog by Julia Donaldson to take home with them. A Halloween-themed cinema screening of The Witches at Mid-Kent College followed in October with children taking Roald Dahl books home with them.

To mark the start of the World Cup in November, Child-Friendly Medway gave out copies of Tom Palmer’s football-themed book Foul Play to young footballers training at Anchorians Football Club in Gillingham.

In December, festive books including The Polar Express and The Night Before Christmas were gifted to families visiting Santa at a special grotto held at Child-Friendly Medway’s weekly Family Fun FriYAY sports night at Medway Park.

Monthly story time sessions have also begun in the new For The Love of Reading book corner in the Pentagon Shopping Centre in Chatham, where children, toddlers and babies can drop-in to listen to stories. The pop-up book corner will also be visiting different locations around Medway for storytelling sessions each month.

Research suggests having books at home and making time to read is beneficial in many ways, including helping us to develop our own ideas and personalities, introducing us to new words and subjects, improving our mental health by allowing us to unwind and growing relationships between those who read together.

Find out about upcoming For The Love of Reading events here.

Children's Book Swap

A children's book swap shelf is being launched at The Pentagon as part of the For The Love of Reading project.

Anyone with unwanted books for babies, children or teenagers can pass them on to be enjoyed by other children and young people, or swap them for different books on the shelf.

The book swap is being launched in Child-Friendly Medway's pop-up book corner by Wilko at The Pentagon this month and donations are currently being collected to get the exchange underway.

If you have any good condition books to donate, please email childfriendly@medway.gov.uk and a member of the team will contact you.

Interactive theatre fun for families

A free theatre show will see young audiences invited to play characters and join in with songs as famous fairy tales are acted out on stage.

Child-Friendly Medway has teamed up with Pretending People Theatre to present Grimm Tales at Medway Little Theatre in Rochester.

The play, led by the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhem, will give children, young people and their parents and carers an opportunity to enjoy and take part in a live theatre show, featuring stories such as Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel and Rumpelstilskin.

The event is being co-funded by the Kent Police & Crime Commissioner as part of the successful bid to the Home Office for Safer Streets 4 funding to deliver community events for families in Chatham, Luton and Rochester.

Performances are taking place on Friday 3 February at 7pm and Saturday 4 February at 2pm and 7pm. Free tickets can be booked in advance here.