April - August 2025
Attendance:- 44 adults, 119 children, 5 teenagers
🌟 Social Impact
• Family Bonding & Shared Experiences
Parents and children often joined in together – learning hula hooping, juggling, skipping and supporting each other’s progress. Families described it as “fun,” “exciting,” and a way to spend quality time together. Parents valued seeing their children engaged, active and happy.
• Community Building & Continuity
Many participants already knew the circus from schools, community hubs, and previous park sessions. Families recognised trainers, remembered past experiences, and expressed excitement about future visits (“We’ve been coming for years, ever since they could walk”). The sessions fostered trust, familiarity, and stronger community ties.
• Inclusivity & Accessibility
Sessions welcomed families from diverse backgrounds – including Arabic, Welsh and Chinese-speaking households. The free, local provision was repeatedly appreciated by parents managing financial pressures, with circus seen as a valued, accessible alternative to other costly activities.
• Adult Engagement & Wellbeing
Adults not only supported children but also actively joined in, sometimes more than ever before at this venue. Parents described enjoying learning new skills themselves, such as hula hooping, and said it was refreshing to be part of the activities rather than only observing.
💡 Positive Change
• Confidence & Achievement
Children proudly celebrated mastering new skills such as plate spinning, diabolo, and unicycle. Parents and trainers noted visible progress across sessions, with kids saying things like “every time I get better.”
• Joy, Play & Energy Release
Sessions gave children a safe space to run, laugh, and play. Parents commented on how valuable this was, especially for children “stuck in the house” or full of energy, with one saying “this is exactly what he needed today.”
• Skill Development & Creativity
Children explored equipment freely and engaged in child-led, co-created games. They invented variations of tricks and exchanged skills with each other, developing teamwork, creativity, and resilience through practice.
• Sense of Belonging & Aspiration
Children asked about joining weekly circus classes and expressed dreams of learning trapeze or juggling. Parents said circus gave their children something to look forward to, with one describing it as “a great way to spend the afternoon – and it’s free.”
✨ Overall
The Star Hub Family Circus sessions created a safe, inclusive, and joyful community space where children and parents learned together, grew in confidence, and built lasting social connections. The sessions supported wellbeing, reduced financial barriers to cultural participation, and inspired both children and adults to see themselves as capable, creative, and part of a wider community.
There have been some challenges with some children’s behaviour in the sessions, but with support from the Trainers and Parents/Carers these children have been able to participate and learn new skills.
“it's great having no fit state using our facilities as they create such a special environment for everyone with no financial barrier - the program is great for families, some families in the area have 3 -4 kids and find it difficult to engage with their children. No fit State provides a creative space with complete freedom allowing the families to try new things. In Splott we find a lot of the kids avoid structure and are afraid to fail but no fit state bridges that gap by encouraging the kids to keep trying, it's ok to fail as that's part of the process building real character and a positive state of mind". Dean Star Hub Manager
Created using data from NFS Monitoring Form and Chat GPT
Quotes
"I always look for events you do over the holidays and google nofit state community. I always look for free events because money is tight. I like no fit state circus."
"We've been coming for years, ever since they could walk. We've been to Railway Gardens and to here. My son would like to try trapeze (he's 9yrs old) but he plays rugby on Sunday mornings. We are waiting for everything to align so he can come to circus classes."
"I enjoyed the session a lot because there was a lot to learn and it was really fun. Hula hoops was my favourite."
"Happy it is local - great way to spend the afternoon and it is free".
"This is exactly what he needed today, he's been stuck in the house all day so he really needs a chance to burn the energy." (We played loads of running around games with him)