In August 2021 Triple H Trust was finally able to provide a much-needed service for the first time since December 2019. Triple H Trust is a registered charity which provides a programme of respite holidays for children aged 8 to 12 years of age experiencing multiple challenges in their lives as they live in urban areas of high deprivation in Bristol.
During 2020 we were regrettably unable to run any of our programme because of the global pandemic. Our usual residential centre was closed, and the UK was of course in lockdown during our traditional periods of activity. Ironically the services we offer were sorely needed during these challenging times; with children’s mental health suffering and many of the children we work with classed as vulnerable, a respite holiday could have been of prime benefit. Fortunately, thanks to perseverance, a thoroughly thought through Covid Policy, the support of key trustees and most especially the generous donation from the Denman Charitable Trust we were able to run a summer respite holiday for a reduced number of children in the wonderful surroundings of the Herefordshire countryside. Here are a few highlights:-
Hiking – the unique position of Dunfield House on the Wales/England border offers many opportunities to experience a completely different environment from their difficult home situations and a chance to talk quietly to a listening adult along the way as well as having fun. This holiday was no exception – the children are totally unused to sustained walking and this is a very big challenge and they rose to it with huge enjoyment and commitment.
Games – There’s always a lot going on inside and outside. This year we were able to borrow some new games from one of our partner schools which enabled us to provide some more sophisticated versions of dodgeball (an absolute favourite!) and a Curling and Shuffleboard game which was a huge success. There’s swimming too which this year helped several children to increase their confidence in water.
New on the activities menu this time around was morning yoga. There is always a range of complex needs that we find in children who attend our holidays. This year for one boy with ADHD it was a challenge to keep still and focus and at school he is often left out of activities by other children because of this. We were lucky to be offered morning yoga sessions as the new manager at Dunfield is a former yoga teacher. We noted that during these sessions our young lad was fully focussed and in the moment and they provided beneficial points of stillness for him during those days away.
Mealtimes, bedtimes, getting up times….these are often chaotic in their homes so we were delighted as usual that Dunfield offered us a range of nutritious but child oriented meals, the opportunity for eating and communing together and that the etiquette and strict rules around key moments of the everyday help to establish good habits for life.
A huge thank you to Jo Denman and the Trustees of Denman Charitable Trust for making it possible to run this summer respite holiday. The Trust has supported us for many years but this year in particular they went all out to ensure the happiness of a small but very happy group of children and their staff carers could not be more grateful