Children and families living in the Pennywell area of Sunderland had a Summer of fun activities to fight off the school holiday boredom thanks to our partnership with EQUANS, the new name for ENGIE’s service-led activites.
As part of our long-running partnership, colleagues worked with volunteers at the Pennywell Community Centre to put on a variety of fun activities for children and young people in the area to add some extra excitement to the six week holidays.
One of the most eye-catching of the events was a guided tour around the Sunderland Training and Education Farm where a dozen attendees had the opportunity to get up close and personal with animals ranging from skunks, to Chinese Water Dragons and raccoons.
Many of the animals were friendly enough to be stroked and handled whilst staff at the farm explained more about them, with even the selection of large snakes and tarantulas proving popular.
Elsewhere, kids got the opportunity to learn more about the environment and healthy eating when they joined our colleagues in creating a vegetable garden at the community centre, they also got good health tips through playing football too..
There was also an afternoon tea, which proved to be a great opportunity for the older and younger generations of the community to come together over tea and cakes!
The holidays were finished off with Arts & Craft sessions, with the task of creating community-related posters to use in the community centre.
Marc Edwards, Associate Director of Asset Management and Property Investment, said: “At Gentoo we strive to create strong communities and I’m delighted that through our ongoing investment into our existing homes that we were able to support local children and families in Pennywell throughout the summer holidays.
“Delivering fun and educational activities alongside EQUANS is a great way to ensure communities and residents are directly benefiting from our investment in the city and it’s been great to see so many smiling faces over the last six weeks.”
Alan Maskell, Refurbishment Director at EQUANS, said: “As with all of our projects, we like to play our part in supporting the community and working with Gentoo and the people of Pennywell has been so enjoyable and fulfilling.
“I’ve been delighted to be able to attend a few of the sessions and hear the positive feedback from our Gentoo colleagues, the volunteers in the community, the fantastic team from the Pennywell Community Centre and all the children involved in the projects about how much they have enjoyed and welcomed the activities over the summer.
“It’s been a very strange time recently, especially for children and young people across the region, so to be able to host events like these to try and bring back a sense of normality has been we hope a nice boost for the wider community.”
The activities were delivered as part of our social value commitment to our residents, neighbourhoods and estates through our multi-million-pound investment into our existing properties.
