young boy on big cheese climbing wall at High Rise Lisburn wearing a Santa hat

Thanks for supporting our charity this festive season

Published: 7 January 2025

Blog

As we return to our normal opening hours, we would like to say a huge thank you from all the team at High Rise and Employers For Childcare, to everyone who visited High Rise over the Christmas and New Year holidays. We are grateful to each school and youth group that came for their end of year outing, to everyone who popped in for a lunchtime bite or takeaway coffee and to every single guest who purchased a gift voucher for family or friends.

As High Rise is part of a charity, each visit to the centre, gift voucher purchase or café meal bought during the festive season enables us to help more families, locally and across the UK, to be better off in 2025.

Last year, Employers For Childcare’s charity identified over £12 million in financial support for families, which is only possible thanks to guests at High Rise as all profits from the centre are used to fund our charity.

In addition to this support identified for parents, at High Rise we have been ‘giving back’ to the local community, having donated £1,000 to local good causes since we reopened in 2022, including schools, charities, sports teams and others. We also gifted free soft play entry to the value of £15,000 for families and facilitated monthly free information and advice sessions within the centre for parents. This is in addition to hosting weekly autism friendly Clip ‘n Clip and soft play sessions, with fewer numbers, to support our autistic guests and their families.

Commenting on the busy Christmas and New Year holiday period at High Rise, Employers For Childcare Chief Executive, Marie Marin commented: “We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported High Rise this festive season, in whatever way. It was heart-warming to see the centre so busy and the feedback from the families and groups who visited has been sensational. We are particularly pleased to have welcomed lots of first time visitors and many from outside Northern Ireland and hope we’ll have an opportunity to welcome them back again soon.

“We are proud that High Rise is part of a charity and that all our profits support families. We’re already looking forward to February half-term and encourage anyone who has not yet visited, to make a date in their diary for a day out that really makes a difference!”

High Rise opening hours can be found here. If you would like to enquire about bringing a group to High Rise, fill out our form here and one of our team will be in touch.