Bowling For All

Aim

Inclusive bowling for all abilities, help us build a welcoming community space where everyone can enjoy a healthy, social, non‑contact sport

Who are we?

As a volunteer team of four accredited coaches, we founded our Community Interest Company two years ago with one aim — to open crown green bowls to everyone. Since then, we’ve coached more than 150 people and seen first hand how powerful this sport can be for confidence, connection, and wellbeing.

But we also discovered something important: a whole section of our community is missing out. Disabled people are largely forgotten in crown green bowls, not through lack of interest, but because most clubs simply don’t have the specialised equipment required. We are determined to change that.

Working indoors with three local disability organisations, we’ve watched the joy and pride on players’ faces as they achieve success. Now we want to take that experience outdoors — giving disabled bowlers the chance to enjoy fresh air, open space, and the full crown green experience that boosts health and wellbeing.

This is a copy of a support letter from Together We Can Do.

The “Together We Can Do” charity was established in November 2020 to support disabled people living within the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre area to take part in sports and exercise on a regular basis.  It is a membership organisation which is run by part time staff along with a team of DBS cleared volunteers.  We currently have over 180 members benefiting from our services and are hosting seven sports sessions at three venues across the Fylde each week.  We also have a programme of social activities, and from September 2025 will have two football teams playing in FA regulated tournaments.
The Blackpool & Wyre Bowling Academy provide coaching sessions at our weekly sessions at Blackpool. The bowling activities are popular and well supported by our members, but they take place indoors rather on outdoor bowling greens.
The charity will support any scheme that enables our members to take part in external bowling activities. A proposal to utilise unused bowling greens and pavilion appears to be a sensible project to enable everyone to utilise these facilities. The fact that Rowland and his team are involved provides the trustees with confidence that the resulting facilities would be suitable for our members to use them on a regular basis.
On 4th September the charity is hosting the 2025 Pan Disability Games, involving teams from the local area and beyond taking part in various competitive sports.  The bowling competition is being held inside Blackpool Sports Centre, and BWCGBA CIC are the organisers.

It would be superb to have our members able to utilise an outside green in the future.

 Regards

Howard Robinson

Secretary

Our mission is simple: to make crown green bowls truly inclusive. With your support, we can provide the specialised equipment, accessible facilities, and safe environment needed to ensure disabled people are no longer left out of this wonderful sport.
Please visit our website by clicking on the link.

https://bwcgba.co.uk/our-disability-work/

Why are we crowdfunding?

The Wyre and Blackpool Boroughs deserve a place where everyone can bowl — any day, any time — without having to wait for space or fit around a bowling club’s schedule.

With a ten year lease our new accessible premises will finally give the academy a home of its own, allowing us to offer more coaching sessions, involve more local organisations and give people of all ages and abilities from the community, the opportunity to enjoy crown green bowling.

But to make this truly inclusive, we need your help.

We’re raising funds for specialist, crown-green-safe equipment designed specifically to support disabled bowlers. Standard wheelchairs cannot be used safely on a crown green. We already have five specially adapted chairs, but we need additional equipment and bowling aids to help people with physical challenges take part safely, confidently and independently.

Sport England believes in our project and has already offered matched funding towards making it happen. Now we’re asking our community to stand with us too.

Your support will help us remove barriers, open doors and create a place where everyone can bowl, belong and thrive.

Together, we can make "Bowling for All" a reality.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We’re creating an accessible, year‑round bowling hub in Fleetwood where people of all abilities can take part in crown green bowling. To achieve this, we need to make essential alterations to the pavilion so it can be used comfortably throughout every season.

Help Us Keep Disabled Bowlers in the Game

Everyone deserves the chance to play — but right now, some of our disabled bowlers are being held back simply because we don’t have enough safe, accessible equipment. We already have five adaptive chairs, but our growing group needs more volunteer support, more aids, and more of the specialised equipment which will let every bowler take part with confidence.

Your donation will help us buy lightweight polypropylene bowls for players who can’t lift traditional ones, plus a full range of bowl sizes so every hand, grip, and ability is included. With your help, no one gets left on the side-lines.

Let’s make crown‑green bowling accessible for everyone. Let’s open the green to all.

We also plan to install shelters beside the greens to protect players, carers, and volunteers from Fleetwood’s varied weather conditions. Finally, we need funds to publicise the project locally so the community knows this inclusive space is open and ready to welcome them.

Your support will help us build a bowling academy where everyone can play, belong, and thrive.

Community impact

It’s important to explain the wider impact of your organisation for the whole community, who does it benefit and why? Perhaps your facilities are used for other purposes outside of sport too

Bring Memorial Park Back to Life — Bowling for All

For more than four years, the pavilion at Memorial Park has stood silent — its doors closed, its bowling greens barely used outside the winter months. Today, we have the chance to change that. With your support, we can transform this neglected space into a vibrant, year‑round community hub that Fleetwood can be proud of. And when the weather turns bad, the pavilion will give us a warm indoor space for other games and activities, keeping people connected whatever the season.

By making the pavilion the permanent home of our academy, we’ll open the green to everyone. People of all ages and abilities will be able to enjoy crown‑green bowling in a welcoming, inclusive environment that boosts physical and mental wellbeing, builds friendships, and strengthens our community.

And we’re not doing this alone. Local organisations are already behind us. Fleetwood Football Club Community Trust wants to help us introduce schoolchildren to the sport. Groups supporting disabled people are eager to use our accessible facilities. The Friends of Memorial Park and Fleetwood in Bloom are ready to work alongside us to restore and enhance the site. Looking ahead to 2027, we’ll even offer team‑building days for local businesses — creating a sustainable future for the academy and ensuring the facility thrives for years to come.

This is our moment to bring Memorial Park bowling back to life. With your help, we can turn an empty pavilion into a thriving community space filled with activity, laughter, and opportunity.

Your support will allow us to purchase the specialist equipment needed to make this vision a reality. Every donation, no matter the size, will help us create a place where everyone is welcome, regardless of age, ability, or experience.

Together, we can revive the pavilion and achieve our goal of Bowling for All — creating a lasting community legacy where people can be active, build friendships, improve their wellbeing, and enjoy a facility that will benefit Fleetwood for generations to come.

The pavilion as it is now and how we envisage it in 2027

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 19th October 2026 at 8:33pm