GIRL About Bradford Caroline Towers is running an online scheme to support young families at home during lockdown.

Happy Hour at Home is a community group hosted on Facebook offering a different activity each day for youngsters - and giving parents an hour-long break. The initiative, supporting families through school closures due to coronavirus is the brainchild of community-focused travel and lifestyle brand Girl About - and Caroline Towers, who was officially named as its Girl About Bradford earlier this year.

Girl About is a network of women across the UK sharing reviews, recommendations and experiences from their local area and further afield. The brand’s ‘Make amazing memories’ ethos is promoted through bloggers and the parent brand, Girl About Travel.

To tackle challenges of being stuck in the house, Happy Hour at Home is designed to help parents and children through the school closures and staying at home. The group has had almost 1,400 sign-ups in just a few days

Each day a new at-home activity is being shared to entertain youngsters for an hour, giving parents back a vital 60 minutes to work from home, catch up on jobs around the house or take a break. To encourage children to take part, there will be prizes will be for the best efforts shared in the group.

Caroline regularly shares reviews, recommendations and suggestions for family things to do and places to go in the district and, with travel and outdoor activities restricted, she is encouraging families to share their own ideas on Happy Hour at Home.

The Girl About ethos is to encourage people to ‘make amazing memories’, by finding unusual, off-the-beaten-track places to visit and things to do. Founder Lyndsey Thomas, of Menston, said the ethos is now about “making memories at home, using one of the most powerful and free tools available to

all: imagination”.

“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,” she said. “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 every day. It’s so important at this time for people to feel that they’re not alone - we’re all in this together.”

Caroline originally collaborated with Girl About to share her expertise in blogging and content creation through her business, The Content Edit.

Earlier this year she told the T&A: “I was born and bred here, I went to the University of Bradford and I love this city. The Girl About movement is so important. I wanted to give Bradford a voice.”

l To join Happy Hour at Home visit facebook.com/groups/happyhourathome. For more about Girl About or areas available to represent visit: girlabout.co.uk