REWARDING ACTIVITY

Organisation - Freedom Leisure
Project - Junior Summer Fitness Challenge

The Junior Summer Fitness Challenge (JSFC) run by Freedom Leisure encourages children to stay active during the long summer holiday.

The free JSFC scheme has just completed its second year, reaching into the community by inviting all local children aged four to 14 years to take part, not only those from families holding Freedom Leisure memberships. In fact, in 2012, just over 75 per cent of families involved were not Freedom Leisure members.

Children receive a fitness diary in which to record their fitness activities, which can be undertaken in a Freedom Leisure centre or elsewhere. While many choose to take part in activities at their local leisure centre, there’s no obligation to do so: family walks and bike rides, football in the park and even washing the car all count as legitimate activities. However, all Freedom Leisure activities are offered for free. 

Each diary has 10 spaces to record a chosen activity, which much be at least 30 minutes in duration. For every 10 activities completed, children receive a reward from their local Freedom Leisure centre, such as vouchers for return visits or small items of merchandise. Children are encouraged to complete 30 activities in total; some even reach 50 fitness sessions.

In 2012, 89 per cent of participants completed one or more activities at their local leisure centre as part of the scheme, and overall attendance at Freedom Leisure sites increased by 6 per cent across the period between July and September.

Freedom Leisure partner with local schools to promote the JSFC ahead of the summer holiday. New for 2013 was the hotly contested ‘Most Active School’ award, which promoted healthy teamwork as friends encouraged each other to sign up to boost their activity time.

“As there are no barriers to entry, all children in our community can take part in the JSFC,” says Richard Bagwell, Freedom Leisure group sports development manager.

“By engaging both parents and children in a wide range of activities, the JSFC scheme has a broad family appeal, while the wide choice of activities that can be done really helps to inspire these youngsters to stay active throughout the summer holiday.”

Young participants are awarded certificates, vouchers and small items of merchandise

TRANSFORMING LIVES

Organisation - Impulse Leisure
Project - Short Breaks

Impulse Leisure’s Short Breaks initiative has been running across its three West Sussex sites for three years. The scheme, for disabled children and their families, gives kids a chance to try new activities – from trampolining to aqua therapy, table tennis to football, bouncy castles to multi-sports sessions – while parents have some well-deserved time off.

Ten-year-old Joseph Greaves is just one child who’s benefited from the scheme. He has classic autism, sensory processing disorder, hyper-mobility and chronic bowel disorder, and has been attending sessions including football, gymnastics, tennis, cricket, basketball and dance for a few years.

The multi-sports sessions have helped make Joseph aware that others may not play the same as him, and he’s learning to accept rules and understand why they are there. His social skills have also improved, along with his listening and turn-taking skills, running ability and hand-eye co-ordination. He’s more confident, more body aware and more aware of other people. He’s now learning to tap dance, which is having a positive effect on his hyper-mobility disorder.

In the past, Joseph could become extremely angry over something that had happened, but this has become less so as his verbal skills have grown and he’s become more confident that the staff, who tailor sessions around his interests, are there to help him.

West Sussex has around 4,000 disabled children, young people and their families who are eligible for the scheme. Many live in areas where little provision exists and/or they are excluded due to lack of appropriate transport or costs. Short Breaks funding – part of the government’s Aiming High for Disabled Children programme, designed to transform services for children and young people with disabilities and their families – has enabled Impulse Leisure to increase levels of participation by offering low-cost sessions and activities.

Impulse Leisure received the first batch of funding in 2011, which financed two Fun Days at its Lancing Manor and Southwick sites, and a Fun Day and After School Clubs at Chanctonbury Sport & Leisure, giving the trust valuable insight into what children and young people with disabilities wanted.

From this came further funding which enabled Impulse Leisure to host, at each centre, 40 weeks of after-school activities, 10 weeks of holiday activities, and one weekend open day each year for three years.

“You can see the excitement on the children’s faces when they come through the door, when they stand at reception to sign in and you can see them jittering on the spot waiting to get into the hall to have fun,” says Elizabeth Clements, a receptionist at Impulse Leisure.

The 2012-13 programme supported 70 local families. When asked about their experience of Short Breaks, 65 per cent of the children felt they had improved skills in some areas, 80 per cent said that it had been fun and enjoyable, and 75 per cent said they had become more confident about taking part in activities over the course of the year.

“We aim to be a beacon centre for families to have fun, taking part in well-structured activities tailored to their needs, and research shows the children love the staff and the activities,” says Mike Baden, CEO of Impulse Leisure.

Disabled children can try new activities which develop their social skills

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Organisation - Valley Leisure
Project - Explore Outdoor

Valley Leisure’s outdoor adventure activity programme, Explore Outdoor, enables eight- to 14-year-olds to participate in instructor-led activities such as canoeing, archery, climbing, bushcraft, and orienteering to develop map skills.

Valley Leisure has worked with over 50 community and school-based groups in the last two years to deliver their ‘learning outside the classroom’ curriculum – a personal development curriculum that supports the government’s Learning Outside the Classroom initiative, designed to ensure that every young person experiences the world beyond the classroom as part of learning and development.

Recent developments from Valley Leisure include a three-day camping residential for 70 local secondary school children, and termly Year 5 primary school Adventure Days, which throughout the year build on skills such as teamwork and communication.

“Ofsted’s review into outdoor learning found that the majority of schools offering outdoor learning adventure experiences were as a five-day residential trip for Year 6 pupils,” says James Blyth, Valley Leisure’s assistant manager for sport and activity development. “Ofsted found the more exposure to adventure activities young people have, the more they get out of the five-day trip. We’re therefore not competing with trips, but rather offering an opportunity to complement and develop skills on a more frequent basis.”

Research in the Test Valley area had shown that one of the reasons schools didn’t regularly visit leisure facilities was because of the costs involved, not only for the activity but for transportation too. Valley Leisure therefore boosted the success of Explore Outdoor by purchasing a mobile climbing wall, Land Rover, 10 Canadian Canoes, mobile archery solution and other equipment.

Explore Outdoor now delivers tailored sessions to special needs schools, Brownies and Scout groups, local rehabilitation services, NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) groups and Pupil Referral Units, as well as supporting local events in Test Valley. 

Blyth says: “The people on our programme and holiday activities are developing invaluable life skills like team building, confidence and leadership.”

The outdoor activities help build key life skills

SEEING RESULTS

Organisation - Inspire Leisure Trust
Project - 4SIGHT

Inspire Leisure Trust is supporting people with visual impairments to live full and independent lives through its partnership with local charity 4SIGHT – a charity for people with visual impairments, which works to bring independence to its clients and provide opportunities in all areas of life.

The community development team at the West Sussex-based trust worked closely with 4SIGHT to set up a gym at its head office in Bognor Regis, with the goal being to create a gym that offered a safe and progressive environment for members to keep fit.

“4SIGHT applied for funding to build an adapted fitness suite at its headquarters, which has excellent lighting and equipment with audible prompts to support members,” says John Stride, CEO of Inspire Leisure. “The charity directly approached us as the local leisure provider, as well as a local company with a reputation for community involvement in the service sector, so we were involved from the beginning of the project in 2010.”

Between May 2010 and December 2012, Inspire Leisure provided an instructor and ran fitness sessions within the gym. The instructor worked with the members on a one-to-one basis each week, getting them used to the environment and enabling them to orientate themselves around the facility and the fitness machines.

The scheme saw 12 visually impaired people benefit from the partnership, making a total of 202 visits. Half of these participants developed enough confidence to then transfer to the gyms at Inspire Leisure facilities, encouraging further interaction and integration with their local community.

“We still support the scheme at our Felpham and Littlehampton sites, where some of the 4SIGHT members have joined,” adds Stride.