Grant helps fund ‘The World Around Us’ play sessions
Every year, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust Small Grants programme gives out grants of up to £20,000 to support science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education projects in the West Midlands. We have funded many different projects across all areas of STEM, supporting learning development for young students.
Here is another great example of the type of work we do, this project was funded in 2019 and shows the power of what the grants funding can achieve for STEM organisations.
Who are Wolves Play Café?
Wolves Play Café are a not-for-profit organisation, that support young children and their parents and caregivers in Wolverhampton.
Why did they apply for a Millennium Point Grant?
A major challenge facing many families in the Whitmore Reans, St Peter’s Ward in inner-city Wolverhampton area, is having few opportunities to explore local attractions or paid experiences. There is a lack of accessible science activities for 0-5 children in this area of the city outside of school and pre-school for parents and caregivers, to interact with their children without price, time and location barriers.
Wolves Play Café reached out to the Millennium Point Charitable Trust to fund a project called “The World Around Us”, which aims to deliver ten 2 hour science play sessions in term-time from September 2019 to July 2020 for under 5s and their caregivers in Wolverhampton.
What impact has the project made?
With the help of the grant, the project has gone from strength to strength, impacting over 80 children and 50 parents/caregivers in Wolverhampton. The turnout for each session was overwhelmingly positive with each one fully booked. Over 70% of attendees also made a request to return for additional sessions.
Feedback from the project revealed that parents saw an increase in interest from children in STEM related subjects following the sessions. This long term investment has allowed for many young children to kickstart their future, learning key skills that will be pivotal for many years to come.
The Play Café were “thrilled”
Wolves Play Café couldn’t hide their delight at the results of the play sessions and said: “We are thrilled to receive our grant from Millennium Point Charitable Trust. This has enabled Wolves Play Café to access and engage with 100 under 5s across 10 and 75 caregivers across 10 ‘The World Around Us’ play sessions.”
“The project, with the help of this grant, has created opportunities for very young children to develop their STEM learning from an early age, by delivering ten sessions across 10 months but the resources and planning used to deliver them will be a long-term investment in STEM in the region as it provides the organisation with the opportunity to repeat the sessions and their proposed impacts following the initial programme.”
“Under 5s will have opportunities to develop curiosity in the world around us’, to develop basic problem-solving and experiment skills and develop a basic knowledge of natural science. Furthermore, parents and caregivers of under 5s will have an opportunity to reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness, increasing their wellbeing. By parents and caregivers also being part of the sessions, there will be an opportunity to build science capital in both children and adult audiences, again supporting the regional STEM provision in the West Midlands.”
Want to play?
Wolves Play Café believe that children develop and learn best through play and first-hand experiences. If your interested in getting your child involved you can book by clicking the button below. All sessions are planned with Covid-19 guidelines in mind to help keep everyone safe.
About educational grant funding from Millennium Point
Educators, Charities and Not-for-Profits within the West Midlands Combined Authority can apply for up to £20,000 from Millennium Point to fund their STEM activity. For more information on how to access this funding please visit www.millenniumpoint.org.uk/grants
Find more interesting content from Millennium Point over at our news section, or follow us for daily updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn with @MillenniumPoint. Millennium Point is a landmark public building and multi-award-winning events venue in the Eastside of Birmingham City centre. Profits from our commercial activity are invested by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust into projects, events and initiatives which support the growth of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and education in the West Midlands.
