National travel brand launches an initiative to support parents through the school closures

Following a year of phenomenal growth, Yorkshire-based travel and lifestyle brand, Girl About, has launched a new initiative to help parents and kids across the UK through the school closures and stay at home advice over the coming weeks and months.

To combat the challenges of being stuck in the house, ‘Happy Hour at Home’ is a new, free community group hosted on Facebook to support parents and children this March and beyond.

Launched on Monday 23 March, each day a new at-home activity will be shared to entertain the kids for an hour, giving parents back a vital 60 minutes to do what they need to. And to encourage kids to take part, prizes will be available for the best efforts shared in the group.

Girl About’s Founder, travel industry expert Lyndsey Thomas, has grown the community-focused travel and lifestyle brand from one blog, Girl About Yorkshire, to a thriving network of 33 women across the UK, all sharing reviews, recommendations and experiences in their own ‘Girl About’ patch.

And now, with travel and activities outside the home restricted, the family-focused brand wanted to share its collective creativity to support and inspire parents around the UK facing months of uncertainty.

The company’s ethos is to encourage people to ‘make amazing memories’, whether in their local area or further afield, by finding unusual places to visit and things to do which are ‘off the beaten track’. This ethos is now being utilised to make amazing memories at home, using one of the most powerful and free tools available to all; imagination.

Lyndsey said: “We’re all feeling anxious at the unknown challenges of the next few weeks, and wanted to do something to help other parents in the same position.

“Over the past four years, Girl About has become this incredible network of women across the UK, and this is our chance to use our collective power to help other Mums and Dads in the same situation as us.

“We’ve created a group where parents can come for inspiration and support to keep the kids entertained, and where they can share ideas and talk to other housebound families. We aim to keep the kids curious with fun things to do and keep the parents sane by giving them back a precious hour of every day. It’s so important at this time for people to feel like they aren’t alone, we’re all in this together.”

As well as the community group, Girl About’s new website launches at the start of April and the brand is still on the lookout for more UK ambassadors to represent their local patches.