Join the Excitement with the HAF Programme!

What is the Holiday Activity and Food programme?

Since 2020, the HAF programme has been bringing loads of fun and healthy food to young people during Easter, Summer, and Christmas. If you get benefits-related free school meals, you're in! And if not, no worries—you can still join the fun for a small fee!

Here’s what makes HAF amazing:

- Enriching activities: Learn cool new skills while having a blast.
- Delicious and nutritious meals: Enjoy tasty food and discover more about nutrition.
- Social interaction: Meet new friends and hang out with your buddies.
- Get moving: Stay active and energized with fun activities throughout the day.

Everyone is welcome to join us and make awesome memories. Let’s learn, laugh, and play together with the HAF programme!

1. Partnership with Impetus
Who Impetus are: Impetus is a transformative NGO that has been reshaping the lives of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Their mission is to support young individuals to succeed academically, access university education, and secure employment. By providing long-term funding, expert investment teams, and a pro-bono network, they ensure charities they partner with deliver impactful outcomes.

How they are supporting us: Impetus supports IMO Charity through the funding of vital project aimed at empowering the youth. This partnership leverages Impetus’s robust network and financial assistance to enable the launch and sustainment of our youth employment programme.

How our partnership is looking: The alliance between IMO Charity and Impetus is a beacon of hope, poised to change the trajectory of young people's lives. By uniting our resources and expertise, we are jointly committed to nurturing the potential of young individuals. Impetus has carried out intense DI workshops to assist IMO in shaping our youth employability programme.

2. How We Are Forming Our Project
Our project is centred around the goal of aiding young people who have veered off course, by providing one-on-one mentorship and practical experience to bolster their opportunities for sustained Education, Employment, and Training (EET). In collaboration with Impetus, we are strategically planning and executing the project's formation to ensure alignment with IMO's overarching mission: to empower communities for an improved quality of life and resilience. Our endeavours focus on raising aspirations, enhancing health and wellbeing, and improving education and employability​​. Our organisational values—passion, respect, accountability, teamwork, knowledge, action, and a commitment to equality and diversity—guide us in this mission​​.

3. Successful Completion of First Pilot and Upcoming Second Pilot
We are excited to announce that our programme has successfully completed its first pilot phase. The results were highly promising, providing us with valuable insights and confirming the effectiveness of our approach in supporting underrepresented social groups, such as the South Asian community and pupils facing educational challenges. We directly engaged with schools during this phase to pinpoint and support students who would benefit the most from our programme. This targeted outreach ensured that our resources were channelled effectively, prioritising and focusing on those who needed support.

Building on this success, our second pilot launched in February 2025, engaging 50 young people in Year 9 and Year 10 across four local high schools in Blackburn with Darwen. This phase delivers tailored one-to-one mentoring designed to improve educational outcomes through personalised guidance and structured support. In addition, it offers opportunities for students to connect with local employers, helping them gain valuable insights into the world of work and broaden their career aspirations.