The Family Holiday Association is a United Kingdom charity that promotes access to breaks away from home for families who miss out on even the simplest of holidays due to poverty. The charity aims to work in three areas - access, understanding and awareness.
It helps provide direct access to a break to approximately 1,600 families each year from all over the UK,these families are referred by welfare agents having been identified as being in need of the benefits a holiday can provide. This direct work with families is monitored and evaluated to help establish the benefits that accrue to family members in terms of well-being and mental health. This is part of a programme of research that aims to build a robust case to promote the understanding and adoption of social tourism as a means of improving social welfare in the UK.
The charity has helped found the Social Tourism Consortium together with organisations such as the Youth Hostels Association (England & Wales), The Family Fund and UNISON Welfare. The consortium is responsible for a series of seminars that have been held in both London and Edinburgh. The charity is also a member of BITS the Brussels-based International Bureau of Social Tourism.
The charity was founded by Patrick and Joan Laurance, who learned the value of holidays when they were bringing up their young family. They fell upon hard times, and were plagued by ill-health. A friend lent them a flat by the seaside which enabled them to take a short holiday which, otherwise, they would not have been able to afford. The effect that holiday had on the whole family was profound. The couple vowed that when they were back on their feet they would set up a charity that would give holidays to disadvantaged families. Patrick's contribution was recognised with an early day motion being signed by 43 MPs of the Parliament of the United Kingdom following his sudden death in 2008.