Children are developing more skills than ever at an indoor ‘skills for life’ village thanks to a new shop on the block.
Visitors to the SafeWise project in Bournemouth can now pop into a Southern Co-op retail shop as part of the larger complex which includes roads and buildings to give children the ability to learn vital life skills.
The Co-operative Food store, which comes complete with packaging and a community notice board, will teach youngsters about shopping and eating healthily.
Year 2 children from Talbot Heath Junior School in Bournemouth were the latest to see the new store and their teacher Sue Verstage said they were ‘lucky to have this facility so close to us’.
Sue said: “The children can practise the skills that they need to learn. The volunteers are absolutely fantastic and they take their time and teach the children so much that we couldn’t possibly do in the classroom.
“In the shop, they’ve learnt what is safe to eat, what is good for them to eat. They also talked about how to keep healthy with exercise. The children were allowed to go around and chose from the shelf and fill up their baskets.”
The charity Safewise has just celebrated its 20th anniversary and estimates that it has delivered key Skills for Life and safety education to 250,000 children at its three centres in Bournemouth and Weymouth.
Gemma Lacey, Southern Co-op’s Director for Sustainability and Communications, said: “We were absolutely blown away by the SafeWise centre and only too happy to fund and fit one of our stores inside.
“The centre itself is vast and we are really pleased to be able to help the charity continue to provide skills for life for people of all ages including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.”
The Bournemouth learning village provides interactive scenarios in a vast indoor village complete with road, beach, train and street scene. There are also emergency scenarios including escaping a house fire and controlling the brakes on a train.
Visitors are encouraged to ‘discuss, decide and do’ in realistic scenarios designed to build confidence and develop skills to enjoy active, fulfilled and safer lives.
SafeWise Chief Executive, Rob Hattersley, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Southern Co-op has brought a store to the learning village in SafeWise Bournemouth, and I would like to thank them on behalf of the charity.
“The store will be invaluable as we roll out skills for life programmes to many types of visitor, especially primary school children that visit as part of our new Junior Citizen programmes.”
To find out more about the site, visit www.safewise.org. To find out more about Southern Co-op’s commitment to making a difference, visit www.thesouthernco-operative.co.uk/makingadifference/.