Family First Nights (Community Agencies)
Family First Nights (FFN) is a unique opportunity for low-income families to enjoy a great London theatre production for just £5.00 a ticket. Each summer, from the end of July and through to the end of August, families are able to access the best seats for a selection of top musicals, plays and other productions.
A family can consist of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, guardians or carers, but MUST include young people between the ages of four and sixteen. Young people must make up half if not more of the family group.
Families can only join the programme through being referred by one of our partner organisations and applying through the summer leaflet (as below), which they can only take up once. This initial summer theatre visit is only for new families to give them an entry point to the theatre. As we are charity we have limited funding so we want to make sure that we can take as many new families as possible each summer.
Once families have taken part in the summer programme we will then mail them autumn/winter offers for the Christmas and New Year period only for first year they joined. Subsequently, if families register an email address, we will send more theatre offers as long as their children are between 4 - 16.
Due to funding restrictions and to help sustain the programme, next summer 2011 we will be introducing an administration fee of £50 to all our organisations to refer low-income families. We hope that all our Partner Organisations will take this into consideration and if you appreciate the benefits of our summer programme, please ensure may be included in your budget for next year. Summer 2010 will be the last opportunity for referring partner organisation to refer for free. If you have any feedback or any other avenues for funding please let us know.
Family First Nights 2010
Family First Nights will return from 26 July - 31 August 2010. We work through representatives and ambassadors from community organisations, social service agencies, housing associations, and charities across London and the South-East to identify families to take part in the programme.
Only families referred to us by one of these agencies are able to take part in the programme, and we regret we are unable to work with individual families.
If you are a new organisation and you are interested in joining the programme please CLICK HERE to complete our Partner Questionnaire and return to us by email or post. Our information evening was held on 22 June and leaflets are now being distributed, so please make sure that we have the correct contact details for this year.
Once you have registered and our on our Partner Organisation database you can either collect the leaflets from our office or send in a stamped self-addressed-envelope to the value of number of leaflets you require. To view FFN leaflet mailing guidelines please CLICK HERE.
Alternately for any other general queries about the programme please do not hesitate to contact us, as below:
Contacts:
- Family First Nights Hotline:
- Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Applications have now been been distributed to all participating Partner Organisations and this summer's leaflet is only available on referral.
For all new families applying this summer, please make sure that:
- You have not participated in the summer programme: If you have gone previously, you are already on our past participants database and should already be receiving family offers via email (if registered). We ALWAY double check and your application will be sent back
- Enclose a completed application, correct payment and a stamped self-addressed envelope: Any missing items will delay your application
- You have been referred by a partner oganisation: Applications that do not have a referring Partner Organisations contact details will not be processed as we can only accept partner-referred new families
Deadline to reply is 16 July.
Last year's Programme
Family First Nights 2009 ran from 27 July through to 31 August 2009. During this period, Mousetrap took 618 families to 22 top London shows! For examples of the great shows our families saw please see the 2009 leaflet below:
Among the shows which took part were High School Musical 2- Live on Stage, Disney's The Lion King, Sister Act, Wicked, Grease, War Horse, Stomp, Hairspray, Peter Pan, We're Going on a Bear Hunt and Thiller Live.
Encouraging families to continue going to the theatre
After going through the programme, past participant s are automatically added onto our FFN email database and we keep them updated of other family shows or events by email. As long as past participant families have children between 4 – 16 they can remain on our database to receive family offers. All our subsequent Family First Night offers are kindly donated to us by the production themselves so we cannot choose what offers we receive or when.We also encourage our families to seek other independent ways to go to the theatre, like visiting their local or other london venues or joining other family mailing lists like the Official London Theatre Guide's Family Bulletin.
Even when families ask to be taken off our FFN email database, because their children are too old, we recommend that their young people can continue to go the theatre by joining our independent theatre-going schemes C145 (15 - 18 year olds) and WestEnd4£10 (19-23 year olds).
What our families think
The comments from our participants are overwhelmingly positive, and most say that Family First Nights gave them an experience they otherwise could not have had. Here is a small fraction of the amazing responses from families who have participated:
"The FFN programme provided us with a value for money opportunity to taste the theatre experience of the West End. Thank you for adding tp my children's childhood memory collections!""I sincerely hope this project continues as it recognizes the different circumstances of the diverse population we have. It brings a form of empowerment to a lot of families and inclusion. It was a wonderful time of bonding and family enjoyment!"
Please the see online scrapbook of the Taylor family, who originally participated in 2004, and have continued to go to the theatre through the great family offers they have received:
"I had not been able to go to the
Whether you are one of our families, one of our supporters or you just want to get active please help us raise much needed funds to help support our Family First Nights programme. Through the following ways:
- Sponsor our Mousetrap Theatre Projects team who will be taking up the adidas Women's 5K Challenge on Sunday 5 June at Hyde Park, through our new Just Giving site:
- Joining our team: If you are a female and would like to join our team and run 5K, it is £15.00 to register (£5 which comes back to our charity Mousetrap Theatre Projects). To register online please copy and paste the following link into your web address bar, press enter and complete the online form: https://www.womenschallenge.co.uk/onlineentry/register/1/. The deadline to register is August!
-
Support us for FREE by using ouf FFN search engine or getting people to sponsor us via our special logo below. For more details please contact our Programmes Manager, Elaine Grant, on 020 7240 6606.
We plan to make a real family day of it so if you would like to cheer us on or join our team we would love to see you there
Thank You
We are most grateful to The Colwinston Charitable Trust, The Dorset Foundation, 95.8 Capital’s FM’s Help a London Child, The John Younger Trust, The Bulldog Arts Fund and Westminster Arts for funding Family First Nights and to the producers of the participating theatre productions for their valued support.
We greatly appreciate all those who have supported Family First Nights and we cannot wait to offer even more wonderful shows to even more deserving families this summer!
