Funding Supporting Delivery
 Child meeting Batman at our Flagship Super Saturday event.
Since its inception in April 2021, Child-Friendly Medway has won over £500,000 in funding from various funding streams to support our vision of making Medway one of the best places to grow up.
Funding has helped us to create a Mascot for Child-Friendly Medway, install outdoor signage for our Signs of Youth project, and produce hundreds of free events and activities as part of our Seeing is Believing Programme.
This programme is one of our key workstreams for us to connect with children and young people to find out what matters most to them about where they live, go to school and play, and ideas on how we can make Medway even more child-friendly. These free events and activities also help narrow the gap to provide more opportunities for all children and young people. Additional funding has helped us to do even more! Since Child-Friendly Medway launched, we have delivered, supported and sponsored over 6,500 events and activities, reaching 307,000 children, young people, and families.
Over the last two years we have provided Soft Play through our Start for Life Programme and big family events like Dino Day. We have delivered Free Football at Strood Sports Centre through the Police and Crime Commissioner Fund. Our Medway Safer Streets 5 funded programme has included a series of events for Women and Girls as part of the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) agenda, including our Alice in Wonderland Afternoon Tea. The return of Super Saturday, our milestone event, was made possible this past year by the United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund.
Child-Friendly Medway is designed to provide a platform for all children and young people to have a voice, be heard and responded to. We work with many partners like the NHS, Kent Police, Club AUsome, Young Lives Foundation, and Medway Parents and Carers Forum, providing consultation opportunities with children and young people of all ages.
Programming like this is only made possible through the funding we receive, enabling us to provide even more opportunities for children and young to have their voices heard, and for them to enjoy free and fun activities to take part in, narrowing the gap and making Medway even more child-friendly.
Start for Life Programming
Child playing in the ball pit at our Soft Play and Story Corner event.
Child-Friendly Medway’s Start for Life programme, in partnership with Medway Public Health Team is aimed at babies, toddlers and parents/carers to provide information, support, and enriching activities to give families the best start.
These funds have supported the expansion of our ‘For the Love of Reading’ programme, the creation of our free Soft Play and Story Corner, Pop-Up Community Storytime, Book Trails, Book Swap Shop, film events tied to literacy with book giveaways, and large-scale literacy-themed events, as well as initiatives, such as Book Nooks at the Children and Family Hubs and Medway Maritime Hospital.
Start for Life has provided free opportunities for parents, carers, babies, and toddlers to connect and socialise through Pilates, Storytime and Snacks, and Family Dance.
Funding has also supported free partner programming with community partners like Nucleus Arts to deliver a series of messy play activities at all four Children and Family Hubs Hubs along with the Nucleus Arts Centre in Chatham.
Our Start for Life funding has also enabled us to provide free programming to narrow the gap for disadvantaged young people and those with additional needs. We work with partners like Club AUsome and Diz-Ability Dance to provide specialised programming for children and young people who identify as part of the SEND community, as well as large-scale family events such as film screenings and Dino Day.
Medway's Shared Prosperity Fund Projects
Signs of Youth on display at the Child-Friendly Medway Art Exhibition.
Child-Friendly Medway was awarded funding from The Medway's Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) for our Signs of Youth project and our flagship event, Super Saturday.
Signs of Youth is a project focused on one of our core themes set by children and young people, ‘cleaner and greener’. Artwork designed by children and young people was shortlisted and printed on aluminium and installed as permanent signage around Medway.
To date, 100 Signs of Youth have been installed in all 24 councillor wards in Medway.
Super Saturday is our flagship free superhero event that takes place in Chatham High Street and The Pentagon Shopping Centre, Chatham. Medway's Shared Prosperity Fund made it possible for this event to run for its third year!
Over 27,000 children, young people, and families attended to see the movie cars, meet the superheroes, and take part in activities.
Police and Crime Commissioner Fund
 Kent Police Officer playing football with young people at our Drop-In Football at Strood Sports Centre.
The Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) Fund supports Child-Friendly Medway’s free weekly Drop-In Football, delivered in partnership with Medway Sport at Strood Sports Centre.
Hundreds of children and young people aged 7 to 16 years old attend this weekly programme, providing positive things to do, supporting young people’s mental and physical wellbeing.
Thanks to PCC funding, Child-Friendly Medway was also able to partner with Medway Libraries to bring 16 World Book Day events and activities to children and young people in Medway, including two large-scale free family events at Chatham Library and Gillingham Library in 2024.
These events included author talks, arts and crafts activities, character meet and greets, face painting, and more, inspiring young people to read and visit their local library.
Safer Streets 5 Programming
 Kent Police with family at the Alice in Wonderland Women and Children's Afternoon Tea Event.
Child-Friendly Medway’s Safer Streets 5 programme of activities and events for women and girls, women and children, and families, in support of their Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Campaign.
As part of our free Women and Girls Programming for Medway Safer Streets 5, we ran a variety of events and activities, including women and children’s bowling, dance, board game activities, film screenings, art workshops, fitness classes, and large-scale events including our Alice in Wonderland Afternoon Tea event and our Girls' Just Wanna' Have Fun International Women’s Day celebration.
Community events for families included the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Pantomime, Rabbit Run, Halloween Trick or Treat, Scare Fest and free film screening of Mufasa for the whole family to attend.
Have you met Mojo? Our Child-Friendly Medway Mascot, Mojo
 Our Child-Friendly Medway mascot, Mojo, saying hello to children, young people, and families at our Dino Day.
Since launching Child-Friendly Medway, children and young people have asked for a mascot to join the Child-Friendly Medway team.
Countryside Partnerships and Hyde through the Rochester Riverside Community Board helped to make this a reality by sponsoring creative workshops and the final design of our mascot, Mojo.
Beginning in January 2023, design activities were held, where children and young people could draw their idea for our mascot. Designs were then shortlisted and voted for by children and young people, who chose Mojo, to be our mascot.
Mojo was unveiled at Medway Mile in July 2023, and has since attended many activities and events, posing for hundreds of photos and high-fiving hundreds of children and young people!
Have you been to one of our events?
Don’t forget to share with us on our social media channels: @ChildFriendlyMedway on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
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