Why we’re not doing Black Friday offers at High Rise (or Cyber Monday!)

It’s almost the end of November, and that means one thing – the avalanche of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and promotions are everywhere – in our inboxes, all over our social media and across our TV and radio stations. This is the time of year where most brands offer ‘attractive’ Black Friday discounts on their products and services to entice consumers to spend big and kickstart their Christmas shopping.

Not at High Rise. We won’t be doing Black Friday offers or Cyber Monday deals so please don’t expect any exciting emails from us with details of ‘exclusive’ promotions or ‘not to be missed’ special offers.

What we will be doing is continuing to run our regular ‘free soft play’ offer to support local families to access high quality play opportunities, that they may not otherwise be able to afford to. We do this across many weeks of the year thanks to the support of our parent charity, Employers For Childcare, whose mission is to support parents to get into and stay in work and to be better off. An advisor from our charity’s Family Benefits Advice Service regularly visits High Rise during our free soft play sessions to speak to parents and help them make sure they are claiming all the financial support they are entitled to, including with paying for childcare.

Here’s what two local families told us about what free soft play at High Rise means to them:

“The place is beautifully clean and very well priced. The staff were helpful and welcoming and the food options are great. So thankful for the offer of free sessions as it gave my 2 children a chance to go to soft play this month where otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to. So thank you very much.”

“My son just loves High Rise! It’s great to be able to treat him to the free soft play sessions when I struggle to make ends meet. He feels like this is a real treat for him, thank you!”

What we’ll also be doing this Christmas is continuing to offer inclusive, accessible fun for families of children with additional needs, who may otherwise struggle to find activities to do together. At High Rise we run weekly autism friendly Clip ‘n Climb and soft play sessions for autistic children and their families where we limit numbers and provide extra guidance and support. We’re also running a magical autism friendly Santa event for families. High Rise is proud to be inclusive and accessible for all guests all year round, including at Christmas, and we invest heavily through staff training to ensure guests have the very best time when they visit the centre.

High Rise is not your average adventure centre. As a Social Enterprise, all profits from activities in the centre, our café and gift voucher sales are invested in continuing the work of our charity, which last year helped over 13,000 people to identify more than £12 million in financial support they didn’t know they were entitled to.

So this Black Friday, we’d like to encourage you to ‘buy social’ and support us, knowing that by doing so, you’re helping us to make a difference to families, just like yours, who need us.

How can I support High Rise this Christmas?

Here’s three easy ways you can support High Rise this Christmas:

1. Plan a Christmas get together with family or friends over the festive season – with activities for all ages and a café on site serving tasty meals and snacks, there’s something for everyone at High Rise and our convenient location makes us a great spot to meet up with loved ones from all across Northern Ireland and beyond.
2. Buy a High Rise gift voucher – a perfect gift for anyone on your Christmas list, whether a hard to please teenager, little one with an already overflowing toy box or that hard-to-buy-for, adrenaline loving relation!
3. Pop into the High Rise café for a bite to eat or grab a takeaway. Our café is open to the public as well as guests visiting the centre and we’ve been told our pizzas are the best in Lisburn – so what are you waiting for!

Find out more and book a visit to High Rise Lisburn at www.highriseni.org or read more about the work of our parent charity, Employers For Childcare at www.employersforchildcare.org.